Severus Alexander - Roman Emperor : 222-235 A.D.
Silver Denarius 18mm (3.27 grams) Rome mint: 230 A.D.
Reference: RIC 102b, 391
IMPSEVALEXANDAVG - Laureate head right.
 PMTRPVIIIICOSIIIPP - Sol standing right, raising hand and holding globe.

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Sol Invictus ("Unconquered Sun") was the official sun god of the later Roman Empire and a patron of soldiers. In 274 the Roman emperor Aurelian made it an official cult alongside the traditional Roman cults. Scholars disagree whether the new deity was a refoundation of the ancient Latin cult of Sol , a revival of the cult of Elagabalus or completely new.The god was favored by emperors after Aurelian and appeared on their coins until Constantine .The last inscription referring to Sol Invictus dates to 387 AD and there were enough devotees in the 5th century that Augustine found it necessary to preach against them. It is commonly claimed that the date of 25 December for Christmas was selected in order to correspond with the Roman festival of Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, or "Birthday of the Unconquered Sun", but this view is challenged

Invictus as epithet

Invictus ("Unconquered, Invincible") was an epithet for several deities of classical Roman religion , including the supreme deity Jupiter , the war god Mars , Hercules , Apollo and Silvanus .^[8] Invictus was in use from the 3rd century BC, and was well-established as a cult title when applied to Mithras from the 2nd century onwards. It has a clear association^[vague] with solar deities and solar monism; as such, it became the preferred epithet of Rome's traditional Sol and the novel, short-lived Roman state cult to Elagabalus , an Emesan solar deity who headed Rome's official pantheon under his namesake emperor .

The earliest dated use of Sol invictus is in a dedication from Rome, AD 158. Another, stylistically dated to the 2nd century AD, is inscribed on a Roman phalera : "inventori lucis soli invicto augusto" (to the contriver of light, sol invictus augustus ). Here "augustus" is most likely a further epithet of Sol as "august" (an elevated being, divine or close to divinity), though the association of Sol with the Imperial house would have been unmistakable and was already established in iconography and stoic monism. These are the earliest attested examples of Sol as invictus, but in AD 102 a certain Anicetus restored a shrine of Sol; Hijmans (2009, 486, n. 22) is tempted "to link Anicetus' predilection for Sol with his name, the Latinized form of the Greek word ἀνίκητος, which means invictus".

Aurelian

The Roman gens Aurelian was associated with the cult of Sol. After his victories in the East, the Emperor Aurelian thoroughly reformed the Roman cult of Sol, elevating the sun-god to one of the premier divinities of the Empire. Where previously priests of Sol had been simply sacerdotes and tended to belong to lower ranks of Roman society, they were now pontifices and members of the new college of pontifices instituted by Aurelian. Every pontifex of Sol was a member of the senatorial elite, indicating that the priesthood of Sol was now highly prestigious. Almost all these senators held other priesthoods as well, however, and some of these other priesthoods take precedence in the inscriptions in which they are listed, suggesting that they were considered more prestigious than the priesthood of Sol.Aurelian also built a new temple for Sol, bringing the total number of temples for the god in Rome to (at least) four^[21] He also instituted games in honor of the sun god, held every four years from AD 274 onwards.

The identity of Aurelian's Sol Invictus has long been a subject of scholarly debate. Based on the Historia Augusta , some scholars have argued that it was based on Sol Elagablus (or Elagabla) of Emesa . Others, basing their argument on Zosimus , suggest that it was based on the Helios , the solar god of Palmyra on the grounds that Aurelian placed and consecrated a cult statue of Helios looted from Palmyra in the temple of Sol Invictus. Professor Gary Forsythe discusses these arguments and add a third more recent one based on the work of Steven Hijmans. Hijmans argues that Aurelian's solar deity was simply the traditional Greco-Roman Sol Invictus.

Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander (October 1, 208–March 18, 235 AD), commonly called Alexander Severus, was the last Roman emperor (11 March 222–235) of the Severan dynasty . Alexander Severus succeeded his cousin, Elagabalus upon the latter's assassination in 222 AD, and was ultimately assassinated himself, marking the epoch event for the Crisis of the Third Century —nearly fifty years of disorder, Roman civil wars, economic chaos, regional rebellions, and external threats that brought the Empire to near-collapse.

Alexander Severus was the heir apparent to his cousin, the eighteen-year-old Emperor who had been murdered along with his mother by his own guards—and as a mark of contempt, had their remains cast into the Tiber river . He and his cousin were both grandsons of the influential and powerful Julia Maesa , who had arranged for Elagabalus' acclamation as Emperor by the famed Third Gallic Legion .

A rumor of Alexander's death circulated, triggering the assassination of Elagabalus.

Alexander's reign was marked by troubles. In military conflict against the rising Sassanid Empire , there are mixed accounts, though the Sassanid threat was checked. However, when campaigning against Germanic tribes of Germania , Alexander Severus apparently alienated his legions by trying diplomacy and bribery, and they assassinated him.

 Life

Alexander was born with the name Marcus Julius Gessius Bassianus Alexianus. Alexander's father, Marcus Julius Gessius Marcianus was a Syrian Promagistrate . His mother Julia Avita Mamaea was the second daughter of Julia Maesa and Syrian noble Julius Avitus and maternal aunt of Emperor Elagabalus . He had an elder sister called Theoclia and little is known about her. Alexander's maternal great-aunt was empress Julia Domna (also Maesa's younger sister) and his great-uncle in marriage was emperor Lucius Septimius Severus . Emperors Caracalla and Publius Septimius Geta , were his mother's maternal cousins. In 221, Alexander's grandmother, Maesa, persuaded the emperor to adopt his cousin as successor and make him Caesar and Bassianus changed his name to Alexander. In the following year, on March 11, Elagabalus was murdered, and Alexander was proclaimed emperor by the Praetorians and accepted by the Senate.

When Alexander became emperor, he was young, amiable, well-meaning, and entirely under the dominion of his mother. Julia Mamaea was a woman of many virtues, and she surrounded the young emperor with wise counsellors. She watched over the development of her son's character and improved the tone of the administration. On the other hand, she was inordinately jealous. She also alienated the army by extreme parsimony, and neither she nor her son were strong enough to impose 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 Cassius Dio from his command.

On the whole, however, the reign of Alexander was prosperous until the rise, in the east, of the Sassanids . Of the war that followed there are 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 in 233.

The following 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. They chose Gaius Iulius Verus Maximinus , a Thracian soldier who had worked his way up through the ranks.

Following the nomination of Maximinus as emperor, Alexander was slain (on either March 18 or March 19, 235), together with his mother, in a mutiny of the Primigenia Legio XXII . These assassinations secured the throne for Maximinus.

The death of Alexander is considered as the end of the Principate system established by Augustus . Although the Principate continued in theory until the reign of Diocletian , Alexander Severus' death signalled the beginning of the chaotic period known as the Crisis of the Third Century which weakened the empire considerably.

 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 Cassius Dio 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. It is said that he was desirous of erecting a temple to the founder of Christianity , but was dissuaded by the pagan priests.

 Marriage

Alexander was married three times. His most famous wife was Sallustia Orbiana , Augusta , whom he married in 225. He divorced and exiled her in 227, after her father, Seius Sallustius , was executed for attempting to assassinate the emperor. Another wife was Sulpicia Memmia. Her father was a man of consular rank; her grandfather's name was Catulus.