Category:Alexander Severus (subject)
Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander (208 – 235 CE) reigned from 222 till 235. He was the last ruler of the Severan dynasty. His murder marked the beginning of the third century crisis.
- This page is edited by Samuele Rocca, Israel
Overview
Alexander Severus, the son of Iulia Mammaea, succeeded to his cousin Elagabalus in 222 CE. His reign was characterized by the demise of the Parthians, and the rise of the Sassanians. The war waged by Alexander Severu against the Sassanians in 231 C.E, ended successfully. Although he checked a Germanic invasion of Gaul, Alexander Severus was murdered in 235 C.E.
Early Career
Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander was born in 208 CE at Arca Caesarea. His father, Marcus Julius Gessius Marcianus, an equestrian, hold the appointment of promagistrate. His mother Julia Avita Mamaea was the daughter of Julia Maesa, the sister of Julia Domna, the wife of Septimius Severus and the mother of Caracalla. The sister of Julia Mamaea was Julia Soemias, the mother of the future emperor Elagabalus. Alexander Severus had an elder daughter Theoclia. Alexander Severus and his mother followed Elagabalus to Rome after his proclamation. In 221 CE, Julia Maesa convinced Elagabalus to appoint the young Alexander Severus, his cousin, as his heir with the title of Caesar.
Imperial Succession
Elagabalus became soon suspicious of his young cousin and decided to have him and his mother executed. However Julia Maesa was successful in persuading the Praetorian Guard to murder the emperor instead. In 222 CE, after the murder of Elagabalus, Alexander Severus was acclaimed Emperor by the Praetorian Guard and accepted by the Senate. The reign of Alexander Severus began well. Julia Mamaea, his mother, took in fact the government of the empire in her hands. She was assisted by a select board of sixteen senators. Moreover, a municipal council of fourteen assisted the urban praefect in administering the fourteen districts of Rome. Although she was quite capable, various mutinies spread all over the empire, in Illyricum, in Mauritania, in Armenia, in Mesopotamia and in Germania. In 228 CE, Ulpian, the praetorian prefect, and an important jurist, was murdered during a mutiny of the Praetorian Guard. In another mutiny, Cassius Dio was ousted from his command. Alexander Severus was wed to Sallustia Orbiana in 225 CE, but he divorced and exiled her two years later, in 227 CE, after her father Seius Sallustius was executed for plotting against him. Afterwards he married Sulpicia Memmia, the daughter of a consular. At Rome, Alexander Severus erected the last aqueduct, the Aqua Alexandrina, which supplied the Thermae of Nero. The reign of Alexander Severus was dominated in the East by the demise of the Parthian ruling dynasty and the rise of the Sassanians. In 231 CE, Alexander Severus moved against the Sassanian ruler Ardashir I, from his base in Antioch towards Ctesiphon. Although the army under the leadership of Alexander Severus was victorious, a second army was defeated by the Persians, and the Roman army incurred further losses retreating to Armenia. The Roman army was characterized by a lack of discipline. Moreover in 232 CE, the Syrian legions during a mutiny acclaimed a usurper, Taurinus, as Emperor. The mutiny was soon quelled and Taurinus drowned in the Euphrates while escaping. Alexander Severus, back in Rome, celebrated a triumph in 233 CE. In 234 CE, Alexander Severus marched to Gaul to face the German tribes. Although he was successful in defeating the invasion, and he crossed the Rhine, his next move, to buy off the invaders, was seen in a negative light by the army, as the soldiers judged it as an act of weakness. A plot was formed and Gaius Iulius Verus Maximus, an officer of Thracian origins, was acclaimed emperor by the soldiers. As consequence Alexander Severus was murdered together with his mother by the soldiers of the Legio XXII Primigenia at Mainz, Moguntiacum.
Alexander Severus and the Jews
The Life of Alexander Severus, which depicts Alexander Severus as the paradigm of the good emperor, and stress the positive attitude of this emperor towards Judaism. No matter if some of the anecdotes are spurious; still it reflects the much more favorable ambiance of the Severan period towards the Jews. However Pucci Ben Ze’ev rightly argues that this positive attitude towards Judaism and Jews attributed to Alexander Severus in fact probably mirrors the positive attitude towards Judaism of the fourth century Pagan aristocracy. Thus, according to the Historia Augusta, Alexander Severus “respected the privileges of the Jews”. It seems that this Emperor was so favorably disposed towards the Jews that the mob of Antiochia called him “archisynagogus”. Moreover Alexander Severus kept in his Lararium, not only the portraits of his ancestors, but also the statues of the most positive deified emperors, and the statues of Apollonius of Tyana and those of Jesus, Abraham, and Orpheus. It seems that the young emperor liked to aannounce his future plans publicly, and when he wished to appoint any man governor of a province same, he declared that he was following the Jews and the Christians, who always announced the names of those who they ordained as priests. Furthermore Alexander Severus often said as the sternest rebuke, “Do you desire this to be done to your land which you are doing to another's?” a sentence probably heard by a Jew or a Christian. Moreover he had the well known rule “What you do not wish that a man should do to you, do not do to him” carved on a monumental inscription on the walls of the Imperial Palace and on other public buildings (See SHA, Alexander Severus, 22: 4; 28: 7, 29: 2, 45: 6-7, 51: 6-8.).
Alexander Severus in ancient sources
Alexander Severus in literature & the arts
Alexander Severus in scholarship
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