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See also:ALEXANDER See also:SEVERUS (See also:MARcus AURELIUS SEVERUS ALEXANDER) (208-235) , See also:Roman See also:emperor from A.D. 222 to 235, was See also:born at Arca Caesarea in See also:Palestine on the 1st of See also:October 208. His See also:father, Gessius See also:Marcianus, held See also:- OFFICE (from Lat. officium, " duty," " service," a shortened form of opifacium, from facere, " to do," and either the stem of opes, " wealth," " aid," or opus, " work ")
office more than once as an imperial See also:procurator; his See also:mother, Julia Mamaea, was the daughter of Julia Maesa and the aunt of See also:Heliogabalus. His See also:original name was See also:Bassianus, but he changed it in 221 when his grandmother, Maesa, persuaded the emperor Heliogabalus to adopt his See also:cousin as successor and create him See also:Caesar. In the next See also:year, on the 11th of See also:March, Heliogabalus was murdered, and Alexander was proclaimed emperor by the See also:Praetorians and accepted by the See also:senate. He was then a See also:mere lad, amiable, well-meaning, but entirely under the dominion of his mother, a woman of many virtues, who surrounded him with See also:wise counsellors, watched over the development of his See also:character and improved the See also:tone of the See also:administration, but on the other See also:hand was inordinately jealous, and alienated the See also:army by extreme See also:parsimony, while neither she nor her son had a strong enough hand to keep tight the reins of military discipline. Mutinies became frequent in all parts of the See also:empire; to ore of them the See also:life of the jurist and praetorian See also:praefect See also:Ulpian was sacrificed; another compelled the retirement of Dio See also:Cassius from his command. On the whole, however, the reign of Alexander was prosperous till he was summoned to the See also:East to See also:face the new See also:power of the Sassanians (see See also:PERSIA: See also:History). Of the See also:war that followed we have very various accounts; See also:Mommsen leans to that which is least favourable to the See also:Romans. According to Alexander's own despatch to the senate he gained See also:great victories. At all events, though the Persians were checked for the See also:- TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
- TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
- TIME, STANDARD
time, the conduct of the Roman army showed an extraordinary lack of discipline. The emperor returned to See also:Rome and celebrated a See also:triumph (233), but next year he was called to face See also:German invaders in See also:Gaul, where he was slain (on the 18th or 19th of March 235), together with his mother, in a See also:mutiny which was probably led by Maxi-minus, a Thracian legionary, and at any See also:rate secured him the See also:throne. Alexander was the last of the Syrian princes. During his reign, acting, as he did in most things, under the See also:influence of his mother, he did much to improve the morals and See also:condition of the See also:people. His advisers were men like the famous jurist Ulpian, the historian Dio Cassius and a select See also:board of sixteen senators; a municipal See also:council of fourteen assisted the See also:city praefect in administering the affairs of the fourteen districts of Rome. The luxury and extravagance that had formerly been so prevalent at the See also:court were put down; the See also:standard of the coinage was raised; taxes were lightened; literature, See also:art and See also:science were encouraged; the See also:lot of tbi soldiers was improved; and, for the convenience of the people, See also:loan offices were instituted for lending See also:money at a moderate rate of See also:interest. In religious matters Alexander preserved an open mind. In his private See also:chapel he had busts of See also:Orpheus, See also:Abraham, See also:Apollonius of Tyana. and Jesus See also:Christ. It is said that he was desirous of erecting a See also:temple to the founder of See also:Christianity, but was dissuaded by the See also:pagan priests. There is no doubt that, had Alexander's many excellent qualities been supported by the See also:energy and strength of will necessary for the See also:government of a military empire, he would have been one of the greatest of the Roman emperors.
See Lampridius, Alexander Severus; Dio Cassius lxxviii. 3o, Ixxix. 17, Ixxx. 1; Herodian vi. 1-18; Porrath, Der Kaiser Alex. Sen. (1876) ; Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopddie, ii. 2526 See also:foil. (Grbebe) ; monograph by R. V. Nind See also:Hopkins, See also:Cambridge See also:Historical Essays, Nn. xiv. (1907).
End of Article: ALEXANDER SEVERUS (MARcus AURELIUS SEVERUS ALEXANDER) (208-235)
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