Septimius Severus

By Daniel Peters

Septimius Severus

On April 11, 145 A.D., the greatest emperor Rome would ever have was born. This great emperor was me, Septimius Severus. I had a magnificent childhood, having been born and raised in Leptis Magna, but the most significant events in my life happened later. At the young age of 25, I began my journey to becoming a consul through the Cursus Honorem by being made a Quaestor. After a long 20 years of hard work and moving up the ranks, I became Consul. Within 3 years I was made emperor due to untimely deaths of my opponents.

My family was wealthy and educated. Some even say that I was eager for more education than I actually received. I can only thank my parents, Publius Septimius Geta and Fulvia Pia, for giving me such great opportunities. In fact, without my father’s family’s distinguished equestrian rank, I may not have been able to become a Quaestor. At the age of thirty, I married my first wife named Paccia Marciana. She too was from Leptis Magna. She died after 11 years of marriage for some reason still unknown to me. I was eager to remarry and had heard of a woman from Syria who had been foretold to marry a king, so I sought her as my wife. Her name was Julia Domna, and she gave birth to my two most notable children, Caracalla and Geta. I loved them so much that I made them co-emperors with me, and I chose them to succeed me in holding the position as emperor They were very noble me, and they even accompanied me on conquests up to my death.

Some of my greatest accomplishments were my military expansions and buildings. In 197 A.D., I waged war against the Parthian Empire as an act of retaliation. To reward myself for this grand first victory, I created the Arch of Septimius Severus when I returned to Rome. I campaigned in Scotland and reconstructed Hadrian’s Wall for fortification purposes. My conquests were very successful, especially since I replaced the whole Praetorian Guard with thousands of my bravest and strongest men. The new army I created was a great one, and because of their great work, I raised their annual wages from 300 to 500 denarii. Because of all this military expansion, the Roman Senate did not like me. When I became emperor, I had them all executed for conspiring to kill me. I knew Rome would not be peaceful without a senate, so I replaced the old senate with some of my favorite men.

I did not like the Christians, for they had given me many problems. Initially I did not make any new laws about persecuting Christians, and I let the persecutions continue, but too many Romans were converting to Christianity so I proposed and passed a law forbidding anyone in my empire to convert to Christianity. I was less violent about the persecutions than some of my predecessors, so it’s not like I was the first to kill Christians.

I was an avid builder. Sometimes I did not even have a reason to build such magnificent structures like the Septizodium. The Septizodium was a massive fountain located right in the Roman Forum near the Circus Maximus for all to see. It was an enormous and magnificent structure with no real purpose. The citizens of Rome loved me and adored my great buildings. For this reason, I built many things for them. I even built arches and banks for the people of my hometown, Leptis Magna. Although I was the greatest emperor, my reign had to end due to an unforeseen death by disease while on a military conquest in Eboracum in 211 A.D..