Septimius Severus (Lucius Septimius Severus Pertinax) (April 11, 146 - February 4, 211) was Roman Emperor from 193 to 211. With him began the Severan dynasty and the rise to power of provincials of non-Roman descent.
Septimius Severus was born on April 11, 145 in Leptis Magna, a city located in Tripolitania on the coast of present-day Libya. He is an African from an indigenous[1] family of great Libyco-Punic[2] notables on the side of his father, Publius Septimus Geta, who had acceded to Roman citizenship during the 1st century and Italian immigrants married to natives who obtained citizenship on the side of his mother Fulvia Pia.[3] On both sides, notables:thus his paternal grandfather was prefect of Leptis before being its first duumvir when the city became a colony under Trajan. He married a second time to Julia Domna, daughter of the high priest of Emesa (Syria), with whom he had two sons, Geta and Caracalla.
Historian Dion Cassius describes him as a small, thin, very lively and taciturn man.
At the age of 18 he left Leptis Magna for Rome, where he held various civil and military positions. He practiced in Lyon Gaul and his sons were born in Lugdunum. In 191 he acceded to the post of legate of Upper Pannonia, with the support of Aemilius Laetus, the prefect of the Praetorian Guard.
During his stay in 193 in Carnuntum, the capital of the province of Upper Pannonia, he learned of the murders of Commodus and Pertinax. His legions stationed on the Danube then acclaimed him as emperor, while Clodius Albinus, legate of Brittany, and Pescennius Niger, legate of Syria also revolted.
On June 1, 193, the Senate condemned Didius Julianus to death, which paved the way for Septimius Severus, who appeared before Rome with his legions on June 9, 193. He invited the Praetorian Guard to a banquet at his camp. There, he surrounded the praetorians in gala dress with his soldiers, disarmed them and had the murderers of Pertinax executed. Then he dismisses the entire workforce of the Praetorian Guard, replacing them with provincial soldiers.
Cleverly, he conciliates Clodius Albinus by granting him the title of Caesar and the consulship for the year 194.
During the fall and winter of 193 Septimius Severus triumphed over his adversary Pescennius Niger. The decisive final battle took place in the spring of 194 at Issus. His power being thus consolidated, he resumed the name of Pertinax, proclaimed himself the son of Marc-Aurèle and created a fictitious genealogy going back to Nerva.
In 195 Septimius Severus went on a campaign against the Parthians. At the end of 195, Septimius Severus had Clodius Albinus proclaimed a public enemy. He crossed the Channel in 196 with his legions (40,000 men). The decisive battle took place in February 197 near Lugdunum (Lyon). Septimius and his legions are victorious. Clodius flees and kills himself. Septimius Severus has the remains undressed and trampled by his horse; the severed head is sent to Rome, the body is thrown into the Rhone. The family of Clodius is not initially worried, but his widow and his sons were later murdered. 29 senators who had supported Clodius Albinus are eliminated.
In the years 197 to 199 new victorious campaigns against the Parthians lead to the creation of the Mesopotamia province. After the conquest of the city of Ctesiphon, he killed about 100,000 inhabitants, men, women and children, and seized the Parthian treasury. For the next five years he organized the administration of the new province.
He then travels to the East:he visits Egypt, pays homage to the embalmed remains of Alexander the Great and goes up the Nile to Thebes. It was only in 202 that Septimius Severus returned to Rome.
He now sought to consolidate his succession:he married his son Caracalla with Plautilla, the daughter of Gaius Fulvius Plautianus, prefect of the Praetorian Guard , with whom he is befriended. Relations within the couple deteriorated rapidly, however.
Perhaps at the instigation of Caracalla, Plautianus was accused of treason by centurions in 205. Septimius Severus had him assassinated and Plautilla was banished to the island of Lipari.
In 208, Septimius Severus embarked with his two sons Caracalla and Geta to the province of Brittany to fight the Caledonians. Several battles take place until 209, without decisive victory. To secure the northern border of the Roman Empire, he consolidated Hadrian's Wall over a length of about 130 km.
Weakened by the disease of gout, he retired to York where he died on February 4, 211 at the age of 65.
Septimius Severus commissioned several imposing constructions:
* In Rome, he embellished the southern face of the Palatine with a monumental fountain, the Septizodium, dedicated to the seven major stars (the planets, the Moon and the Sun), and with the construction of the new wing in the imperial palace. He also started work on the Caracalla baths. He also restored a large number of buildings damaged by fires at the end of Commodus' reign, including:the Temple of Peace (in which he erected a monumental plan of Rome, the Forma Urbis), the Theater of Pompey, the Portico of Octavia, the Arcus Neroniani, etc.
* His hometown Leptis Magna was endowed with remarkable monuments:Severe forum, Severian basilica, port facilities.
Septimius Severus took structural organizational measures for the Roman Empire:
* he attributed to the imperial post office (cursus publicus) the responsibility for the routing of the supply of the armies
* he transferred to the prefects of the praetorium the handling of appeals of legal cases, hitherto reserved for the emperor. This reform gave the prefects of the praetorium an increasingly important role in the civil domain.
* he instituted free distributions of olive oil, in addition to the traditional distributions of wheat, for the plebs.
Successive names
* April 146, born Lucius Septimius Severus
* June 193, accesses the Empire:Imperator Caesar Lucius Septimius Severus Pertinax Augustus
* 195, adds nickname Pius:Imperator Caesar Lucius Septimius Severus Pius
* 195, following his victory over the Adiabenians and the Arabs:Imperator Caesar Lucius Septimius Severus Pius Pertinax Augustus Arabicus Adiabenicus
* 198, following his victory over the Parthians:Imperator Caesar Lucius Septimius Severus Pius Pertinax Augustus Arabicus Adiabenicus Parthicus Maximus
* 209, following his victory over the Caledonians:Imperator Caesar Lucius Septimius Severus Pius Pertinax Augustus Arabicus Adiabenicus Parthicus Maximus Britannicus Maximus.
* 211, title at his death:Imperator Caesar Lucius Septimius Severus Pius Pertinax Augustus Arabicus Adiabenicus Parthicus Maximus Britannicus Maximus, Pontifex Maximus, Tribuniciae Potestatis XIX, Imperator XV, Consul IV, Pater Patriae.