The assassination had taken place within Rome and the immediate successor was none other than the Pertinax who had had such an impressive career under Marcus Aurelius (see earlier, p. 514) and who must have carried some of the fading aura of that reign with him. Pertinax was now 66. His advanced age suggested that he would provide no more than a breathing space, as Nerva had done earlier in ad 98, but he was still energetic and for three months he struggled to rein in extravagance and corruption. The vested interests of the Praetorian Guard and Commodus’ bloated household proved too much for him and he too was murdered after only three months as emperor. His proclaimed successor was one Julianus but he was greeted by a popular revolt (with the crowd making their point by pouring into the Circus Maximus and occupying the seats reserved for senators) and so there was a power vacuum at the core of government. Though Julianus remained nominally the emperor, the way was open for a coup d’etat in the provinces by anyone who could gain the support of the legions.
The governor of Pannonia Superior on the Danube, Septimius Severus, an African from Leptis Magna, proved the man. His own legions always provided the centre of his support but he soon had those of the Rhine and his native Africa behind him. A possible rival, the governor of Britain, Albinus, was temporarily bought off by offering him the title of Caesar with the implication that he would be Severus’ successor. Severus now marched on Rome and the senate, in a manner reminiscent of the year 69, jettisoned Julianus, who was also murdered. Severus was greeted in magnificent style, flattered the senate, tricked the Praetorian Guard into surrendering its arms, and replaced it with one drawn from his own legions. From here on the Praetorian Guard was to be handpicked by the emperor (and even travelled on campaigns with him). Severus was now able to proclaim himself the legitimate successor of Pertinax, under whom he had served in Syria some ten years earlier, and Pertinax was granted divine honours in an elaborately staged ‘funeral’ (with a body in wax) in the Forum.
Severus, like Pertinax, was a provincial who had worked his way upwards through a series of commands in different parts of the empire, never losing his Punic accent during his ascent. His political and military skills were considerable and he combined energy with opportunism. However, what he had done could be done by any resolute commander, and the governor of Syria, Pescennius Niger, also chanced his luck and declared himself emperor. Legions loyal to Severus marched east and defeated and killed Pescennius in 194 close to the battlefield of Issus, scene of one of Alexander’s victories. Severus then moved from Rome to take over command, persuading Pescennius’ legions to join his own, and then moved further east to add further territory on the border of Parthia to the empire. This new campaign was only interrupted when Albinus, who had discovered that he had been duped when Septimius designated his own son as successor, proclaimed himself emperor and crossed to Gaul. He was defeated and killed outside Lugdunum (Lyon) and Severus then strengthened his position in the west through the sacking of cities and mass confiscations of land.
Severus knew the importance of mixing ruthlessness with lavish generosity. The people of Rome were flattered by donations and a hugely extravagant display of games, Ludi Saeculares, in the tradition of Augustus (see p. 452 above). A great triumphal arch dedicated in 203 is one of only three in Rome to remain largely intact. Coins show that Severus’ statue was placed in a triumphal chariot drawn by no less than six horses (rather than the customary imperial four), with, as a sign of his dynastic ambitions, his sons, Antoninus and Geta, beside them. Antoninus (better known as Caracalla, from the Celtic hooded cloak he wore) had already been made co-emperor in 198 when only 9. However, the ‘provincial’ Severus was never at ease with the senators but he hardly needed to be now that their political impotence had been exposed.
In fact, Severus’ interests lay elsewhere. He showed that the empire had not lost its vigour when led with determination. In 197 he was back campaigning against the Parthians and plundered some of the great cities of their empire, Seleucia, Babylon, and the Parthian capital Ctesiphon. Although the campaign then faltered, Severus added two more provinces to the empire in northern Mesopotamia and Roman rule now stretched as far as the Tigris. In 207 news arrived of another revolt, this time in the far west of the empire, among the northern tribes of Britain. Severus was ailing but he travelled north with his sons Caracalla and Geta and while Geta oversaw Britain (and was then appointed as co-emperor with his father and brother), Caracalla accompanied his father in what was a meticulously planned campaign to subdue, and, when they resisted, exterminate, the Scottish tribes north of Hadrian’s Wall. The archaeological remains of the Roman camps, notably one at Carpow on the river Tay, suggest that the Roman occupation was planned to be provisioned by sea.
Severus died in York in 211. The Scottish campaign was scaled back as his sons hurriedly returned back to Rome to consolidate their position. Severus had shown what ruthlessness and incisive leadership could achieve in defending the empire. His reign marked important shifts in the balance of power. While Marcus Aurelius had included the senate in his official announcements, Severus did not. Most of his advisers were easterners. With the importance of Rome fading, provincials were preferred to Italians and soldiers to civilians. Many cities, especially those who had supported Severus against Pescennius Niger in the east, were given the title of colo-niae as a mark of the emperors’ special favour and this raised their status within their province. With the Praetorian Guard now part of the emperor’s permanent entourage, the Praetorian Prefect became an important official, gradually absorbing administrative and legal powers in addition to his military role. He was to prove a key figure when an emperor died. The army was given a pay rise and soldiers allowed to make legitimate marriages. Promotion from the ranks became easier. Severus’ alleged last words to his sons, ‘Stick together, pay the soldiers, and despise the rest’, have the ring of truth about them.
So this was certainly a more militarized empire, even if nothing has been done to reform the inflexible structure of the legions. However, by his defeat of the Parthi-ans, Severus added to its long-term problems. The emperor Trajan had, like Severus, enlarged the empire by annexing the buffer states between Rome and Persia, but his successor Hadrian had been politically astute enough to restore their independence. This time the new Roman frontier was left exposed and vulnerable to the aggressive Sasanians. The urge to show off his military prowess had blinded Severus to the political consequences of his campaign.
Severus’ patronage included a massive rebuilding of his native city, Leptis Magna. A grand colonnaded street ran from a new harbour (which silted up almost immediately—the disturbance of the coastline was too great) towards the city centre. When the street reached an earlier, Hadrianic, bath complex, it had to change course and the angle was filled with a magnificent two-storey nymphaeum. The street ran up to an enormous new forum that, unlike those of earlier times, was closed in behind arcaded walls. A temple to the Severan dynasty was built against one wall, a basilica opposite it. Sculptors from Aphrodisias (see Interlude 8) were brought in to complete the flamboyant architectural decoration. There was also an impressive new theatre.
Dominating the meeting of the two major streets of the city was another triumphal arch, voted for by the city council but paid for by the emperor. The shell still stands. It is of the type known as quadrifrons: four piers enclose four arches in a square so one can ride or walk straight through. The whole was domed and was covered in sculptured friezes showing the emperor, his Syrian wife Julia Domna, and, again, his children already in place as his designated successors, among symbols of Victory. Personifications of Rome and Victory link this African emperor with the imperial capital. The portrayal of the emperor shows an innovation. Severus faces away from the crowds and stares forward at the onlooker. He is carved slightly larger than those around him. Here was the elevation of the emperor as superhuman, one of the first intimations of Byzantine art. Like Commodus, but much more successfully, Severus portrayed himself as a companion of the gods. Often, at crucial moments of his career, he announced that he had seen divine omens, even that the gods had intervened to help him win battles.
World History
