Septimius Severus - Roman Emperor: 193-211 A.D. -
Bronze 18mm (5.1 grams) Struck at the city of Pautalia in Thrace 193-211
A.D. -
AV K Λ CEΠ CEVHPOC, laureate draped bust right.
OVΛΠIAC ΠAVTAΛIAC, Serpent entwined around column.
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The
Minoan
Snake
Goddess brandished a serpent in either hand, perhaps evoking her role as
source of wisdom, rather than her role as Mistress of the Animals (Potnia
theron), with a
leopard under
each arm. She is a Minoan version of the
Canaanite
fertility goddess
Asherah[citation
needed].
Serpents figured prominently in archaic Greek myths. According to some
sources, Ophion
("serpent", a.k.a. Ophioneus), ruled the world with Eurynome before the two of
them were cast down by Cronus and Rhea. The oracles of the Ancient Greeks were
said to have been the continuation of the tradition begun with the worship of
the Egyptian cobra goddess,
Wadjet.
Typhon the
enemy of the Olympian gods is described as a vast grisly monster with a hundred
heads and a hundred serpents issuing from his thighs, who was conquered and cast
into Tartarus
by Zeus, or
confined beneath volcanic regions, where he is the cause of eruptions. Typhon is
thus the chthonic figuration of volcanic forces. Serpent elements figure among
his offspring: Amongst his children by Echidna are
Cerberus (a
monstrous three-headed dog with a snake for a tail and a serpentine mane), the
serpent-tailed
Chimaera, the serpent-like chthonic water beast
Lernaean Hydra and the hundred-headed serpentine dragon
Ladon. Both the
Lernaean Hydra and Ladon were slain by
Heracles.
Python was the earth-dragon of
Delphi, she
always was represented in the vase-paintings and by sculptors as a serpent.
Pytho was the chthonic enemy of
Apollo, who
slew her and remade her former home his own oracle, the most famous in Classical
Greece.
Medusa and
the other Gorgons
were vicious female monsters with sharp fangs and hair of living, venomous
snakes whose origins predate the written myths of Greece and who were the
protectors of the most ancient ritual secrets. The Gorgons wore a belt of two
intertwined serpents in the same configuration of the
caduceus.
The Gorgon was placed at the highest point and central of the relief on the
Parthenon.
Asclepius,
the son of Apollo and Koronis, learned the secrets of keeping death at bay after
observing one serpent bringing another (which Asclepius himself had fatally
wounded) healing herbs. To prevent the entire human race from becoming immortal
under Asclepius's care, Zeus killed him with a bolt of lightning. Asclepius'
death at the hands of Zeus illustrates man's inability to challenge the natural
order that separates mortal men from the gods. In honor of Asclepius, snakes
were often used in healing rituals. Non-poisonous snakes were left to crawl on
the floor in dormitories where the sick and injured slept. In
The Library,
Apollodorus claimed that
Athena gave
Asclepius a vial of blood from the Gorgons. Gorgon blood had magical properties:
if taken from the left side of the Gorgon, it was a fatal poison; from the right
side, the blood was capable of bringing the dead back to life. However
Euripides
wrote in his tragedy
Ion
that the Athenian queen Creusa had inherited this vial from her ancestor
Erichthonios, who was a snake himself and receiving the vial from Athena. In
this version the blood of Medusa had the healing power while the lethal poison
originated from Medusa's serpents.
Olympias,
the mother of
Alexander the Great and a princess of the primitive land of
Epirus, had the reputation of a snake-handler, and it was in serpent form
that Zeus was said to have fathered Alexander upon her.
Alexander the false prophet)
Aeetes, the king of
Colchis and
father of the sorceress
Medea, possessed
the
Golden Fleece. He guarded it with a massive serpent that never slept. Medea,
who had fallen in love with
Jason of the
Argonauts,
enchanted it to sleep so Jason could seize the Fleece.
See
Lamia (mythology).
Lucius Septimius Severus (or rarely Severus I) (April 11,
145/146-February 4, 211) was a
Roman
general, and
Roman
Emperor from April 14, 193 to 211. He was born in what is now the
Berber part of
Rome's historic
Africa Province. Septimius Severus was born and raised at
Leptis
Magna (modern
Berber, southeast of
Carthage,
modern Tunisia).
Severus came from a wealthy, distinguished family of
equestrian rank. Severus was of
Italian Roman ancestry on his mother's side and of
Punic or
Libyan-Punic[1]
ancestry on his father's. Little is known of his father,
Publius Septimius Geta, who held no major political status but had two
cousins who served as consuls under emperor
Antoninus Pius. His mother, Fulvia Pia's family moved from
Italy to
North
Africa and was of the
Fulvius gens,
an ancient and politically influential clan, which was originally of
plebeian status. His siblings were a younger
Publius Septimius Geta and Septimia Octavilla. Severus’s maternal cousin was
Praetorian Guard and consul
Gaius Fulvius Plautianus.[2]
In 172, Severus was made a
Senator
by the then emperor
Marcus Aurelius. In 187 he married secondly
Julia
Domna. In 190 Severus became
consul, and in
the following year received from the emperor
Commodus
(successor to Marcus Aurelius) the command of the
legions
in Pannonia.
On the murder of
Pertinax by
the troops in 193, they proclaimed Severus Emperor at
Carnuntum,
whereupon he hurried to Italy. The former emperor,
Didius Julianus, was condemned to death by the Senate and killed, and
Severus took possession of Rome without opposition.
The legions of
Syria, however, had proclaimed
Pescennius Niger emperor. At the same time, Severus felt it was reasonable
to offer
Clodius Albinus, the powerful governor of Britannia who had probably
supported Didius against him, the rank of Caesar, which implied some claim to
succession. With his rearguard safe, he moved to the East and crushed Niger's
forces at the
Battle of Issus. The following year was devoted to suppressing Mesopotamia
and other Parthian vassals who had backed Niger. When afterwards Severus
declared openly his son
Caracalla
as successor, Albinus was hailed emperor by his troops and moved to Gallia.
Severus, after a short stay in Rome, moved northwards to meet him. On
February
19, 197,
in the
Battle of Lugdunum, with an army of 100,000 men, mostly composed of
Illyrian,
Moesian and
Dacian legions,
Severus defeated and killed Clodius Albinus, securing his full control over the
Empire.
Emperor
Severus was at heart a
soldier, and
sought glory through military exploits. In 197 he waged a brief and successful
war against the
Parthian Empire in retaliation for the support given to Pescennius Niger.
The Parthian capital
Ctesiphon
was sacked by the legions, and the northern half of
Mesopotamia was restored to Rome.
His relations with the
Roman
Senate were never good. He was unpopular with them from the outset, having
seized power with the help of the military, and he returned the sentiment.
Severus ordered the execution of dozens of Senators on charges of corruption and
conspiracy against him, replacing them with his own favorites.
He also disbanded the
Praetorian Guard and replaced it with one of his own, made up of 50,000
loyal soldiers mainly camped at
Albanum, near Rome (also probably to grant the emperor a kind of centralized
reserve). During his reign the number of legions was also increased from 25/30
to 33. He also increased the number of auxiliary corps (numerii), many of
these troops coming from the Eastern borders. Additionally the annual wage for a
soldier was raised from 300 to 500
denarii.
Although his actions turned Rome into a military
dictatorship, he was popular with the citizens of Rome, having stamped out
the rampant corruption of Commodus's reign. When he returned from his victory
over the Parthians, he erected the
Arch of Septimius Severus in Rome.
According to Cassius Dio,[3]
however, after 197 Severus fell heavily under the influence of his Praetorian
Prefect,
Gaius Fulvius Plautianus, who came to have almost total control of most
branches of the imperial administration. Plautianus's daughter,
Fulvia Plautilla, was married to Severus's son, Caracalla. Plautianus’s
excessive power came to an end in 205, when he was denounced by the Emperor's
dying brother and killed.[4]
The two following praefecti, including the jurist
Aemilius Papinianus, received however even larger powers.
Campaigns in Caledonia (Scotland)
Starting from 208 Severus undertook a number of military actions in
Roman
Britain, reconstructing
Hadrian's Wall and campaigning in
Scotland.
He reached the area of the
Moray
Firth in his last campaign in Caledonia, as was called Scotland by the
Romans.[5].
In 210 obtained a peace with the
Picts that lasted
practically until the final withdrawal of the Roman legions from Britain
[6],
before falling severely ill in
Eboracum (York).
Death
He is famously said to have given the advice to his sons: "Be harmonious,
enrich the soldiers, and scorn all other men" before he died at Eboracum on
February 4,
211[7].
Upon his death in 211, Severus was
deified by the Senate and succeeded by his sons,
Caracalla
and
Geta, who were advised by his wife
Julia
Domna.[8]
The stability Severus provided the Empire was soon gone under their reign.
Accomplishments and Record
Though his military expenditure was costly to the empire, Severus was the
strong, able ruler that Rome needed at the time. He began a tradition of
effective emperors elevated solely by the military. His policy of an expanded
and better-rewarded army was criticized by his contemporary
Dio Cassius and
Herodianus: in particular, they pointed out the increasing burden (in the
form of taxes and services) the civilian population had to bear to maintain the
new army.
Severus was also distinguished for his buildings. Apart from the triumphal
arch in the Roman Forum carrying his full name, he also built the
Septizodium in Rome and enriched greatly his native city of
Leptis
Magna (including another triumphal arch on the occasion of his visit of
203).
Severus and Christianity
Christians were
persecuted during the reign of Septimus Severus. Severus allowed the
enforcement of policies already long-established, which meant that Roman
authorities did not intentionally seek out Christians, but when people were
accused of being Christians they could either curse
Jesus and make an
offering to
Roman gods, or be executed. Furthermore, wishing to strengthen the peace by
encouraging religious harmony through
syncretism,
Severus tried to limit the spread of the two quarrelsome groups who refused to
yield to syncretism by outlawing
conversion to Christianity or
Judaism.
Individual officials availed themselves of the laws to proceed with rigor
against the Christians. Naturally the emperor, with his strict conception of
law, did not hinder such partial persecution, which took place in
Egypt and the
Thebaid, as
well as in
Africa proconsularis and the East. Christian
martyrs were
numerous in
Alexandria (cf.
Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, ii. 20;
Eusebius, Church History, V., xxvi., VI., i.). No less severe were
the persecutions in Africa, which seem to have begun in 197 or 198 (cf.
Tertullian's Ad martyres), and included the Christians known in the
Roman martyrology as the martyrs of
Madaura.
Probably in 202 or 203
Felicitas and
Perpetua suffered for their faith. Persecution again raged for a short time
under the proconsul
Scapula in
211, especially in
Numidia and
Mauritania.
Later accounts of a
Gallic persecution, especially at
Lyon, are
legendary. In general it may thus be said that the position of the Christians
under Septimius Severus was the same as under the
Antonines;
but the law of this Emperor at least shows clearly that the
rescript of
Trajan[clarification
needed] had failed to execute its purpose..
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