Roman Emperor's - part 8 - The African Septimius Severous

Roman Emperor – Septimius Severous the African

This book, “Caesar's Roman Emperor’s from Augustus to Constatine” mentions the 10 Roman Emperor’s that were from the Caesar family. The book starts with Augustus Caesar and ends with the emperor who led to the collapse - Constatine the Christian. I wanted to read about Rome because I loved visiting Italy and learning about Italian history, especially the Roman Republic/Empire. The Roman Republic/Empire was one of my favorite topics to learn about in school. The Roman Empire has a slight importance to Catholicism which is very enlightening because that’s the religion I was brought up to practice.

Septimus Severus was the first and only African Roman Emperor (however they were others from the middle east afterward) he came after Commodus was murdered in 193, the year that there were five emperors that fought and killed each other in succession. Septimus Severus was born on April 11, 145 on the Mediterranean coast of western Libya. The city that he was born in was a wealthy trading center founded by immigrants from a middle eastern empire called Phoecia and controlled by Carthage until Carthage was destroyed by Rome.

Septimus Severus was egotistical, rude and crude but was fluent and shrewd. Septimus. militarized the Roman Empire and its government even though he wasn’t a soldier by career. Septimus added very good laws and legal theories to his empire which greatly helped him and the empire. Septimus eventually wrote an autobiography about himself. He married a Syrian woman from Africa. Septimus Severus attacked the city of Rome at the highest point of the four-year civil war.

Septimus Severus, because he was so brutal/cruel did not last long with his supporter Clodius who lead a civil war against him almost killing Septimus, but Septimus just stretched away, killed Clodius then executed his family. Septimus before the Civil War in 193-197 did not lead any wartime battles/armies- he was peaceful - in the beginning. Severus killed 39 Senators during his reign and was particularly brutal. Notable actions he took included doubling the size of the Praetorian Guard, putting ones from his home province in the guard and doubling the size of the fire brigade, which was a big deal because the city of Rome had some of the worst fires-consistently - in world history.

The Roman Republic wanted to believe in Military + Hereditary succession, so Septimus Severus was “adopted” by Marcus Aurelius which was interesting because there were heavy clouds over who his real birth father was. Septimus Severus is a notable emperor because he conquered the Parthenian capital which he turned into a propaganda piece. The Roman Province of Mesopotamia became a problem for later Emperors and himself because it overextended the empire and made it too hard to maintain/keep up.

The First and only African Emperor- but not only middle eastern- in Roman History Septimus Severus was know for being particularly cruel, brutal but had some notable accomplishments like conquering Mesopotamia and increasing resources to fight fires in Rome. Septimus Severus lead a large civil war, and multiple in his course of becoming emperor and killed 39 Senators to cement his rule even after pledging an oath that he wouldn’t a notable comparison would be Augustus or Tiberius.

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