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Q22 to 235, see See also: He secured the aid of the legions in Germany and of those in See also:Illyria. These, with the forces in Pannonia, made a See also:combination sufficiently formidable to overawe Albinus for the moment. He probably deemed that his best See also:chance See also:lay in the exhaustion of his competitors by an internecine struggle. At all events he received with submission an offer made by Severus, who confirmed Albinus in his power and bestowed upon him the title of See also:Caesar, making him the nominal See also:heir-apparent to the throne. Before the See also:action of Severus was known in See also:Rome, the See also:senate and See also:people had shown signs of turning to Pescennius Niger, that he might deliver them from the poor puppet Didius Julianus and avenge on the Praetorians the See also:murder of Pertinax. Having secured the co-operation or See also:neutrality of all the forces in the western See also:part of the empire, Severus hastened to Rome. To win the sympathy of the See also:capital he posed as the avenger and successor of Pertinax, whose name he even added to his own, and used to the end of his reign. The feeble defences of Julianus were broken down and the Praetorians disarmed and disbanded with-out a See also:blow. A new See also:body of See also:household troops was enrolled and organized on different principles from the old. In See also:face of the senate, as Dio tells us, Severus acted for the moment like " one of the good emperors in the olden days." After a magnificent entry into the See also:city he joined the senate in execrating the memory of See also:Commodus, and in punishing the murderers of Pertinax, whom he honoured with splendid funeral See also:rites. He also encouraged the senate to pass a See also:decree directing that any emperor or subordinate of an emperor who should put a senator to See also:death should be treated as a public enemy. But he refrained from asking the senate to See also:sanction his See also:accession. The See also:rest of Severus' reign is in the See also:main occupied with See also:wars. The power wielded by Pescennius Niger, who called himself emperor, and was supposed to See also:control one See also:half of the Roman See also:world, proved to be more imposing than substantial. The magnificent promises of See also:Oriental princes were falsified as usual. Niger himself, as described by Dio, was the very type of mediocrity, conspicuous for no faculties, good or See also:bad. This See also:character had no doubt commended him to Commodus as suited for the important command in Syria, which might have proved a source of danger in abler hands. The contest between Severus and Niger was practically decided after two or three engagements, fought by Severus' See also:officers. The last See also:battle, which took See also:place at Issus, ended in the defeat and death of Niger (194). After this the emperor spent two years in successful attacks upon the peoples bordering on Syria, particularly in Adiabe,Ie and Osrhocne. See also:Byzantium, the first of Niger's possessions to be attacked, was the last to fall, after a glorious See also:defence. See also:Late in 196 Severus turned westward, to reckon with Albinus. I directed to some end. He threw the See also:head of Niger over the ramparts He was better See also:born and better educated than Severus, but in of Byzantium; but merely as the best means of procuring a surrender of the stubbornly defended fortress. The head of Albinus he exhibited at Rome, but only as a warning to the capital to tamper no more with pretenders. The See also:children of Niger were held as hostages and kindly treated so See also:long as they might possibly afford a useful basis for negotiation with their See also:father; when he was defeated they were killed, lest from among them should arise a claimant for the imperial power. Stern and barbarous punishment was always meted out by Severus to the conquered foe, but terror was deemed the best See also:guarantee for See also:peace. He See also:felt no scruples of See also:conscience or honour if he thought his See also:interest at stake, but he was not wont to take an excited or exaggerated view of what his interest required. He used or destroyed men and institutions alike with cool See also:judgment and a single See also:eye to the secure See also:establishment of his See also:dynasty. The few traces of aimless savagery which we find in the See also:ancient narratives are probably the result of fear working on the See also:imagination of the time. As a soldier Severus was brave, but he can hardly be called a general, in spite of his successful See also:campaigns. He was rather the organizer of victory than the author of it. The operations against Niger were carried out entirely by his officers. Dio even declares that the final battle with Albinus was the first at which Severus had ever been See also:present. When a See also:war was going on he was constantly travelling over the See also:scene of it, planning it and instilling into the See also:army his own pertinacious spirit, but the fighting was usually See also:left to others. His treatment of the army is the most characteristic feature of his reign. He See also:broke with the decent conventions of the Augustan constitution, ignored the senate, and based his rule upon force. The only title he ever laid to the throne was the pronunciamiento of the legions, whose adherence to his cause he commemorated even on the coinage of the See also:realm. The legions voted him the adopted son of See also:Marcus Aurelius; the legions associated with him See also:Caracalla in the government of the empire. Severus strove earnestly to wed the army as a whole to the support of his dynasty. He increased enormously the material gains and the honorary distinctions of the service, so that he was charged with corrupting the troops. Yet it cannot be denied that, all things considered, he left the army of the empire more efficient than he found it. He increased the strength of it by three legions, and turned the Praetorians, heretofore a flabby body without military experience or See also:instinct, into a chosen See also:corps of veterans. Their ranks were filled by promotion from all the legions on service, whereas previously there had been See also:special enlistment from See also:Italy and one or two of the neighbouring provinces. It was hoped that these picked men would See also:form a force on which an emperor could rely in an emergency. But to meet the possibility of a legionary revolt in the provinces, one of the fundamental principles of the Augustan empire was abrogated: Italy became a See also:province; and a See also:legion was quartered at See also:Alba Fucens under the See also:direct command of the emperor. Further to obviate the See also:risk of revolution, the great commands in the provinces were broken up, so that, excepting on the turbulent eastern frontier, it was not possible for a See also:commander to dispose of troops numerous enough to render him dangerous to the government. But, while the policy of Severus was primarily a See also:family policy, he was by no means careless of the See also:security and welfare of the empire. Only in one instance, the destruction of Byzantium, did he weaken its defences for his own ends—an See also:error for which his successors paid dearly, when the Goths came to dominate the Euxine. The trouble-some Danubian regions received the special See also:attention of the emperor, but all over the realm the status and privileges of communities and districts were recast in the way that seemed likely to conduce to their prosperity. The See also:administration acquired more and more of a military character, in Italy as well as in the provinces. Retired military officers now filled many of the posts formerly reserved for civilians of equestrian See also:rank. The See also:praefect of the Praetorians received large See also:civil and judicial See also:powers, so that the investment of See also:Papinian with the See also:office was less unnatural than it seems at first sight. The See also:alliance between Severus and the jurisconsults had important consequences. While he gave them new importance in the body politic, and co-operated with them in the See also:work of legal reform, they did him material service by working an absolutist view of the government into the texture of Roman See also:law. Of the legal changes of the reign, important as they were, we can only mention a few details. The emperor himself was a devoted and upright See also:judge, but he struck a great blow at the purity of the law by transferring the exercise of imperial See also:jurisdiction from the See also:forum to the See also:palace. He sharpened in many respects the law of treason, put an end to the time-honoured quaestiones perpeluae, altered largely that important See also:section of the law which defined the rights of the fiscus, and See also:developed further the social policy which Augustus had embodied in the lex Julia de adulteriis and the lex Papia Poppaea. Severus boldly adopted as an See also:official designation the autocratic title of See also:dominus, which the better of his predecessors had renounced. During his reign the senate was powerless; he took all initiative into his hands. He broke down the distinction between the servants of the senate and the servants of the emperor. All nominations to office or See also:function passed under his See also:scrutiny. The estimation of the old consular and other republican titles was diminished. The growth of capacity in the senate was checked by cutting off the tallest of the See also:poppy-heads See also:early in the reign. The senate became a See also:mere
capacity far inferior. As Severus was nearing Italy he received the See also:news that Albinus had been declared emperor by his soldiers. The first See also:counter-stroke of Severus was to affiliate himself and his See also:elder son to the Antonines by a See also:spurious and See also:posthumous See also:adoption. The See also:prestige of the old name, even when gained in this illegitimate way, was evidently See also:worth much. See also:Bassianus, the elder son of Severus, thereafter known as Aurelius See also:Antoninus, was named Caesar in place of Albinus, and was thus marked out as successor to his father. Without interrupting the See also: Of the sufferers probably few had seen or communicated with Niger. The collision between the forces of Severus and Albinus was the most violent that had taken place between Roman troops since the contest at See also:Philippi. The decisive engagement was fought in See also:February of the year 297 on the See also:plain between the See also:Rhone and the See also:Saone, to the See also:north of See also:Lyons, and resulted in a See also:complete victory for Severus. Thus, released from all need for disguise, he " poured forth on the civil See also:population all the wrath which he had been storing up for a long time " (Dio). He frightened the senate by calling himself the son of Marcus and See also:brother of Commodus, whom he had before insulted. He read a speech in which he declared that the severity and See also:cruelty of See also:Sulla, See also:Marius and Augustus had proved to be safer policy than the clemency of See also:Pompey and See also:Julius Caesar, which had wrought their ruin. He ended with an See also:apology for Commodus and See also:bitter reproaches against the senate for their sympathy with his assassins. Over sixty senators were arrested on a See also:charge of having adhered to Albinus, and half were put to death. In most instances the charge was a pretence to enable the emperor to crush the forward and dangerous See also:spirits in the senate. The murderers of Commodus were punished; Commodus himself was deified; and on the monuments from this time onward Severus figures as the brother of that See also:reproduction of all the See also:vice and cruelty of See also:Nero with the refinement left out. The next years (197–202) were devoted by Severus to one of the dominant ideas of the empire from its earliest days—war against the Parthians. The results to which See also:Trajan and Verus had aspired were now fully attained, and See also:Mesopotamia was definitely established as a Roman province. Part of the time was spent in the exploration of See also:Egypt, in respect of which Dio takes opportunity to say that Severus was not the man to leave anything human or divine uninvestigated. The emperor returned to a well-earned See also:triumph, commemorated to this See also:day by the See also:arch in Rome which bears his name. During the six years which followed (202–208) Severus resided at Rome and gave his attention to the organization of the empire. Severus had confided much of the administration of the empire to Plautianus, the commander of the reorganized Praetorians, who is described by the ancient historians as a second See also:Sejanus. In 203 Plautianus See also:fell, owing, it is said, to an intrigue set on See also:foot by Caracalla, who had shortly before married the daughter of his victim. Severus spent the last three years of his See also:life (208–2is) in Britain, amid See also:constant and not very successful warfare, which he is said to have provoked partly to strengthen the discipline and powers of the legions, partly to wean his sons from their evil courses by hard military service. He died at See also:York on the 4th of February 212. There are traditions that his death was in some way hastened by Caracalla. This See also:prince had been, since about 197, nominally See also:joint emperor with his father, so that no ceremony was needed for his recognition as monarch. The natural gifts of Severus were of no unusual See also:order. He had a clear head, promptitude, See also:resolution, tenacity and great organizing power, but no See also:touch of See also:genius. That he was cruel cannot be questioned, but his cruelty was of the calculating See also:kind, and always See also:registration office for the imperial determinations, and its members, as has been well said, a See also:choir for drawling conventional See also:hymns of praise in honour of the monarch. Even the nominal restoration of the senate's power at the time of Alexander Severus, and the accession of so-called " senatorial emperors " later on, did not efface the work of Septimius Severus, which was resumed and carried to its fulfilment by See also:Diocletian. No See also:period in the history of Latin literature is so barren as the reign of Severus. Many later periods—the age of See also:Stilicho, for example—shine brilliantly by comparison. The only great Latin writers are the Christians See also:Tertullian and See also:Cyprian. The See also:Greek literature of the period is richer, but not owing to any patronage of the emperor, except perhaps in the case of Dio See also:Cassius, who, though no admirer of Severus, attributes to encouragement received from him the See also:execution of the great See also:historical work which has come down to our time. The numerous restorations of ancient buildings and the many new constructions carried out by Severus show that he was not insensible to the See also:artistic glories of the past; and he is known to have paid much attention to See also:works of See also:art in See also:foreign countries where his duties took him. But he was in no sense a See also:patron or connoisseur of art. As to See also:religion, if we may See also:trust Dio, one of the most superstitious of historians, Severus was one of the most superstitious of monarchs. But apart from that it is difficult to say what was his influence on the religious currents of the time. He probably did a good See also:deal to strengthen and extend the official cult of the imperial family, which had been greatly developed during the prosperous times of the Antonines. But what he thought of See also:Christianity, Judaism or the Oriental See also:mysticism to which his wife Julia Domna gave such an impulse in the succeeding reign, it is impossible to say. We may best conclude that his religious sympathies were wide, since tradition has not painted him as the See also:partisan of any one form of See also:worship. AuTHoxlrlcs.—Severus himself wrote an autobiography which was regarded as candid and trustworthy on the whole. The events of the reign were recorded by several contemporaries. The first place among these must be given to Dio Cassius, who stands to the empire in much the same relation as See also:Livy to the See also:republic. He became a senator in the year when Marcus Aurelius died (18o) and retained that dignity for more than fifty years. He was well acquainted with Severus, and was near enough the centre of affairs to know the real nature of events, without being great enough to have See also:personal motives for warping the See also:record. Though this portion of Dio's history no longer exists in its See also:original form, we have copious extracts from it, made by See also:Xiphilinus, an ecclesiastic .of the i ith See also:century. The faults which have impaired the See also:credit of Dio's great work in its earlier portions—his lack of the See also:critical See also:faculty, his inexact knowledge of the earlier Roman institutions, his See also:passion for signs from See also:heaven—could do little injury to the narrative of an eye-See also:witness; and he gives the impression of unusual freedom from passion, See also:prejudice and insincerity. His Greek, too, stands in agreeable contrast to the debased Latin of the Scriptores historiae Augustae. The Greek writer Herodian was also a contemporary of Severus, but the mere fact that we know nothing of his life is in itself enough to show that his opportunities were not so great as those of Dio. The reputation of Herodian, who was used as the main authority for the times of Severus by See also:Tillemont and See also:Gibbon, has not been See also:proof against the See also:criticism of later scholars. His faults are those of See also:rhetoric and exaggeration. His narrative is probably in many places not See also:independent of Dio. The Augustan historians, unsatisfactory compilers, form a See also:principal source for the history of the reign. The numerous See also:inscriptions belonging to the age of Septimius Severus enable us to control at many points and largely to supplement the See also:literary records of his reign, particularly as regards the details of his administration. The juridical works of Justinian's See also:epoch embody much that throws See also:light on the government of Severus. The principal See also:modern works See also:relating to this emperor, after Tillemont and Gibbon, are—J. J. Schulte, De imperatore L. Septimio Severo (See also:Munster, 1867); Hofner, Untersuchungen zur Geschichte See also:des Kaisers L. Septimius Severus (See also:Giessen, 1875) ; Untersuchungen zur romischen Kaisergeschichte, ed. by M. Budinger; H. See also:Schiller, Geschichte der romischen Kaiserzeit (See also:Gotha, 188o–1883) ; De Ceuleneer, Essai sur la See also:vie et le regne de Septime Severe (See also:Brussels, 188o) ; See also:Reville, La Religion a Rome sous See also:les Ssveres (See also:Paris, 1886) ; See also:Fuchs, Geschichte des Kaisers L. Septimius Severus (1884). On Julia Domna, see M. G. See also:Williams, in See also:American See also:Journal of See also:Archaeology, vi. (1902), pp. 259-306. U. S. 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