Septimius Severus

Septimius Severus
Roman alabaster and marble bust of Septimius Severus, Musei Capitolini, Rome
Roman emperor
Reign	9 April 193 – 4 February 211[1]
Predecessor	Didius Julianus
Successors	Caracalla and Geta
Co-emperors	Caracalla (198–211) Geta (209–211)
Born	Lucius Septimius Severus[2] 11 April 145[3] Leptis Magna, Libya
Died	4 February 211 (aged 65)[4] Eboracum, Britain
Spouses	Paccia Marciana (m. c. 175; died c. 186) Julia Domna (m. 187)
Issue	Caracalla Geta
Regnal name Imperator Caesar Lucius Septimius Severus Pertinax Augustus[2]
Dynasty	Severan
Father	Publius Septimius Geta
Mother	Fulvia Pia

Roman imperial dynasties
Aureus of Septimius Severus
Severan dynasty
Chronology
Septimius Severus 193–211
with Caracalla 198–211
with Geta 209–211
Caracalla 211–217
Geta 211
Macrinus' usurpation 217–218
with Diadumenian 218
Elagabalus 218–222
Severus Alexander 222–235
Dynasty
Severan dynasty family tree
All biographies
Succession
Preceded by Year of the Five Emperors Followed by Crisis of the Third Century
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Lucius Septimius Severus (Latin pronunciation: [ˈluːkiʊs ˈsɛptɪmʊs sɛˈweːrʊs]; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was a Roman politician who served as emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa.^[5][6] As a young man he advanced through the customary succession of offices under the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Severus was the final contender to seize power after the death of the emperor Pertinax in 193 during the Year of the Five Emperors.

After deposing and killing the incumbent emperor Didius Julianus, Severus fought his rival claimants, the Roman generals Pescennius Niger and Clodius Albinus. Niger was defeated in 194 at the Battle of Issus in Cilicia. Later that year Severus waged a short punitive campaign beyond the eastern frontier, annexing the Kingdom of Osroene as a new province. Severus defeated Albinus three years later at the Battle of Lugdunum in Gaul. Following the consolidation of his rule over the western provinces, Severus waged another brief, more successful war in the east against the Parthian Empire, sacking their capital Ctesiphon in 197 and expanding the eastern frontier to the Tigris. He then enlarged and fortified the Limes Arabicus in Arabia Petraea. In 202, he campaigned in Africa and Mauretania against the Garamantes, capturing their capital Garama and expanding the Limes Tripolitanus along the southern desert frontier of the empire.

With his second wife Julia Domna Severus had two sons; the elder, Caracalla, was proclaimed Augustus, or co-emperor, in 198, and the younger, Geta, in 209. Severus travelled to Britain in 208, strengthening Hadrian's Wall and reoccupying the Antonine Wall. In 209 he invaded Caledonia (modern Scotland) with an army of 50,000 men^[7] but his ambitions were cut short when he died of an infectious disease in early 211 at Eboracum (modern York). His sons, advised by Julia Domna, succeeded him, thus founding the Severan dynasty. It was the last dynasty of the Roman Empire before the Crisis of the Third Century.