Difference between revisions of "Alexander Severus"

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*This page is edited by [[Samuele Rocca]], Israel
*ANCIENT SOURCES: see [[Alexander Severus (sources)]]
*SCHOLARLY AND FICTIONAL WORKS: see [[: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.
====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 Scholarship==
== [[Alexander Severus]] in Fiction==
==Related categories==
*[[Roman Emperors]] / [[Elagabalus]]
==External links==
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/  Alexander Severus Wikipedia]


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Latest revision as of 13:55, 17 July 2012

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