Severus Alexander - Roman Emperor: 222-235 A.D. -
Severus Alexander & Julia Maesa -
Bronze 27mm (10.8 grams) City of Markianopolis in Moesia Inferior Under Legate Fib Filopappus -
AVT K M AVP CEVH AΛEΞANΔPOC KAI IOVΛIA MAICA, laureate draped bust of emperor
right on left facing draped bust of Julia Maesa left on right.
YΠ ΦIΠ ΦIΛOΠΠAΠOY MAPKIANOΠOΛITΩΝ, Coiled serpent, head right, E in left field.
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Serpents and snakes play a role in many of the world's myths
and legends. Sometimes these mythic beasts appear as ordinary snakes. At other
times, they take on magical or monstrous forms. Serpents and snakes have long
been associated with good as well as with evil, representing both life and
death, creation and destruction.
Serpents and Snakes as Symbols. In religion,
mythology, and literature, serpents and snakes often stand for fertility or a
creative life force—partly because the creatures can be seen as symbols of the
male sex organ. They have also been associated with water and earth because many
kinds of snakes live in the water or in holes in the ground. The ancient Chinese
connected serpents with life-giving rain. Traditional beliefs in Australia,
India, North America, and Africa have linked snakes with rainbows, which in turn
are often related to rain and fertility.
As snakes grow, many of them shed their skin at various
times, revealing a shiny new skin underneath. For this reason snakes have become
symbols of rebirth, transformation, immortality, and healing. The ancient
Greeks considered snakes sacred to Asclepius, the god of medicine. He carried a
caduceus, a staff with one or two serpents wrapped around it, which has become
the symbol of modern physicians.
For both the Greeks and the Egyptians, the snake represented
eternity. Ouroboros, the Greek symbol of eternity, consisted of a snake curled
into a circle or hoop, biting its own tail. The Ouroboros grew out of the belief
that serpents eat themselves and are reborn from themselves in an endless cycle
of destruction and creation.
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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