Septimius Severus
Septimius Severus died on the 4th of February 211, in a garrison city at the far edge of the known world, far from the sun-baked coast of Libya where he was born. He had climbed from an obscure provincial family to become the sole ruler of the Roman Empire. His final reported words, spoken to the urn that would carry his ashes, were: "Thou shalt hold a man that the world could not hold."
He was born in Leptis Magna, in the Roman province of Africa, on the 11th of April 145. He rose through the ranks of a Roman system that had rarely, if ever, elevated a man of his particular background. He was the first emperor born not just outside Italy, but into a provincial family of non-Italian origin. The historian Cassius Dio, who knew the era intimately, left accounts of both his genius and his cruelties. The later historian Edward Gibbon would accuse him of being a principal agent of Rome's eventual fall.
How did a Libyan-Punic provincial become emperor? What kind of ruler did he prove to be? And what did his rise cost the empire he came to dominate?
Leptis Magna, the city where Severus grew up, stood on the Libyan coast and was one of the wealthiest cities in Roman Africa. His father, Publius Septimius Geta, was described as an obscure provincial who held no major political status. Yet the family had connections: two of his father's cousins, Publius Septimius Aper and Gaius Septimius Severus, had served as consuls under the emperor Antoninus Pius.
On his mother's side, Severus descended from the Italian Fulvii, a patrician family that originated in Tusculum. His mother's ancestors had moved from Italy to North Africa. The 12th-century poet John Tzetzes described Severus as "Libyan by race," and modern scholars have treated him as the first truly provincial emperor.
He was a native Punic speaker, but he was also educated in Latin and Greek, which he spoke with a slight accent. According to Cassius Dio, the young Severus had been eager for more education than he actually received. He gave his first public speech at the age of 17.
His maternal cousin was Gaius Fulvius Plautianus, who would one day become the most powerful man in the empire after the emperor himself. That family tie would later prove both useful and deeply dangerous.
Around 162, Severus sought a public career in Rome. His relative Gaius Septimius Severus secured him an introduction to the emperor Marcus Aurelius, who granted him entry into the senatorial ranks. Without that membership, the customary ladder of Roman offices, the cursus honorum, was closed to him.
His early career did not run smoothly. He omitted the military tribunate, a standard step on the ladder, and had to delay his quaestorship until he reached the required minimum age of 25. Then the Antonine Plague swept through Rome in 166, halting careers and thinning the ranks of the Senate. Severus withdrew temporarily to Leptis Magna, where the climate was healthier. During this period, the Historia Augusta, which scholars regard as an unreliable source, claims he faced prosecution for adultery; the case was dismissed.
His return to Rome at the end of 169 coincided with the moment he finally met the age requirement. He took office as quaestor on the 5th of December and was formally enrolled in the Senate. Between 170 and 180, the plague had reduced the pool of capable senators, and Severus advanced through an impressive number of posts. The disaster that thinned Rome's leadership class quietly accelerated his own climb.
In 173, his cousin, appointed proconsul of Africa Proconsularis, chose Severus as one of his two senior legates. After that posting, Severus returned to Rome as tribune of the plebs, a senior legislative position, as the personal candidate of the emperor.
Around 175, Severus contracted his first marriage, to Paccia Marciana, a woman from Leptis Magna whom he likely met while serving as a legate under his cousin. Her name suggests Punic or Libyan origin, but almost nothing else is known of her. Severus did not mention her in his autobiography, though he later commemorated her with statues after becoming emperor. The marriage lasted more than ten years but apparently produced no surviving children. Marciana died of natural causes around 186.
Now in his forties and eager to remarry, Severus inquired into the horoscopes of prospective brides. The Historia Augusta records that he heard of a woman in Syria of whom it had been prophesied that she would marry a king. He sought her out. Her name was Julia Domna, and her father, Julius Bassianus, descended from the Arab Emesene dynasty and served as high priest to the local cult of the sun god Elagabal.
Bassianus accepted Severus's marriage proposal in early 187. That summer, the couple married in Lugdunum, the city in Gaul of which Severus was then governor. The marriage proved deeply consequential. Severus valued Julia's counsel and cherished her political opinions. She built, in the words recorded in the sources, "the most splendid reputation" by applying herself to letters and philosophy.
They had two sons: Lucius Septimius Bassianus, later known by the nickname Caracalla, born on the 4th of April 188 in Lugdunum; and Publius Septimius Geta, born on the 7th of March 189 in Rome. Julia Domna's older sister, Julia Maesa, would in turn become the grandmother of the future emperors Elagabalus and Alexander Severus.
In 191, on the advice of Quintus Aemilius Laetus, prefect of the Praetorian Guard, the emperor Commodus appointed Severus governor of Pannonia Superior. A classicist of the era described him at this moment as "a middling senator of modest physical stature and unexceptional accomplishment." He was nearly 50 years old.
Commodus was assassinated the following year. His successor Pertinax was then killed by the Praetorian Guard in early 193. In response, Severus's legion XIV Gemina acclaimed him emperor at Carnuntum on the 9th of April. Nearby legions quickly joined the declaration. Severus assembled an army and marched rapidly toward Rome.
In the capital, Pertinax's successor Didius Julianus had secured the emperorship by bidding for it in an auction held by the very guard that had killed Pertinax. The Senate condemned Julianus to death; he was killed. Severus entered Rome without a battle. He executed Pertinax's murderers and then dismissed the entire Praetorian Guard, stripping them of their ceremonial armour and forbidding them from coming within 160 kilometres of the city on pain of death.
Three rival claimants still stood: Pescennius Niger, whose legions in Syria had proclaimed him emperor; and Clodius Albinus, the powerful governor of Britannia. Severus bought time by offering Albinus the rank of Caesar, implying some claim to the succession. With his rear secured, he moved east and crushed Niger's forces at the Battle of Issus in 194. While campaigning near Byzantium, Severus ordered that the tomb of his fellow Carthaginian Hannibal be covered with fine marble. He declared his son Caracalla his successor, which prompted Albinus to invade Gaul. On the 19th of February 197, at the Battle of Lugdunum, Severus defeated and killed Albinus with an army of about 75,000 men. He returned to Rome and had 29 senators executed for supporting Albinus, despite having sworn an oath not to put any senator to death.
After defeating Albinus, Severus turned his attention to Parthia. He left Rome in early 197, embarked at Brundisium, and landed in Cilicia. Abgar IX, the titular King of Osroene, handed over his children as hostages and provided archers for Severus's forces. King Khosrov I of Armenia sent hostages, money and gifts.
Severus's legions sacked the Parthian royal city of Ctesiphon. He annexed the northern half of Mesopotamia and took the title Parthicus Maximus, following the precedent set by Trajan. He could not, however, capture the fortress of Hatra, failing twice in lengthy sieges, just as Trajan had failed nearly a century before him. He also expanded the Limes Arabicus, building new fortifications in the Arabian Desert from Basie to Dumatha.
In late 202, Severus launched a campaign in Africa. The commander of Legio III Augusta, Quintus Anicius Faustus, had already been fighting the Garamantes along the Limes Tripolitanus for five years. He had captured several settlements including Cydamus, Gholaia, and Garbia, and their capital Garama, which lay more than 600 kilometres south of Leptis Magna. Severus extended and fortified the entire southern frontier, and by 203 desert nomads could no longer raid the region's interior and escape back into the Sahara.
In 208, Severus travelled to Britain with the intention of conquering Caledonia. He strengthened Hadrian's Wall and reconquered the Southern Uplands up to the Antonine Wall. Cassius Dio records that as Severus advanced through Caledonian territory, cutting forests and filling swamps, the enemy avoided pitched battle, drawing the Romans forward until they were exhausted and scattered. Dio states that a full fifty thousand Roman soldiers died during the campaign, though Severus pressed on until he reached the extremity of the island. By 210, the Caledonians sued for peace, ceding control of the Central Lowlands. They then revolted with the Maeatae later that year. Severus prepared a final campaign with the stated intention of exterminating the Caledonians. He fell ill before it could begin.
Severus's relations with the Senate were antagonistic from the start. He had seized power through military force, and the Senate knew it. He ordered the execution of a large number of senators on charges of corruption or conspiracy. After 197, according to Cassius Dio, Severus fell heavily under the influence of his Praetorian prefect, Gaius Fulvius Plautianus, who was also his wife's cousin. Plautianus came to hold almost total control of the imperial administration. His daughter Fulvia Plautilla was married to Caracalla.
Plautianus's power ended abruptly in 204, when the emperor's dying brother denounced him. In January 205, Julia Domna and Caracalla accused Plautianus of plotting to kill them both. He was executed while trying to defend himself before the two emperors. One of his two successors as prefect was the celebrated jurist Papinian. For the remainder of his reign, Severus relied more openly on Julia Domna's advice in running the empire.
On the question of Christians, the historical record is divided. The early church historian Eusebius described Severus as a persecutor. The Christian apologist Tertullian, however, stated that Severus was well disposed toward Christians, employed a Christian as his personal physician, and personally intervened to save several high-born Christians from the mob. Modern scholars believe that persecutions during his reign, including those of the martyrs known as Perpetua and Felicity in Roman Africa, were likely local in origin rather than the product of empire-wide decrees.
To sustain his enlarged military, Severus debased the Roman currency repeatedly. Upon his accession he reduced the silver purity of the denarius from 81.5% to 78.5%. The following year he debased it again, dropping silver purity from 78.5% to 64.5% and the silver weight from 2.46 grams to 1.98 grams. In 196, he reduced purity further, to 54%, and weight to 1.82 grams. Scholars have described this debasement as the largest since the reign of Nero, with lasting consequences for the economy.
Severus was cremated in York, and his ashes were placed in an urn of purple stone and carried to Rome, where they were deposited in the Mausoleum of Hadrian. The Senate deified him. His sons Caracalla and Geta, advised by Julia Domna, succeeded him and founded the Severan dynasty, the last dynasty of the Roman Empire before the Crisis of the Third Century.
By the end of his reign, scholars including David L. Kennedy, Lukas De Blois, and Derrick Riley have argued that the empire reached its greatest physical extent, at over 2.0 million square kilometres. His victory over Parthia secured Nisibis and Singara for Rome and established Roman dominance in the region until 251. His fortification of the Limes Tripolitanus protected Africa, the agricultural heartland of the empire.
Edward Gibbon delivered a famous indictment: "Posterity, who experienced the fatal effects of his maxims and example, justly considered him as the principal author of the decline of the Roman empire." His expansion of the army and the higher pay he granted soldiers placed a growing tax burden on the civilian population, a burden that his successors could not escape. Cassius Dio and the historian Herodianus both pointed to this military expenditure as a source of long-term damage.
In Rome, he erected the Arch of Septimius Severus in the Forum and built the Septizodium. In his home city of Leptis Magna, he commissioned a triumphal arch on the occasion of his visit in 203. He told his sons before he died: "Be harmonious, enrich the soldiers, scorn all others." They did not follow the first instruction; Caracalla had Geta killed the following year.
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Common questions
Who was Septimius Severus and when did he rule Rome?
Septimius Severus was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born on the 11th of April 145 in Leptis Magna, in the Roman province of Africa, and died on the 4th of February 211 in Eboracum, modern York. He is considered the first emperor born into a provincial family of non-Italian origin.
Where was Septimius Severus born and what was his background?
Septimius Severus was born in Leptis Magna, in present-day Libya, on the 11th of April 145. He came from a family of equestrian rank; his father's family was of Libyan-Punic origin, while his mother descended from the Italian Fulvii, a patrician family from Tusculum. He was a native Punic speaker who also spoke Latin and Greek.
How did Septimius Severus become Roman emperor?
Severus was proclaimed emperor by his legion XIV Gemina at Carnuntum on the 9th of April 193, following the murder of the emperor Pertinax. He marched on Rome, where the Senate had already condemned Pertinax's successor Didius Julianus to death. After entering Rome unopposed, Severus defeated his two rival claimants, Pescennius Niger at the Battle of Issus in 194 and Clodius Albinus at the Battle of Lugdunum on the 19th of February 197.
What military campaigns did Septimius Severus lead?
Severus waged wars on multiple frontiers. He defeated the Parthian Empire and sacked their capital Ctesiphon in 197, annexing northern Mesopotamia. In 202, he campaigned in Africa against the Garamantes, capturing their capital Garama, over 600 kilometres south of Leptis Magna. In 208 he invaded Caledonia, modern Scotland, strengthening Hadrian's Wall and advancing to the extremity of the island before his death in 211.
How did Septimius Severus debase the Roman currency?
Severus reduced the silver purity of the denarius repeatedly to fund his expanded military. He cut purity from 81.5% to 78.5% on his accession, then dropped it to 64.5% the following year, and by 196 had reduced it further to 54% with a silver weight of only 1.82 grams. Scholars describe this as the largest debasement of Roman currency since the reign of Nero.
Who was Julia Domna and what role did she play in Severus's reign?
Julia Domna was the second wife of Septimius Severus and a Syrian from Emesa whose father served as high priest of the sun god Elagabal. Severus valued her counsel and she earned a reputation for letters and philosophy. After the execution of the praetorian prefect Plautianus in January 205, Severus relied more openly on her advice, and after his death she advised his two sons who succeeded him.
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