One original ancient Roman coin of:
Septimius Severus Denarius.193-211AD.
Struck 200-201AD
BILLON
denarius 18mm. 2.69gm. Rome mint. (Good VF) Well centered nice
specimen. Original patina tone and earthen encrustation. Professionally
cleaned.
Obv./ SEVERVS AVG PART MAX,
laureate head right .
Rev./ PROVID AVGG, Providentia standing half-left,
holding wand over globe to left & scepter.
RSC 586.
Coin is in good condition and very rare and nice inclusion to the finest collection.
Authenticity guaranteed.
Septimius
Severus (/səˈvɪərəs/; Latin: Lucius Septimius Severus Augustus; 11 April
145 – 4 February 211), also known as Severus, was Roman emperor from
193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna in the Roman province of Africa.
As a young man he advanced through the cursus honorum—the customary
succession of offices—under the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus.
Severus seized power after the death of 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.
After
consolidating 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. He proclaimed as Augusti (co-emperors) his elder son
Caracalla in 198 and his younger son Geta in 209.
In 208 he
travelled to Britain, strengthening Hadrian's Wall and reoccupying the
Antonine Wall. In the same year he invaded Caledonia (modern Scotland),
but his ambitions were cut short when he fell fatally ill of an
infectious disease, in late 210. Severus died in early 211 at Eboracum
(today York, England), and was succeeded by his sons, thus founding the
Severan dynasty. It was the last dynasty of the Roman Empire before the
Crisis of the Third Century.
In 191 Severus was appointed governor
of Pannonia Superior by Commodus on the advice of Quintus Aemilius
Laetus, prefect of the Praetorian Guard. Commodus was assassinated the
following year. Pertinax was acclaimed emperor, but he was then killed
by the Praetorian Guard in early 193. In response to the murder of
Pertinax, Severus's legion XIV Gemina proclaimed him Emperor at
Carnuntum. Nearby legions, such as X Gemina at Vindobona, soon followed.
Having assembled an army, Severus hurried to Italy.
Pertinax's
successor in Rome, Didius Julianus, had bought the emperorship in an
auction. Julianus was condemned to death by the Senate and killed.[26]
Severus took possession of Rome without opposition. He executed
Pertinax's murderers and dismissed the rest of the Praetorian Guard,
filling its ranks with loyal troops from his own legions.
The
legions of Syria had proclaimed Pescennius Niger emperor. At the same
time Severus felt it was reasonable to offer Clodius Albinus, the
powerful governor of Britannia, who had probably supported Didius
against him, the rank of Caesar, which implied some claim to succession.
With his rear safe, he moved to the East and crushed Niger's forces at
the Battle of Issus. While campaigning against Byzantium, he ordered
that the tomb of his fellow Carthaginian Hannibal be covered with fine
marble.
He devoted the following year to suppressing Mesopotamia
and other Parthian vassals who had backed Niger. Afterwards Severus
declared his son Caracalla to be successor, which caused Albinus to be
hailed emperor by his troops and to invade Gallia. After a short stay in
Rome, Severus moved north to meet him. On 19 February 197 at the Battle
of Lugdunum, with an army of about 75,000 men, mostly composed of
Pannonian, Moesian and Dacian legions and a large number of auxiliaries,
Severus defeated and killed Clodius Albinus, securing his full control
over the empire.
Emperor
War against Parthia
The Roman Empire
in 210 after the conquests of Severus. Depicted is Roman territory
(purple) and Roman dependencies (light purple).
Aureus minted in 193 by Septimius Severus, to celebrate XIIII Gemina Martia Victrix, the legion that proclaimed him emperor.
In
early 197 Severus departed Rome and travelled to the east by sea. He
embarked at Brundisium and probably landed at the port of Aegeae in
Cilicia, travelling to Syria by land. He immediately gathered his army
and crossed the Euphrates. Abgar IX, titular King of Osroene but
essentially only the ruler of Edessa since the annexation of his kingdom
as a Roman province, handed over his children as hostages and assisted
Severus' expedition by providing archers. King Khosrov I of Armenia also
sent hostages, money and gifts.
Severus travelled on to Nisibis,
which his general Julius Laetus had prevented from falling into enemy
hands. Afterwards Severus returned to Syria to plan a more ambitious
campaign. The following year he led another, more successful, campaign
against the Parthian Empire, reportedly in retaliation for the support
it had given to Pescennius Niger. His legions sacked the Parthian royal
city of Ctesiphon and he annexed the northern half of Mesopotamia to the
empire. However, like Trajan nearly a century before, he was unable to
capture the fortress of Hatra even after two lengthy sieges. During his
time in the east, though, he also expanded the Limes Arabicus, building
new fortifications in the Arabian Desert from Basie to Dumatha.
Relations with the Senate and People
Severus'
relations with the Senate were never good. He was unpopular with them
from the outset, having seized power with the help of the military, and
he returned the sentiment. Severus ordered the execution of a large
number of Senators on charges of corruption or conspiracy against him
and replaced them with his favourites. Although his actions turned Rome
more into a military dictatorship, he was popular with the citizens of
Rome, having stamped out the rampant corruption of Commodus's reign.
When he returned from his victory over the Parthians, he erected the
Arch of Septimius Severus in Rome.
According to Cassius Dio,
however, after 197 Severus fell heavily under the influence of his
Praetorian Prefect, Gaius Fulvius Plautianus, who came to have almost
total control of the imperial administration. Plautianus's daughter,
Fulvia Plautilla, was married to Severus's son, Caracalla. Plautianus's
excessive power came to an end in 204, when he was denounced by the
Emperor's dying brother. In January 205 Caracalla accused Plautianus of
plotting to kill him and Severus. The powerful prefect was executed
while he was trying to defend his case in front of the two emperors. One
of the two following praefecti was the famous jurist Aemilius
Papinianus. Executions of senators did not stop: Cassius Dio records
that many of them were put to death, some after being formally tried.
Upon
his arrival at Rome in 193, Severus discharged the Praetorian Guard,
which had murdered Pertinax and had then auctioned the Roman Empire to
Didius Julianus. Its members were stripped of their ceremonial armour
and forbidden to come within 160 kilometres (99 mi) miles of the city on
pain of death. Severus replaced the old guard with 10 new cohorts
recruited from veterans of his Danubian legions.
Around 197[49]
he increased the number of legions from 30 to 33, with the introduction
of the three new legions: I, II, and III Parthica. He garrisoned Legio
II Parthica at Albanum, only 20 kilometres (12 mi) from Rome. He gave
his soldiers a donative of a thousand sesterces (250 denarii) each, and
raised the annual wage for a soldier in the legions from 300 to 400
denarii.
Severus was the first Roman emperor to station some of
the imperial army in Italy. He realized that Rome needed a military
central reserve with the capability to be sent anywhere.
Reputed persecution of Christians
At
the beginning of Severus' reign, Trajan's policy toward the Christians
was still in force. That is, Christians were only to be punished if they
refused to worship the emperor and the gods, but they were not to be
sought out. Therefore, persecution was inconsistent, local, and
sporadic. Faced with internal dissidence and external threats, Severus
felt the need to promote religious harmony by promoting syncretism. He,
possibly, issued an edict that punished conversion to Judaism and
Christianity.
A number of persecutions of Christians occurred in
the Roman Empire during his reign and are traditionally attributed to
Severus by the early Christian community. This is based on the decree
mentioned in the Augustan History, an unreliable mix of fact and
fiction. Early church historian Eusebius described Severus as a
persecutor. The Christian apologist Tertullian stated that Severus was
well disposed towards Christians,[60] employed a Christian as his
personal physician and had personally intervened to save several
high-born Christians known to him from the mob. Eusebius' description of
Severus as a persecutor likely derives merely from the fact that
numerous persecutions occurred during his reign, including those known
in the Roman martyrology as the martyrs of Madaura, Charalambos and
Perpetua and Felicity in the Roman province of Africa. These were
probably the result of local persecutions rather than empire-wide
actions or decrees by Severus.
Military activity
Africa (202)
The
expansion of the African frontier during the reign of Severus (medium
tan). Severus even briefly held a military presence in Garama in 203
(light tan).
In late 202 Severus launched a campaign in the
province of Africa. The legate of Legio III Augusta, Quintus Anicius
Faustus, had been fighting against the Garamantes along the Limes
Tripolitanus for five years. He captured several settlements such as
Cydamus, Gholaia, Garbia, and their capital Garama – over 600 kilometres
(370 mi) south of Leptis Magna.[62] The province of Numidia was also
enlarged: the empire annexed the settlements of Vescera, Castellum
Dimmidi, Gemellae, Thabudeos and Thubunae.[63] By 203 the entire
southern frontier of Roman Africa had been dramatically expanded and
re-fortified. Desert nomads could no longer safely raid the region's
interior and escape back into the Sahara.
Britain (208)
In 208
Severus travelled to Britain with the intention of conquering
Caledonia. Modern archaeological discoveries illuminate the scope and
direction of his northern campaign.[64] Severus probably arrived in
Britain with an army over 40,000, considering some of the camps
constructed during his campaign could house this number.
He
strengthened Hadrian's Wall and reconquered the Southern Uplands up to
the Antonine Wall, which was also enhanced. Severus built a 165-acre (67
ha) camp south of the Antonine Wall at Trimontium, probably assembling
his forces there. Severus then thrust north with his army across the
wall into Caledonian territory. Retracing the steps of Agricola of over a
century before, Severus rebuilt and garrisoned many abandoned Roman
forts along the east coast, such as Carpow. He was supported and
supplied by a strong naval force.
Kushan ring with portraits of Septimus Severus and Julia Domna, a testimony to Indo-Roman relations of the period.
Around
this time Severus' wife, Julia Domna, reportedly criticised the sexual
morals of the Caledonian women. The wife of Caledonian chief
Argentocoxos replied: "We fulfill the demands of nature in a much better
way than do you Roman women; for we consort openly with the best men,
whereas you let yourselves be debauched in secret by the vilest".
Cassius Dio's account of the invasion reads:
Severus, accordingly, desiring to subjugate the whole of it, invaded
Caledonia. But as he advanced through the country he experienced
countless hardships in cutting down the forests, levelling the heights,
filling up the swamps, and bridging the rivers; but he fought no battle
and beheld no enemy in battle array. The enemy purposely put sheep and
cattle in front of the soldiers for them to seize, in order that they
might be lured on still further until they were worn out; for in fact
the water caused great suffering to the Romans, and when they became
scattered, they would be attacked. Then, unable to walk, they would be
slain by their own men, in order to avoid capture, so that a full fifty
thousand died. But Severus did not desist until he approached the
extremity of the island. Here he observed most accurately the variation
of the sun's motion and the length of the days and the nights in summer
and winter respectively. Having thus been conveyed through practically
the whole of the hostile country (for he actually was conveyed in a
covered litter most of the way, on account of his infirmity), he
returned to the friendly portion, after he had forced the Britons to
come to terms, on the condition that they should abandon a large part of
their territory.
By 210 Severus' campaigning had made
significant gains, despite Caledonian guerrilla tactics and purportedly
heavy Roman casualties. The Caledonians sued for peace, which Severus
granted on condition they relinquish control of the Central Lowlands.
This is evidenced by extensive Severan-era fortifications in the Central
Lowlands. The Caledonians, short on supplies and feeling that their
position was desperate, revolted later that year with the Maeatae.
Severus prepared for another protracted campaign within Caledonia. He
was now intent on exterminating the Caledonians, telling his soldiers:
"Let no-one escape sheer destruction, no-one our hands, not even the
babe in the womb of the mother, if it be male; let it nevertheless not
escape sheer destruction."
Death (211)
Severus' campaign was
cut short when he fell ill. He withdrew to Eboracum (York) and died
there in 211. Although his son Caracalla continued campaigning the
following year, he soon settled for peace. The Romans never campaigned
deep into Caledonia again. Shortly after this the frontier was
permanently withdrawn south to Hadrian's Wall.
Severus is
famously said to have given the advice to his sons: "Be harmonious,
enrich the soldiers, scorn all others" before he died on 4 February 211.
On his death, Severus was deified by the Senate and succeeded by his
sons, Caracalla and Geta, who were advised by his wife Julia Domna.
Severus was buried in the Mausoleum of Hadrian in Rome. His remains are
now lost.
Assessment and legacy
The Arch of Septimius Severus at Leptis Magna
Though
his military expenditure was costly to the empire, Severus was a strong
and able ruler. The Roman Empire reached its greatest extent under his
reign – over 5 million square kilometres.
According to Gibbon,
"his daring ambition was never diverted from its steady course by the
allurements of pleasure, the apprehension of danger, or the feelings of
humanity." His enlargement of the Limes Tripolitanus secured Africa, the
agricultural base of the empire where he was born. His victory over the
Parthian Empire was for a time decisive, securing Nisibis and Singara
for the empire and establishing a status quo of Roman dominance in the
region until 251. His policy of an expanded and better-rewarded army was
criticised by his contemporaries Cassius Dio and Herodianus: in
particular, they pointed out the increasing burden, in the form of taxes
and services, the civilian population had to bear to maintain the new
and better paid army. The large and ongoing increase in military
expenditure caused problems for all of his successors.
To
maintain his enlarged military, he debased the Roman currency. Upon his
accession he decreased the silver purity of the denarius from 81.5% to
78.5%, although the silver weight actually increased, rising from 2.40
grams to 2.46 grams. Nevertheless, the following year he debased the
denarius again because of rising military expenditures. The silver
purity decreased from 78.5% to 64.5% – the silver weight dropping from
2.46 grams to 1.98 grams. In 196 he reduced the purity and silver weight
of the denarius again, to 54% and 1.82 grams respectively.[88] Severus'
currency debasement was the largest since the reign of Nero,
compromising the long-term strength of the economy.
Severus was
also distinguished for his buildings. Apart from the triumphal arch in
the Roman Forum carrying his full name, he also built the Septizodium in
Rome. He enriched his native city of Leptis Magna, including
commissioning a triumphal arch on the occasion of his visit of 203. The
greater part of the Flavian Palace overlooking the Circus Maximus was
undertaken in his reign.
Original ancient Roman coin as pictured and described above. Authenticity guaranteed.
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