Severus Alexander - Roman Emperor: 222-235 A.D. -
Bronze 20mm (4.1 grams) from the Roman provincial city of Nicaea in Bithynia
222-235 A.D.
Reference: RecGen 617 -
M AVP CEV AΛEΞANΔPOC AVΓ, laureate, draped & cuirassed bust right.
NIKAIE-ΩN between 3 standards.
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Early history, Roman and Byzantine Empires
The place is said to have been colonized by
Bottiaeans,
and to have originally borne the name of Ancore (Steph.
B. s. v.) or Helicore (Geogr. Min. p. 40, ed. Hudson); but it was
subsequently destroyed by the
Mysians. A
few years after the death of
Alexander the Great,
Macedonian king
Antigonus — who had taken control of much of
Asia Minor upon the death of Alexander (under whom Antigonus had served as a
general) — probably after his victory over
Eumenes, in
316 BC, rebuilt the town, and called it, after himself, Antigoneia (Greek:
Αντιγόνεια). (Steph. B. l. c.; Eustath. ad
Horn. II. ii. 863) Several other of Alexander's generals (known together as the
Diadochi
(Latin; original Greek
Διάδοχοι/Diadokhoi
"successors")) later conspired to remove Antigonus, and after defeating him the
area was given to
Thessalian
general
Lysimachus (Lysimakhos) (circa 355 BC-281 BC) in 301 BC as his share
of the lands. He renamed it Nicaea (Greek:
Νίκαια, also
transliterated as Nikaia or Nicća; see also
List of traditional Greek place names), in tribute to his wife Nicaea, a
daughter of
Antipater. (Steph. B., Eustath., Strab., ll. cc.) According to another
account (Memnon, ap. Phot. Cod. 224. p. 233, ed. Bekker), Nicaea was founded by
men from
Nicaea near
Thermopylae, who had served in the army of Alexander the Great. The town was
built with great regularity, in the form of a square, measuring 16 stadia in
circumference; it had four gates, and all its streets intersected one another at
right angles, so that from a monument in the centre all the four gates could be
seen. (Strabo
xii. pp. 565 et seq.) This monument stood in the gymnasium, which was
destroyed by fire, but was restored with increased magnificence by the
younger Pliny (Epist. x. 48), when he was governor of
Bithynia.
The city was built on an important crossroads between
Galatia and
Phrygia, and
thus saw steady trade. Soon after the time of Lysimachus, Nicaea became a city
of great importance, and the kings of Bithynia, whose era begins in 288 BC with
Zipoetes, often resided at Nicaea. It has already been mentioned that in the
time of Strabo it is called the metropolis of Bithynia, an honour which is also
assigned to it on some coins, though in later times it was enjoyed by
Nicomedia.
The two cities, in fact, kept up a long and vehement dispute about the
precedence, and the 38th oration of
Dio
Chrysostomus was expressly composed to settle the dispute. From this
oration, it appears that Nicomedia alone had a right to the title of metropolis,
but both were the first cities of the country.
The younger Pliny makes frequent mention of Nicaea and its public buildings,
which he undertook to restore when governor of Bithynia. (Epist. x. 40, 48,
etc.) It was the birthplace of the astronomer
Hipparchus
(ca. 194 BC), the mathematician and astronomer
Sporus (ca. 240) and the historian
Dio Cassius (ca. 165).[1]
It was the death-place of the comedian
Philistion. The numerous coins of Nicaea which still exist attest the
interest taken in the city by the emperors, as well as its attachment to the
rulers; many of them commemorate great festivals celebrated there in honour of
gods and emperors, as Olympia, Isthmia, Dionysia, Pythia, Commodia, Severia,
Philadelphia, etc. Throughout the imperial period, Nicaea remained an important
town; for its situation was particularly favourable, being only 40 km (25 mi)
distant from Prusa
(Pliny
v. 32), and 70 km (43 mi) from
Constantinople. (It.
Ant. p. 141.) When Constantinople became the capital of the
Eastern Empire, Nicaea did not lose in importance; for its present walls,
which were erected during the last period of the Empire, enclose a much greater
space than that ascribed to the place in the time of Strabo. Much of the
existing architecture and defensive works date to this time, early 300s.
Nicaea suffered much from earthquakes in 358, 362 and 368; after the last of
which, it was restored by the emperor
Valens. During
the Middle Ages it was for a long time a strong bulwark of the
Byzantine emperors against the
Turks.
Nicaea
in early Christianity
In the reign of
Constantine, 325, the celebrated
First Council of Nicaea was held there against the
Arian
heresy, and the
prelates there defined more clearly the concept of the
Trinity and
drew up the
Nicene
Creed. The
doctrine of the Trinity was finalized at the Council of Constantinople in
381 AD which expressly included the Holy Ghost as equal to the Father and the
Son. The first Nicene Council was probably held in what would become the now
ruined mosque of Orchan. The church of Hagia Sophia was built by
Justinian
I in the middle of the city in the 6th century (modelled after the larger
Hagia
Sophia in Constantinople), and it was there that the
Second Council of Nicaea met in 787 to discuss the issues of
iconography.
Marcus
Aurelius Severus Alexander (October 1, 208–March 18, 235 AD), commonly
called Alexander Severus, was the last
Roman emperor (11 March 222–235) of the
Severan dynasty. Alexander Severus succeeded his cousin,
Elagabalus
upon the latter's assassination in 222 AD, and was ultimately assassinated
himself, marking the
epoch event for the
Crisis of the Third Century—nearly fifty years of disorder, Roman civil
wars, economic chaos, regional rebellions, and external threats that brought the
Empire to near-collapse.
Alexander Severus was the
heir
apparent to his cousin, the eighteen-year-old Emperor who had been murdered
along with his mother by his own guards—and as a mark of contempt, had their
remains cast into the
Tiber river. He and his cousin were both grandsons of the influential and
powerful
Julia Maesa, who had arranged for Elagabalus' acclamation as Emperor by the
famed
Third Gallic Legion.
A rumor of Alexander's death circulated, triggering the assassination of
Elagabalus.
Alexander's reign was marked by troubles. In military conflict against the
rising
Sassanid Empire, there are mixed accounts, though the Sassanid threat was
checked. However, when campaigning against
Germanic tribes of
Germania,
Alexander Severus apparently alienated his legions by trying diplomacy and
bribery, and they assassinated him.
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