Roman alabaster and marble bust of Septimius Severus, Musei Capitolini, Rome
Roman emperor
Reign
9 April 193 – 4 February 211[1]
Predecessor
Didius Julianus
Successors
Caracalla and Geta
Co-emperors
Caracalla (198–211)
Geta (209–211)
Born
Lucius Septimius Severus[2] 11 April 145[3] Leptis Magna, Libya
Died
4 February 211 (aged 65)[4] Eboracum, Britain
Spouses
Paccia Marciana (m. c. 175; died c. 186)
Julia Domna (m. 187)
Issue
Caracalla
Geta
Regnal name
Imperator Caesar Lucius Septimius Severus Pertinax Augustus[2]
Dynasty
Severan
Father
Publius Septimius Geta
Mother
Fulvia Pia
Roman imperial dynasties
Aureus of Septimius Severus
Severan dynasty
Chronology
Septimius Severus
193–211
with Caracalla
198–211
with Geta
209–211
Caracalla
211–217
Geta
211
Macrinus' usurpation
217–218
with Diadumenian
218
Elagabalus
218–222
Severus Alexander
222–235
Dynasty
Severan dynasty family tree
All biographies
Succession
Preceded by Year of the Five Emperors
Followed by Crisis of the Third Century
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Lucius Septimius Severus (Latin pronunciation:[ˈluːkiʊsˈsɛptɪmʊssɛˈweːrʊs]; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was a Roman politician who served as emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa.[5][6] As a young man he advanced through the customary succession of offices under the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Severus was the final contender to seize power after the death of the emperor Pertinax in 193 during the Year of the Five Emperors.
After deposing and killing the incumbent emperor Didius Julianus, Severus fought his rival claimants, the Roman generals Pescennius Niger and Clodius Albinus. Niger was defeated in 194 at the Battle of Issus in Cilicia. Later that year Severus waged a short punitive campaign beyond the eastern frontier, annexing the Kingdom of Osroene as a new province. Severus defeated Albinus three years later at the Battle of Lugdunum in Gaul. Following the consolidation of his rule over the western provinces, Severus waged another brief, more successful war in the east against the Parthian Empire, sacking their capital Ctesiphon in 197 and expanding the eastern frontier to the Tigris. He then enlarged and fortified the Limes Arabicus in Arabia Petraea. In 202, he campaigned in Africa and Mauretania against the Garamantes, capturing their capital Garama and expanding the Limes Tripolitanus along the southern desert frontier of the empire.
With his second wife Julia Domna Severus had two sons; the elder, Caracalla, was proclaimed Augustus, or co-emperor, in 198, and the younger, Geta, in 209. Severus travelled to Britain in 208, strengthening Hadrian's Wall and reoccupying the Antonine Wall. In 209 he invaded Caledonia (modern Scotland) with an army of 50,000 men[7] but his ambitions were cut short when he died of an infectious disease in early 211 at Eboracum (modern York). His sons, advised by Julia Domna, succeeded him, thus founding the Severan dynasty. It was the last dynasty of the Roman Empire before the Crisis of the Third Century.
^Kienast, Dietmar (2017) [1990]. "Septimius Severus (9 Apr. 193–4 Febr. 211)". Römische Kaisertabelle Grundzüge einer römischen Kaiserchronologie (6th ed.). Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft. pp. 149–159. ISBN 978-3-534-07532-4. OCLC 75671165.
^ abCooley, Alison E. (2012). The Cambridge Manual of Latin Epigraphy. Cambridge University Press. p. 495. ISBN 978-0-521-84026-2.
^Birley (1999), p. 1.
^Birley (1999), p. 187.
^Anthony Richard Birley, Septimius Severus: the African emperor, Yale University Press, 1988, pp2,18-32
^Craig Simpson, "Roman emperor hailed as 'black Briton' – even though he wasn't black", Daily Telegraph, 30 October 2023
^Elliott, Simon (2018). Septimius Severus in Scotland: The Northern Campaigns of the First Hammer of the Scots. Greenhill Books. p. 147. ISBN 978-1-78438-204-9.
Thus, SeptimiusSeverus spent the remainder of his second term as quaestor on the island of Sardinia. In 173, Severus' cousin Gaius SeptimiusSeverus was...
The Arch of SeptimiusSeverus (Italian: Arco di Settimio Severo) at the northwestern end of the Roman Forum is a white marble triumphal arch dedicated...
the Roman imperial period. The dynasty was founded by the emperor SeptimiusSeverus (r. 193–211), who rose to power after the Year of the Five Emperors...
Praetorian Guard, succeeded Pertinax, but was ousted by SeptimiusSeverus and executed on June 1. Severus was declared Caesar by the Senate, but Pescennius...
in which three rival generals laid claim to the imperial throne. SeptimiusSeverus, commander of the legions in Pannonia and the nearest of the generals...
Initially Albinus cooperated with another contender for the throne, SeptimiusSeverus, but the two turned on each other in 196 and commenced a civil war...
Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander (1 October 208 – 21/22 March 235), also known as Alexander Severus, was Roman emperor from 222 until 235. The last emperor...
spread across the Empire, the generals Pescennius Niger in Syria, SeptimiusSeverus in Pannonia, and Clodius Albinus in Britain, each having three legions...
Gaius SeptimiusSeverus Aper, Roman Aristocrat Tiberius Claudius Severus Proculus, Roman senator and consul in 200 Marcus Julius Philippus Severus Augustus...
emperor SeptimiusSeverus. Other relatives included Elagabalus's aunt Julia Avita Mamaea and uncle Marcus Julius Gessius Marcianus and their son Severus Alexander...
elevation of Didius Julianus, but was defeated by a rival claimant, SeptimiusSeverus, and killed while attempting to flee from Antioch. According to Historia...
The Gold bust of SeptimiusSeverus (Greek: Χρυσή προτομή Σεπτιμίου Σευήρου) is the bust of Roman emperor SeptimiusSeverus, dressed in scale armor (Lorica...
a "boom town" after 200 AD, when SeptimiusSeverus had better organized the Limes Tripolitanus. In late 202, Severus launched a campaign in the province...
was dissolved and replaced by men transferred from Septimius's army. The new Guard of SeptimiusSeverus made their mark against his rival Clodius Albinus...
Africa Proconsularis by SeptimiusSeverus (imperial propraetorial province). AD 194 – Syria Coele and Syria Phoenice, SeptimiusSeverus divided Syria into...
193, after the death of Pertinax, the commander of the Fourteenth, SeptimiusSeverus, was acclaimed emperor by the Pannonian legions, and above all by...
synagogue, alongside an inscription dedicated to the Roman emperor SeptimiusSeverus and his family commissioned by the local Jewish community. The site...
Flavius Valerius Severus (died September 307), also called Severus II, was a Roman emperor from 306 to 307. After failing to besiege Rome, he fled to...
Stadium Palatinum in the Domus Augustana of SeptimiusSeverus. It included the Baths of SeptimiusSeverus (Latin: Balneum Palatii). All that remains of...
The Wall of Severus is believed to be a defensive fortification built by the Roman Emperor SeptimiusSeverus (reigned AD 193–211) during his military campaigns...
just as well by many usurpers as they were by legitimate emperors. SeptimiusSeverus notably declared himself as the adoptive son of the long-deceased...
Bassianus. Through her sister's marriage, Maesa became sister-in-law to SeptimiusSeverus and aunt of Caracalla and Geta, who all became emperors. She married...
is expressly noted to only be a tyrant because he was defeated by SeptimiusSeverus (r. 193–211). This is also followed in modern historiography, where...
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