Septimius Severus

### Aliases

The first Africa-born Roman EmperorSeverus The GreatJustinian II in Antiquity (Not hate, but they had some similarities. Justinian II was a good emperor.)

### Relatives

Julia Domna (Wife)Julia Maesa (Sister-in-law)

Julia Soaemias (Daughter-in-law)

Julia Mamaea (Daughter-in-law)

Caracalla (Son)

Geta (Son)

Elagabalus (Grandson-in-law)

Severus Alexander (Grandson-in-law)

Gallus (Step-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson)

## Physical description

### Eye color

Brown

**Septimius Severus** (11th of April, 145-4th of February, 211) was emperor from 193 to his death in 211. He was not only the first emperor to be born in Africa, but the patriarch of the Severan Dynasty.

## In "Unbiased History"

### **"The Five Good Emperors"**

Severus was one of many officers who hated being ruled under Commodus, in his case culminating in him being one of twenty-five people made as consuls in the same year, which he was really unhappy about.

### **"The Severan Dynasty"**

Severus was one of three generals who rebelled against Didius Julianus after he bought the empire after Pertinax was murdered. After having Clodius Albinus accept being his heir, his first order of business was to depose Julianus.

It is here where his backstory shows: he was a descendant of those who settled in the non-satly parts of Carthage after the Punic Wars. Climbing the Cursus Honorum quickly, despite being surrounded by plague, he married Julia Domna, a descendant of one of Pompey's client kings and the daughter of the high priest of Sol, for which he had two children: Caracalla and Geta. After helping Marcus Aurelius, he then had to clean up after Commodus, up until his appointment in Pannonia, where he led three veteran legions, and where news of Pertinax's death had reached him.

Marching to Rome, he first occupied Ravenna, home of the imperial fleet, just a Julianus declared him an enemy of the state. He commanded so much respect that the assassins sent to kill him never went through with it, often joining his side in fear. Instead of conquering Rome, he offered an ultimatum to have Julianus, Laetus, and the rest of Pertinax's assassins come out, only to execute them all, becoming emperor, not caring about the Senate in the process. He then replaced the rest of the Praetorian Guard with veterans from his own legions.

However, that still left Albinus and Niger around. Niger fought him first, getting his army crushed all the way to Issus, where Severus won decisively, leaving Albinus left. Before he could do so, he had to siege Byzantium, the last of Niger's strongholds, which took two years and infuriated him to the point of destroying the fortifications of the city, letting the rest of his rage out onto the Parthians. It was on his trip to finding Albinus that he found the teenage Maximinus Thrax beating his best legates with his 8-foot stature, impressing him so much that he was allowed to be a legionnaire.

His last order of business before the empire was stable was to defeat Albinus, but not before appointing Caracalla as heir. He and Albinus would clash with their legions, and after sorting his shitty left flank, his legion won the battle, later beheading Albinus' corpse as well as executing his family. With this, he consolidated his rule over the empire by not only purging the Senate of those who supported Niger and Albinus, but also doubling the pay of his soldiers at the expense of the Denarii's silver content dropping from 98% to 50%.

After finding the life of an administrator hell, he preemptively invaded the readying forces of Parthia, sieging Hatra after Julius Laetus was executed for insubordination. He would then end up conquering nearby oasis cities like Palmyra as well, giving a civilized noble family there citizenship and his first name as well. To celebrate his victories, he would construct the Arch of Septimius Severus as a commemoration. He then led expeditions into North Africa, expanding the empire's borders there to protect his home city.

When his brother was on his deathbed, he was told of Plautianus' crimes as Prefect, just as Caracalla informed him of Plautianus' plot. He ordered the prefect to be executed and his family exiled. This resulted in him having full control over the Seante once more, driving him to the point of warring against the Picts in Caledonia. It was during this invasion that he uttered the phrase "Let none escape sheer destruction, not even the babe in the womb of the mother." Though Geta was plotting against him, Severus made it so that when he died, both Geta and Caracalla, who hated each other, would be co-emperors, if they were to be harmonious with each other and ignored everyone but the legions. It was at this moment that Severus had died in modern-day York.

### **"Diocletian's Tetrarchy"**

His spirit appears when Dovahhatty mentions that his bloodline is unrelated to Ulpia Severina.

### **"Barbarians at the Gates"**

His spirit, along with those of Aeneas, Nero, Augustus, Paulinus, Decius, Pompey, Hadrian, and Diocletian, all scold Theodosius after his decrees made paganism illegal and forced Christianity to be the only religion in the empire.

### **"The Fall of Rome"**

He is seen in the ending montages alongside his sons, the four Julias, Elagabalus and Alexander, Ardashir and his Sassanids, Plautianus, Pertinax, and DEVS\*SOL\*INVICTVS.

## "Trivia"

* The episode that prominently features his dynasty was broadcast on the anniversary of his death.
* It is disputed if he ordered the persecution of Jews and Christians or not. the series takes the side of the later theory
* While not a bad ruler in reality, Severus' short-sighted militaristic approach, the battle of Lugdunum in 197 AD which saw many roman soldiers killed and provoked many people to not join the army in fear of fighting in a bloody civil war and debasement of currency indirectly created The Crisis of the 3rd Century.
* The reality of his British campaign was that the Picts had used guerrilla tactics and made it a nightmare to invade, Caracalla canceled the campaign after his death