A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

SElVERUS. SEVERUS. 803
gained credit, that he also, as well as the emperors Such is the account given of the result of this
was the son of Caracalla. This connection was campaign by all ancient writers, with the exception
afterwards recognised by himself, for he publicly of Herodian, who draws a frightful picture of the
spoke of the divine Antoninus as his sire; and the losses sustained by the sword and by disease, and
same fact is asserted by the genealogy recorded on represents Severus as having been obliged to retreat
ancient monuments. In A. D. 221 he was adopted ingloriously into Syria, with the mere skeleton of an
by Elagabalus and created Caesar, pontiff, consul army. But the well known hostility of this histo-.
elect, and princeps juventutis, at the instigation of rian to Severus would, in itself, throw discredit upon
the acute and politic Julia Maesa, who, foreseeing these statements, unless corroborated by more imthe inevitable destruction of one grandson, resolved partial testimony; and the character of the prince
to provide beforehand for the quiet succession of forbids us to suppose that he would have deliberately
the other. The names Alexianus and Bassianus planned and executed a fraud which could have
were now laid aside, and those of M. Aurelius imposed upon no one, and would have commemorated
Alexander substituted; M. Aurelius in virtue of his by speeches to the senate and people, by medals, by
adoption; Alexander in consequence, as was asserted, inscriptions, and finally by a gorgeous triumph, that
of a direct revelation on the part of the Syrian god. which in reality was a shameful and most disastrous
Elagabalus speedily repented of his choice, and defeat. Although little doubt, therefore, can be
made many efforts to remove one upon whom he now entertained with regard to the main facts of the
looked with jealousy as a dangerous rival; but his expedition, the determination of the dates is a
repeated efforts, open as well as secret, being frus- matter of considerable difficulty, and has given rise
trated by the vigilance of Mamaea and the affec- to much controversy among chronologers; for the
tion of the soldiers, eventually led to his own death, evidence is both complicated and uncertain. On
as has been related elsewhere. [ELAGABALUS; the whole, the opinion of Eckhel (vol. vii. p. 274)
MAESA; MAMAEA.] seems the most probable. He concludes that Severus
Alexander was forthwith acknowledged emperor left the city for the Persian war, at the end of A. D.
by the praetorians, and their choice was upon the 230, or the beginning of A. D. 231; that the battle
same day confirmed by the senate, who voted all with Artaxerxes was fought in A. D. 232; and
the customary distinctions; and thus he ascended that the triumph was celebrated towards the end of
the throne, on the 11th of March, A. D. 222, in his A. D. 233.
seventeenth year, adding Severus to his other desig- Meanwhile, the Germans having crossed the
nations, in order to mark more explicitly the descent Rhine, were now devastating Gaul. Severus quitted
which he claimed from the father of Caracalla. the metropolis with an army, in the course of A. D.
For the space of nine years the sway of the new 234; but before he had made any progress in the
monarch was unmarked by any great event; but a campaign, he was waylaid by a small band of mugradual reformation was effected in the various tinous soldiers, instigated, it is said, by Maximinus,
abuses which had so long preyed upon the state; and slain, along with his mother, in the early p art
men of learning and virtue were promoted to the of A. D. 235, in the 30th year of his age, and the
chief dignities, while the city and the empire at 14th of his reign.
large began to recover a healthier tone in religion, All ranks were plunged in the deepest grief by
morals, and politics. But during the period of the intelligence of his death, and their sorrow was
tranquillity in Italy, a great revolution had taken rendered more poignant by the well-known coarseplace in the East, whose effects were soon felt in ness and brutality of his successor [MAXIMINus].
the Roman provinces, and gave rise to a series of Never did a sovereign better merit the regrets of
convulsions which shook the world for centuries. his people. His noble and graceful presence, the
The Persians, after having submitted to the sway gentleness and courtesy of his manners, and the
of Alexander the Great, of the Seleucidae, and of the ready access granted to persons of every grade,
Parthians in turn, had made a desperate effort to produced, at an early period, an impression in his
regain their independence: after a protracted and favour, which became deeply engraven on the
sanguinary struggle, their chief, Artaxerxes, over- hearts of all by the justice, wisdom, and clemency
came the warlike Artabanus, and the sovereignty of which he uniformly displayed in all public transCentral Asia passed for ever from the hands of the actions, and by the simplicity and purity which
Arsacidae. The conquerors, flushed with victory, distinguished his private life. The formation of
now began to form more ample schemes, and fondly his character must, in a great measure, be ascribed
hoped that the time had now arrived when theymight to the high principles instilled by his mother, who
thrust forth the Western tyrants from the regions not only guarded his life with watchful care against
they had so long usurped, and, recovering the vast the treachery of Elagabalus, but was not less vigidominion once swayed by their ancestors, again lant in preserving his morals from the contaminarule supreme over all Asia, from the Indus to the tion of the double-dyed profligacy with which he
Aegaean. Accordingly, as early as A. D. 229, Meso- was surrounded. The son deeply felt the obligapotamia and Syria were threatened by the victorious tions which he owed to such a parent, and repaid
hordes; and Alexander, finding that peace could no them by the most respectful tenderness and dutifiil
longer be maintained, set forth from Rome in A. D. submission to her will. The implicit reliance which
231 to assume in person the command of the Ro- he reposed on her judgment, is said to have led to
man legions. The opposing hosts met in the level his untimely end; for Mamaea inculcated excessive
plain beyond the Euphrates, in A. D. 232. Arta- and ill-timed parsimony, which conjoined with the
xerxes was overthrown in a great battle, and driven strict discipline enforced, at length alienated the
across the Tigris; but the emperor did not prose- affections of the troops, who were at one time
cute his advantage, for intelligence having reached deeply attached to his person. So sensible was he
him of a great movement among the German tribes, of this fatal error, that he is said to have reproached
he hurried back to the city, where he celebrated a his mother, with his dying breath, as the cause of
triumph in the autumn of A. D. 233. the catastrophe. (Herodian. v. 5, 17-23, vi.
3 F 2