usually called ALEXANDER SEVERUS, Roman emperor, CARACALLA], was born at Arce, in
Phoenicia, in the temple of Alexander the Great, to which his parents had repaired for the
celebration of a festival. There is some doubt as to the year and day of his birth ; but the
1st of October, A. D. 205, is probably the correct date, although Herodian places the event so
low as Alexianus Bassianus, the latter appellation having been derived from his
maternal grandfather. Upon the elevation of Elagabalus, he accompanied his mother and the
court to Rome, a report having been spread abroad, and having Alexianus and Bassianus were now laid aside, and those of M. Aurelius Alexander
substituted; M. Aurelius in virtue of his adoption; Alexander in consequence, as was asserted, of a direct revelation on the part of the
Syrian god. Elagabalus speedily repented of his choice, and made many efforts to remove one
upon whom he now looked with jealousy as a dangerous rival; but his repeated efforts, open as
well as secret, being frustrated by the vigilance of Mamaea and the affection of the soldiers,
eventually led to his own death, as has been related elsewhere. [ELAGABALUS ; MAESA; MAMAEA.]
Alexander was forthwith acknowledged emperor by the praetorians, and their choice was upon
the same day confirmed by the senate, who voted all the customary distinctions; and thus he
ascended the throne, on the 11th of March, Severus to his other designations, in order to
mark more explicitly the descent which he claimed from the father of Caracalla.
For the space of nine years the sway of the new monarch was unmarked by any great event; but
a gradual reformation was effected in the various abuses which had so long preyed upon the
state ; men of learning and virtue were promoted to the chief dignities, while the city and
the empire at large began to recover a healthier tone in religion, morals, and politics. But
during the period of tranquillity in Italy, a great revolution had taken place in the East,
whose effects were soon felt in the Roman provinces, and gave rise to a series of convulsions
which shook the world for centuries. The Persians, after having submitted to the sway of
Alexander the Great, of the Seleucidae, and of the Parthians in turn, had made a desperate
effort to regain their independence : after a protracted and sanguinary struggle, their chief,
Artaxerxes, overcame the warlike Artabanus, and the sovereignty of Central Asia passed for
ever from the hands of the Arsacidae. The conquerors, flushed with victory, now began to form
more ample schemes, and fondly hoped that the time had now arrived when they might thrust
forth the Western tyrants from the regions they had so long usurped, and, recovering the vast
dominion once swayed by their ancestors, again rule supreme over all Asia, from the Indus to
the Aegaean. Accordingly, as early as
Such is the account given of the result of this campaign by all ancient writers, with the
exception of Herodian, who draws a frightful picture of the losses sustained by the sword and
by disease, and represents Severus as having been obliged to retreat ingloriously into Syria,
with the mere skeleton of an army. But the well known hostility of this historian to Severus
would, in itself, throw discredit upon these statements, unless corroborated by more impartial
testimony; and the character of this prince forbids us to suppose that he would have
deliberately planned and executed a fraud which could have imposed upon no one, and would have
commemorated by speeches to the senate and people, by medals, by inscriptions, and finally by
a gorgeous triumph, that which in reality was a shameful and most disastrous defeat. Although
little doubt, therefore, call be entertained with regard to the main facts of the expedition,
the determination of the dates is a matter of considerable difficulty, and has given rise to
much controversy among chronologers; for the evidence is both complicated and uncertain. On
the whole, the opinion of Eckhel (vol. vii. p. 274) sees the most probable. he concludes that
Severus left the city for the Persian war, at the end of A. D. 230, or the beginning of
Meanwhile, the Germans having crossed the Rhine, were now devastating Gaul. Severus quitted
the metropolis with an army, in the course of A. D. 234; but before he had made any progress
in the campaign, he was waylaid by a small band of mutinous soldiers, instigated, it is said,
by Maximinus, and slain, along with his mother, in the early part of
All ranks were plunged in the deepest grief by the intelligence of his death, and their
sorrow was rendered more poignant by the well-known coarseness and brutality of his successor
[MAXIMINUS]. Never did a sovereign better merit the regrets of his
people. His noble and graceful presence, the gentleness and courtesy of his manners, and the
ready access granted to persons of every grade, produced, at an early period, an impression in
his favour, which became deeply engraven on the hearts of all by the justice, wisdom, and
clemency which he uniformly displayed in all public transactions, and by the simplicity and
purity which distinguished his private life. The formation of his character must, in a great
measure, be ascribed to the high principles instilled by his mother, who not only guarded his
life with watchful care against the treachery of Elagabalus, but was not less vigilant in
preserving his morals from the contamination of the double-dyed profligacy with which he was
surrounded. The son deeply felt the obligations which he owed to such a parent, and repaid
them by the most respectful tenderness and dutiful submission to her will. The implicit
reliance which he reposed on her judgment, is said to have led to his untimely end; for Mamaea
inculcated excessive and ill-timed parsimony, which conjoined with the strict discipline
enforced, at length alienated the affections of the troops, who were at one time deeply
attached to his person. So sensible was he of this fatal error, that he is said to have
reproached his mother, with his dying breath, as the cause of the catastrophe. (Herodian. 5.5,
17-23, vi. Alex.
Sever., comp. Antonin. Elagab., Victor, de
Caes. xxiv., Epit. xxiv.; Eurrop. 8.14; Zosim. 1.11-13.)