Alexander Severus
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Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexandrus (Arca Caesarea, Iudaea, October 1, 208 – Moguntiacum, Germania Superior, March 18, 235), commonly called Alexander Severus, was a Roman emperor (222-235) of the Severan dynasty.
Life
Alexander's father, Gessius Marcianus, held office more than once as an imperial procurator; his mother, Julia Mamaea, was the daughter of Julia Maesa and the aunt of Elagabalus (also called "Heliogabalus"). His original name was Bassianus, but he changed it in 221 when his grandmother, Maesa, persuaded the emperor Elagabalus to adopt his cousin as successor and create him Caesar. In the next year, on March 11, Elagabalus was murdered, and Alexander was proclaimed emperor by the Praetorians and accepted by the Senate.
He was then a mere lad, amiable, well-meaning, but entirely under the dominion of his mother, a woman of many virtues, who surrounded him with wise counsellors, watched over the development of his character and improved the tone of the administration, but on the other hand was inordinately jealous, and alienated the army by extreme parsimony, while neither she nor her son had a strong enough hand to keep tight the reins of military discipline. Mutinies became frequent in all parts of the empire; to one of them the life of the jurist and praetorian praefect Ulpian was sacrificed; another compelled the retirement of Dio Cassius from his command.
On the whole, however, the reign of Alexander was prosperous till he was summoned to the East to face the new power of the Sassanids. Of the war that followed we have very various accounts; Mommsen leans to that which is least favourable to the Romans. According to Alexander's own dispatch to the senate he gained great victories. At all events, though the Sassanids were checked for the time, the conduct of the Roman army showed an extraordinary lack of discipline. The emperor returned to Rome and celebrated a triumph (233), but next year he was called to face German invaders in Gaul, who had breached the Rhine frontier in several places, destroying forts and over-running the countryside. Alexander mustered his forces, bringing legions from the eastern provinces, and crossed the Rhine into Germany on a pontoon bridge. Initially he attempted to buy the German tribes off, so as to gain time. Whether this was a wise policy or not, it caused the Roman legionaries to look down on their emperor as one who was prepared to commit unsoldierly conduct. Herodian says "in their opinion Alexander showed no honourable intention to pursue the war and preferred a life of ease, when he should have marched out to punish the Germans for their previous insolence". These circumstances drove the army to look for a new leader, whom they found in Gaius Iulius Verus Maximinus, a Thracian soldier who had worked his way up through the ranks. Following the acclamation of Maximinus as emperor, Alexander was slain, (on either 18 or 19 March 235), together with his mother, in a mutiny of the Legio XXII Primigenia which secured the throne for Maximinus.
Legacy
Alexander was the last of the Syrian emperors. Under the influence of his mother, he did much to improve the morals and condition of the people. His advisers were men like the famous jurist Ulpian, the historian Dio Cassius and a select board of sixteen senators; a municipal council of fourteen assisted the urban praefect in administering the affairs of the fourteen districts of Rome. The luxury and extravagance that had formerly been so prevalent at the court were put down; the standard of the coinage was raised; taxes were lightened; literature, art and science were encouraged; the lot of the soldiers was improved; and, for the convenience of the people, loan offices were instituted for lending money at a moderate rate of interest.
In religious matters Alexander preserved an open mind. In his private chapel he had busts of Orpheus, Abraham, Apollonius of Tyana, and Jesus. It is said that he was desirous of erecting a temple to the founder of Christianity, but was dissuaded by the pagan priests.
See also
External links
- [Life of Alexander Severus] (Historia Augusta at LacusCurtius: Latin text and English translation)
- [Severus Alexander] a site devoted to this emperor
References
- Lampridius, Alexander Severus
- Dio Cassius lxxviii. 30, lxxix. 17, lxxx. 1
- Herodian vi. 1-18
- Porrath, Der Kaiser Alex. Sev. (1876)
- Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopadie, ii. 2526 foll. (Groebe)
- RV Nind Hopkins, Cambridge Historical Essays, No. xiv. (1907).
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