We were very fortunate to be joined by the delightful Dr Simon Elliot in this special episode about his latest book, The African Emperor: The Life of Septimius Severus.
Dr Elliott (now forever known as Dr E) is a historian, archaeologist and broadcaster. His PhD is in Classics and Archaeology from the University of Kent. Dr E is the author of nineteen books (yes, nineteen!) on the ancient world, including Early Imperial Romans, Pertinax: The Son of a Slave Who Became Roman Emperor, and Roman Britain’s Missing Legion. To find a full list of his many endeavours, check out his website.
Dr Simon Elliott
Introducing Septimius Severus
However, it is Septimius Severus, ruler of the Roman Empire from 193 to 211 CE, who we want to focus on today. You may not be particularly familiar with this emperor, but if you have seen Gladiator 2, you have met his children. Severus was the father of Caracalla and Geta who do not have the best reputation. But there is much more to his story than his disappointing children.
Dr Elliott takes us through the remarkable rise of this man: from Leptis Magna to the imperial purple. In this interview, we tackle the following questions:
- How did Severus emerge victorious from the chaos of The Year of Five Emperors?
- What made him the most successful Severan emperor? (Aside from not being murdered with his mum)
- Was Septimius Severus responsible for a genocide during his campaign in Britain?
- Is there a case to be made that Septimius Severus deserves to rank alongside the likes of Augustus and Trajan?
- When is Netflix going to make I, Julia – a series revolving around all of the Julias from the Severan dynasty? (Copyright, The Partial Historians, 2026)
Join us for the fascinating life story of the founder of the last dynasty before the near collapse of the Empire in the third century CE. And don’t forget to grab yourself a copy of the book, currently a Sunday Times bestseller.
An image of the cover of Dr Elliott’s book on the emperor, Septimius Severus.
Please note: at around 39:11, when Dr E is discussing the women in the Severan dynasty, he makes reference to Julia Domna’s sister as Julia Soaemias. A slip of the tongue, as Julia Domna’s sister was Julia Maesa, and her daughters were Julia Soaemias (mother of Elagabalus) and Julia Mamaea (mother of Severus Alexander).
Sound Credits
Our music is by Bettina Joy de Guzman.
Automated Transcript
Dr Rad 0:15
Welcome to the Partial Historians.
Dr G 0:18
We explore all the details of ancient Rome,
Dr Rad 0:23
Everything from political scandals, the love affairs, the battle’s waged and when citizens turn against each other, I’m Dr Rad
Dr G 0:32
And I’m Dr G. We consider Rome as the Romans saw it, by reading different authors from the ancient past and comparing their stories.
Dr Rad 0:43
Join us as we trace the journey of Rome from the founding of the city.
Dr Rad 0:57
Welcome to a special episode of the partial historians, I am one of your hosts. Dr Rad,
Dr G 1:04
and I am Dr G.
Dr Rad 1:07
Dr G, would you believe we have another very special guest joining us today? His name is Dr Simon Elliot, and he is a historian, archeologist and broadcaster. His PhD is in classics and archeology from the University of Kent. Dr Elliot has a whopping 19 books on the ancient world. His latest book is entitled The African emperor, the life of Septimius Severus, a volume that focuses on the life of Guess who and his rule of the Roman Empire from 193 to 211 CE, welcome to the show, Dr Elliot
Dr Simon Elliott 1:46
Guys, guys, so I’m Dr E and thank you very much for having me on. I really, really looking forward to chatting to you. Thank you.
Dr Rad 1:53
Oh no. We are thrilled. This is a part of the empire that we haven’t explored too much. We are well and truly stuck in the early republic. At the moment,
Dr Simon Elliott 2:04
that’s way too complicated. I feel like this is going to get complicated as well. That’s my sense.
Dr Rad 2:13
At least Rome is tiny at this time when we’re talking there is really no empire to speak of, no matter what they tell you otherwise. So let’s dive into it. Septimius Severus may not be a name that everyone is familiar with, yet his imprint is definitely still felt. Can you tell our listeners where they might have encountered the remnants of his rule?
Dr Simon Elliott 2:35
So when you look at Septimius Severus, the first thing to remember is he was, he was the most well, if you look at the Roman Empire at the time of Severus, we’re talking about the late second century and the early third century. So in terms of chronology, this is towards the end of the first half of the Roman Empire, which is the Principate phase of empire. And he’s the founder of the Severan Dynasty, which leads because it’s not a very successful dynasty, as we’ll see. Please ask me what happens to all the other emperors in the Severan dynasty? Because actually quite, quite gruesome, and your listeners will love it. And the failure effect of the dynasty by two through five leads to the Christ of the third century, where the Roman Empire almost implodes, and it’s only another great warrior, Emperor, Diocletian, who drags it kicking and screaming out of the morass of the crisis to reform the Empire as a dominate so basically, the Severan dynasty ushers in the end of the Principate phase of Empire and the founder of the Severan dynasty, Septimius Severus, not only by far the most successful of the Severn emperors, but almost certainly the most powerful of all Roman emperors, simply because he had more legions than any other emperor. And also he expanded the territorial expanse of the Roman Empire to its greatest extent. And also, he’s North African, so this is a man of superlatives. And if he’s the Roman emperor in charge of, and he’s from North Africa, in charge of more legions and conquering more territory than any other Roman Empire emperor. You can make a very good case. Is the most powerful in terms of military and political power African who’s ever lived. Okay, so it’s a big deal, actually. And the thing with Severus is, it’s almost an untold story, because he gets lost in the in the focus on the likes of Hadrian or Trajan or Augustus, or in the Republic Caesar or Constantine, the first Christian emperor. But very much, Severus is an emperor which very few people have heard of, because he almost gets glossed over. And yet he was the biggest deal of all of them.
Dr G 4:42
All right, so you’re setting a great scene here. It’s like this guy overlooked possibly the most powerful guy that we’ve yet to encounter in terms of thinking about Roman emperors. And you’ve mentioned that he’s from North Africa as well. So I’m wondering if you can go a little bit into his background. What about Do we know anything about his early years? For instance?
Dr Simon Elliott 5:05
Yeah, we do actually. I mean, as a Roman emperor, he’s very well sourced, actually. So you’ve got the likes of Cassius Dio that all classical sources are clearly flawed, but cross referencing can actually get sort of a broad picture. So in terms of near contemporary sources, or contemporary sources, Cassius Dio knew him. So you have Cassius Dio, you have Herodian. You have the story or Augusta, which is anonymous, but it’s still a useful history. And between those three and later histories, you can get a good cross cross reference. He’s born in the blazing heat of a North African spring, in 145, ce sort of in late April. He’s born in Leptis Magna, which is one of the great Carthaginian, mercantile founded cities in Tripolitania. Tripolitania is the eastern part of the great, hugely wealthy African province of Africa, pro consularis. So remember, the Roman Empire is a Mediterranean empire. So where I’m sitting today in Britain, where the Boltons were the odd ones, Gaul Britain, where the Northwest European boltons, broadly the Roman Empire is a Mediterranean empire. So North Africa was an absolutely normal part of it, and Africa pro consularis capital, provincial capital, Carthage was probably the richest part of the whole Roman Empire, richer than Achaea, which is Greece, richer than Asia, which is Western Asia, minor. So he’s he’s born there, and he’s born into a senatorial family who are super wealthy. So join the dots. He’s born into a super wealthy family, into a super wealthy town, into a super wealthy province of the Roman Empire. So he’s got it all in front of him, and he’s an aristocrat. He’s a senator, so he’s a patrician, so he can look forward as he grows to a career along what we call the cursus honorum, the career path of a Roman aristocrat. And by the time he’s 10, he’s in Rome having what we would say in the UK is an Oxbridge education equivalent, you know, the finest that money could buy. It’s like going to Harvard in the states with the finest education money could buy. But Intriguingly, he was very loyal to his North African roots, and he never forgot where he came from. So while he was having this cut glass accent education, he deliberately kept a guttural North African accent, and that’s important, because actually, we do know his lineage, right? This is very important to the age in which we live. He’s very often He’s certainly the African emperor, because he’s from North Africa, which is in Africa. He’s often called the Black Emperor because we have a contemporary portrait of him called the Severan Tondo, which shows him in real life with his wife, Julia Domna, his second wife, the love of his life. He’s very, very dark skinned, so he’s often called the Black emperor. We know his lineage, though, on his father’s side, because his great grandfather was called Septimius Macer, and Macer is a Carthaginian name, so his family heritage has more in common with Hannibal than it does with Julius Caesar, which is a line I love saying. And the Carthaginians, as you will know, were settlers from Phoenicia, and that’s the modern Lebanon. So his family originally came from the modern Lebanon, and there were settlers with the Carthaginians in North Africa. And then the lineage comes through to the time of Severus. So this takes us through to Severus, getting his education in Rome and beginning his career on the cursus honorum. So he’s now a young man ready to make his mark in the Roman world.
Dr Rad 8:34
So this sounds very impressive, but nonetheless, even with this incredible background that he has. It’s one thing to be an elite man in the Roman Empire. It’s quite another thing to become emperor. So he actually rise to power.
Dr Simon Elliott 8:47
That’s that’s a really, I mean, it’s a great point. That is because so if you’re if you’re a member of the Roman aristocracy, especially if you’re a senator, so you’re a patrician, the three things you need to good at, be good at in your entire life are fighting, because you’re always going to be fighting the law, because you’re always going to be suing or being sued, and politics, because you’re always going to have to be appearing in public, getting public support. So he’s owned in all these skills, but his first major posting, which makes a difference to his career, is a posting to Syria. So he becomes the legate, the general in charge of a legion. They’re called Legio III Cyrenaica, which is based on the Syrian border. And at this time, in fact, all the way through the Roman Principate. And in fact, the Roman Republic Principate and dominate. The only real symmetrical threats the Romans have got in terms of fighting are in the east, which are the Parthians, later the Sasanid Persians, who are the Persians. So I’ll call them, for the sake of our part, I’ll just call them the Persians to avoid confusion to your listeners. So Severus is based in Syria, on the border in a legionary fortress called zuegma, which is near Antioch, the provincial capital of Syria.
Dr Simon Elliott 10:00
Him, and there his job is to hold the line on the eastern frontier. And it’s a great posting for a young man wanting to make his mark on the cursus honorum, because it means that he’s getting really, really good experience being a military leader, which is so important and very important for this emperor, because, as you will see, within about two minutes, he becomes the Emperor at the point of a sword. He then gets a posting to his next province. But this time, he’s not the general in charge of the Legion. He’s the governor of the province. Very big deal. This is to be the governor of a place called Gallia Lugdunensis. So the clue’s in the name guys. It’s in Gaul. It’s the very rich bit through the middle of Gaul so running from the Alps to the Channel Islands. Its capital is in Lyon, which is a place called Lugdunum, very relevant later in Severus story. And it’s here that he marries his second wife, the love of his life, Julia Domna. And the two of them together are very much the power couple of their age. And they’re their first son, Caracalla is born, and then later, as Severus gets dragged back to Rome to become the Consul, which is the senior magistrate, their second son, Geta, is born, you’ll recognize Caracalla and Geta if you watch that not so good movie, in my opinion, Gladiator Two, because they’re the protagonists in the movie. You should have made a movie about Severus, because Severus is far, far more important, interesting than than anything in that movie. But there you go. So at least some people know what their names were, Caracalla and Geta goes to Rome, becomes a consul 190 very important, and they were almost into him become the emperor in 190 he gets made the governor of another province, which is Pannonia Superior, which is on the Danube, just north of the Alps. It’s a crucial, crucial province, because it controls access from the north of the Danube, where the Germans are, through to northern Italy. So it’s a frontier, barrier province, and it’s just been the scene of the 30 year Marcomannic wars, where the Romans only just won there the that’s the conflict which appears in the movie, the rise of fall of the Roman Empire in the original gladiator movie as an example.
Dr Simon Elliott 12:06
And while he’s there, the Emperor Commodus is assassinated in Rome over New Year’s Eve. 192 193and when he’s assassinated, the first emperor to replace him is the city prefect. This is January now, 193, the city Prefect is called Pertinax, who Severus knows because he’s earlier been his mentor. And when Pertinax becomes the emperor, he wants to be a really worthy emperor. So when the Praetorian guard comes to him at the end of January and say, Can we have some money, he says, No, oh, dear. Where this is going? At the end of February, the Praetorian girl go and see him and see him and say, Can we have some money, or we’ll kill you. He says, No. So the end of February, they kill him. Well, at least he was one. So work goes out around the Roman Empire to three candidates who are now going to play for the throne. One is Severus on the Danube. One is Clodius Albinus, the governor in Britain, in London, and one is Pescennius Niger, who is the governor in Antioch. And they all make a play, but clearly Severus is closer. It probably takes five days to get from the Danube to Rome. It’ll take you 11 or 12 days by the quickest route, usually maritime, to get from London or Antioch. So that’s Britain or Syria to Rome. So Severus arrives with five legions, Parks them in the middle of the forum Romanum, goes into the senate house with his sword drawn, and he says, in fact, actually, I’ll show you a Roman Gladius. This is a Roman Gladius.
Dr Simon Elliott 13:37
So for anybody who can’t see this, that is a Roman Gladius, and the draws his sword, his troops are with him. He says to the senators, I am the Emperor. And the senators, guess what? They say? They say, Absolutely not a problem. You’re the boss. So that that’s how he becomes the Emperor at the point of a sword.
Dr G 13:58
Oh, goodness me. What. What a dramatic turn of events. This guy likes drama, by the sounds of it. This is a obviously, this is taking place over the course of several years, going up the cursus honorum, it takes a while. You’ve got to know the right people, you’ve got to make the right connections and all that kind of thing. And you’ve also mentioned that he deliberately holds on to his Punic accent as well, which I think is great, because this is defining him against a sort of a Romaness that he is encountering everywhere around him. So while he’s working hard within the Roman system, he’s making it very clear that Rome is not just about this part of the Mediterranean. It’s also about other parts of the Mediterranean. And he’s well involved. So once he’s in power, how does he maintain his connection to his North African roots?
Dr Simon Elliott 14:54
Well, firstly, you make some really good points there. He absolutely hates the political climate in Rome, right? So he hates the Senate. When he’s the emperor, he only spends time in Rome four times, and mostly for a matter of months. He can’t wait to get away from Rome. He loves being on campaign. This is a very militaristic emperor. Also, his family are always on campaign with him as well. So Julia Domna gets the cognomen the mother of the camp, and Caracalla and Geta are always with them as well. So I think Caracalla and Geta is younger men, a little bit older. They quite like Rome, as we’ll see. But broadly, the Severans didn’t really like Rome, to the point actually, where, when Severus dies in York in 211 and I’m jumping ahead, but I know we’ll go back, so I don’t I think we’ll be fine. He’s effectively created a reset of the Roman world. I call it the Severan reset, or even a hostile takeover, because 80% of the legates in charge of legions across the Empire and 80% of the governors in charge of provinces are North African.
Dr G 15:59
Oh, wow. Okay, that’s massive.
Dr Simon Elliott 16:01
Many of them are family members, right? So he’s running the place like the mafia. And one of the things that comes through in my book, actually, is the Severans are very, very inward focused on the family and North Africa. And actually, when this is my second book of Severus, the first one is about the end of his life in Scotland, one of the things that came through my research for this book, which I did pick up with the first one, is they were really avaricious as well. So for example, we’ll talk about it in a minute. I think how he maintains himself as emperor and where he campaigns. He kills 200 senators of the 600 over a period of two years without trial, just executes them, often sent to the beasts in the arena. And usually when this happens, it’s not that unusual. Actually, when this happens, the wealth from their landed wealth which is immense, or their portable wealth which is immense, will go into the Imperial Fiscus treasury, not the Severans but half of it went into the Severan back pocket. And what’s more, they didn’t care who knew.
Dr Simon Elliott 17:05
So he’s got to he’s got to power at the point of a sword. It’s not totally unusual in the Roman world, certainly later, particularly the crisis of the third century. But these guys don’t care who knows. You know, they just want to reason. And you know, if you know, if you go to the forum Romanum, the next time you’re in Rome, the largest arch you will not be surprised to know is the arch of Septimius Severus. You won’t be surprised to know it’s actually at the very top of the Forum Romanum, beneath the Capitolini Museum, which is where the temple of Jupiter Maximus was. So it’s beneath the most important temple in the Roman world. And also the foundations are built on the foundations of the curious Senate House. So that’s a very direct message saying, if you don’t behave, you know who the boss is, to the sound of a sword slowly being scratchingly being drawn. So this is that’s, that’s if you want to get into service as headspace, that’s where you need that’s where you need to go. I’ve got no idea why I like him. Actually, I’m often, that’s what I’m giving talk. And I’m a military historian. Principally, I’ve asked him, that’s why I’m giving talks. Why do you like him? I actually can’t answer the question because, because, actually, the more you talk about him, more you realize actually, although he’s one of these the toughest of tough guy emperors, he was very brutal about sort of, sort of doing it.
Dr G 18:21
You know, look, I’ll let you in on a secret. I have a similar problem with Augustus
Dr Rad 18:25
I was gonna say. I’m glad you can admit it. DR, G,
Dr G 18:30
Yes, this is my admission. It is recorded. It is out there for the world. Now, yes, Augustus, it’s a problem, but I do like him
Dr Simon Elliott 18:37
Both of them great survivors, both of them in complete control of their own life and destiny. Both of them, crucially for a Roman Empire, died in their own beds.
Dr Simon Elliott 18:48
Now, you could make a case. Could make a case in actual fact, I’ll let you into I’ll let you into a secret. My next book coming out in July, which we should talk about, because I hope you’ll like it. It’s called Women of Power in the Roman world.
Dr Rad 19:00
Oh, that is right up our alley.
Dr Simon Elliott 19:02
There is a chapter on Livia Drusilla. And then I’m writing a book for next year called death on the Palatine cold cases of the Roman emperors, where I look into, how about 12 Roman emperors die, and we don’t really know why, or it might be a bit dodgy, so I just look into the cold cases as a detective. One of them is Augustus, whether Livy you drew still have poisoned him or not. I’m not going to tell you what I come I’m not going to tell you tell the outcome. I’ll tell you next year, if you do a pod about that book. But crucially, with Severus as well, there is a theory that Caracalla may have killed Severus as well. So there’s always a question mark over both these great, great emperors. You know, if you want to get and you’ll love this with Augustus, if you really want to get in the headspace of Severus, no Roman Emperor managed to conquer the Persians and then the Britons in the Far North. You have a poem by Horace at the end of the first century BC, beginning.
Dr Simon Elliott 19:59
The first century CE where Horace says, Augustus will not be a God unless he conquers the pesky Persians and Brits. And Augustus does neither. He’s far too clever to get dragged into that. He’s far too canny. Severus isn’t though he’s a bit of a nutter. So Severus does conquer the Persians, and at the end of his life, tries to conquer the far north of Britain. I think at the point he died in York in February 211 I think he had actually, I think he believed he had. And I think he died thinking he was the greatest Roman emperor of them all, because he’d done something which even Augustus had not done.
Dr G 20:39
Food for Thought.
Dr Rad 20:40
Could this be a new candidate for your heart.
Dr Simon Elliott 20:43
Anyway, back to your script. Sorry to throw loads. Sorry.
Dr Rad 20:46
We love a tangent. Don’t you worry, particularly when it’s about Augustus. Dr, G, can’t talk enough about him. So let’s maybe take a step back for a moment and put Severus into a bigger perspective, which I think you were starting to do there. You’ve said that he was the most powerful person ever born in Africa based purely on military and political agency. Now I think you’ve given us a hint about why you think that. But this is ever this is in World History. So Can you unpack that a little bit for us,
Dr Simon Elliott 21:16
he’s the emperor of the Roman Empire, which, in their known world, was it right? They knew something was happening in China, though almost certainly completely, uh, ignorant of anything happening in South America. There may have been in there, may have been aware of things happening in the rest of Africa or elsewhere in the world. But as far as they were concerned, they were the most important empire, political entity anywhere ever, as far as they were concerned. And North Africa is a full fat functioning part of the Roman Empire. Roman North Africa is like a layer cake. Chronologically. You start off with the indigenous Berbers, so the Garamantes in southern Libya, the Numidians in Algeria and Tunisia. And then the Morocco, the Maureen in modern Morocco, then you have the Carthaginians, then you have the Romans, then you have the Vandals, then you have the Byzantines. And finally, the Arab conquest. The only phase we look at today is through the eyes of the Arab conquest, because North Africa is part of the Arab world. But until the Arab conquest, it was an absolutely normal part of the medicine the wider Mediterranean world. And if you look at political agency, I can’t think of anybody until the modern world, who’d have any more political agency than a Roman Emperor. And in that context, if you came from Africa, I can’t think of anybody else who was born in Africa who had that level of political agency.
Dr Rad 22:41
It’s a convincing case. I must say,
Dr G 22:43
He leaves quite a legacy. I’d like to sort of rewind a little bit, because I think you in really broad brush strokes, have talked about like the consequence of this year of the five emperors, but this seems like a pretty crucial moment we’ve seen. I would imagine listeners might be quite familiar with the year of the four emperors, for instance, which is considered a real chaotic time at the end of the Julio Claudian period. And yet, the year of the five emperors sounds worse on paper, but I’m thinking that it’s probably got the same level of chaos and confusion like who’s going to come out on top? What’s going on there? How does this chaotic political moment really help elevate Severus to the top job?
Dr Simon Elliott 23:30
It’s a great question. So you’ve got the big difference of the two four emperors, of five emperors, 68-69, through to 193, broadly, the year of the four emperors has played out in the Imperial center, whereas the year of the five emperors has played out across the entirety of the Roman Empire. So firstly, Severus at the point his emperor has got two potential usurpers either side of him to the east and west, with Albinus in London, who’s declared and Niger in Antioch, who’s declared. So Severus is very canny. He buys Albinus off by making him his Caesar, Junior emperor. Remember, in the Roman world, you’ll appreciate this. In the Roman world, the most famous Roman of them all in the Roman Empire was Augustus, and then Caesar and the Republic, but, but it was always Augustus. It’s flipped. In our world, everyone knows Caesar less. People know Augustus, but, but in the Roman world, it’s always Augustus. So the senior Emperor is the Augustus. This is Severus, the junior emperor. His Caesar is now Albinus in Britain. So Albinus has bought off Severus then goes and campaigns in the east in one line four, defeats Niger, kills him, appropriates all his wealth, puts half of it in his back pocket, and then he knows that to get martial glory in the Roman world, you don’t get that you won’t have a triumph through civil war. So he needs to have a foreign war. So he invades Parthia of the Persians, and he’s just at the point of crossing the border when word reaches him at the in 195, early 196, that Albinus has seen through Severus Ruse and he’s usurped again. So Severus has to hot foot it all the way back along the riot Danube and Rhine to find Albinus has crossed over with Britain, with all three British legions joined by a Spanish Legion. And then he’s hold himself up the place where Severus was the governor and married Julia Domna, and where Caracalla was born, which is Lugdunum Lyon in Gallia Lugdunensis. And he knows Severus can’t ignore that, because that’s a that’s a deliberate slight. So Severus has to fight him, and they fight this incredible, two day titanic battle, which probably was the largest Civil War battle in the entirety of the Roman history. And dealing with the Roman Republic, you’re dealing with the likes of Philippi and Pharsalus, well, this is a bigger battle than both of those probably put together. Dio says involved 150,000 men either side. That’s got to be an exaggeration, because the entire Roman military establishment was about 300,000 establishment was about 300,000 men. But there’s a lot of people involved. Two days, Severus gets knocked off his horse twice. Later in life, he’s associated with having a leg injury, which is interpreted today as being gout. I often wonder whether actually, one of those two events being knocked off his horse in battle, he may have had a leg injury which didn’t heal well, which might cause his later in later troubles, but he does win. Captures Albinus, chops his head off, sticks it on a pole, sends it to Rome, prances over his beheaded body on his charger to ceremony show who the boss is then. And this is a kicker. I love this, being being British, and having spent a lot of time in Kent and London, having spent 25 years working in London, in the City of London, so Severus to bring recalcitrant Britain back into the Imperial fold, sends his military inspectors to Britain, and they have to start rebuilding the British legions, which have been butchered already because of the Battle of Lugdunum. But then to show the people in the provincial capital London, who is the boss, they build the land wall of Roman London. So it’s built by Severus to show if I can do this, you imagine what I can do if you misbehave again. There’s no external threat. There’s no river wall built on the Thames. So it’s not a defensive circuit. It’s a statement. And this is this wall, which becomes the medieval wall of London, which to this day still delineates the square mile in London. So this financial powerhouse of the world is delineated to this day by a boundary set in place by a dark skinned Roman Emperor from North Africa. Absolutely, absolutely love that fact. And so from that point, he’s the sole emperor. And then he goes back to the east, where he does is the first Roman Emperor since Trajan, and only the second Roman Emperor. And there’s only three who do it. Charis later does it, only the second Roman emperor who conquers the Persians and he captures Ctesiphon their capital. Then he does this triumphal parade through North Africa, starting in Egypt, which is where the portrait was painted, which is like a fayum portrait. And then he goes through all the North African places that he knew and loved and everywhere he goes, they monumentalized His presence by building a Severan phase. The Severan this that everywhere, even in Rome, by the way, which he hated, a third of what you see today classical Rome is Severan. And I delight in showing people these things because of like the Temple of Vesta in the forum Roman a very, very famous temple of Vesta built by Julia Domna. That one is the iteration built by Julia Domna. And then he finds himself back in Rome, and it’s around 207, and he’s really bored. So it does take quite a good deal of time for him to sort of wrap it all up in a way. So even though he’s Emperor on paper 193 there’s still that sort of tail end of the civil conflict to get through to really secure it for him, I think it’s the same for any, any emperor who came to power at the point of a sword. Actually, you’re always going to be looking over your own shoulder. Because if you I mean, you could say it was a usurper. It was the first, it was the first to market, shall we say, in Rome, to seize the throne. But you could argue, as a usurper, any Roman usurper is going to be looking over the shoulder for the shoulder for the rest of their life. That’s why Severus, by the way, famously, on his deathbed in York in 211 tells Caracalla and Geta, look after each other. Will return to that look after each other and look after the military completely ignore the rest. Wasn’t in charge of anybody apart from the military. He always his first Roman emperor that allowed a Roman legionary within his 25 years term of service to legally marry as an example, and he increased the salary of a Roman legionary by a third. So he’s always been faithful to the military, because he knew that they were the ones who got into power, and they were the ones who would keep him in power.
Dr Rad 29:56
Well, this seems like an opportune time to talk about one of his. Is more important military campaigns. Let’s talk about what he gets up to in Britain.
Dr Simon Elliott 30:05
So it’s 207-208 and he gets a message from the governor in Britain, who’s a chap called Senecio, which says, there’s trouble in the north, which there may have been because, remember, the legions are undermanned and being rebuilt. There’s trouble in the north. And then he says, very interesting line, the entire island. So the whole island is in danger of being overrun. We need either your help or reinforcement. And this is when you get the Severan surge, because Severus decides at the end of his life to come over in person. And he actually arrives in York in 208 with the imperial family and with half the Senate, with the Fiscus, Treasury, the Praetorian Guard. And they turned York, actually, in the north of Britain, into the imperial capital, the proper capital for the last three years of his life. And then he spends 209 and 210 campaigning in what we call today Scotland. Leave with Caracalla, leaving Geta and Julia Domna in York to actually administer the Empire, and you have these two really brutal campaigns. You know, when in Britain, when we talk about our weather, we we laughably call it changeable, but the Romans didn’t mince their words. They just said it was miserable and wet, which is very accurate. The Roman contemporary authors say at this time, the weather in Britain was worse than usual. So it must have been really, really bad. And also in the campaigns in the far north the natives, because the Roman that, I mean, the Romans were leading 50,000 men. Remember, that’s the largest campaigning force ever to fight on British soil. They blocked the coast off with a clash of Britannica fleet. They cut the the natives off from the highlands by blocking off all the Glens. And so they trapped all the natives in the Far North. There were broadly two confederations called the Maeatae and the Caledonians, and they just trapped them. And then once they were trapped, they just went straight through five flight, through a soft underbelly, and butchered them. And the natives didn’t get a chance to coalesce into a fighting force for a battle to take place. So the whole thing is this hideous guerrilla war in terrible weather conditions. And even Dio says that although the Romans won through weight of numbers, they suffered a lot of casualties. But eventually the Romans win Severus and Caracalla go back down to York, and they leave the troops in the north. Now, when the Romans have been up there before, the troops have come back down, but the natives notice the Romans aren’t leaving, so they realize the Romans are trying to stay. So they rebel again. And so Severus actually not Severus, because he’s now too ill. In 210 Caracalla repeats the whole campaign again, but Severus is recorded by Dio as saying that Severus ordered them to commit a genocide. So the line that DIO uses is kill everybody, including their babies in their mother’s wombs. And the archeological record does show there’s a massive depopulation event in the far north of Britain, which is evidence, all the way through to the end of the third century. So it looks as though the Romans did attempt to genocide, actually, in that campaign, which is not unusual for the Romans, dealing with the rebellion, but it’s a particularly brutal one, given you have this proper depopulation event, victory is declared. Severus and Caracalla. Take the cognoma Britannicus. Coins are minted in Rome. Hurrah Severus dies in February 211 right? Probably of some kind of pulmonary illness in in sort of the 65 the miserable kind of a fog or the British winter is in York. And Caracalla and Geta hate each other. They hate each other, and they hate York and Britain, so they can’t wait to get back to the flesh pots of Rome. So separately, with their own entourages, they race themselves back to Rome, and with them gone, there’s no political imperative to keep the troops in the far north of Britain. So everything drops back down to the line of Hadrian’s Wall, which it stays up for the rest of the Roman occupation. Interestingly, there is a major repair of Hadrian’s Wall at this time leaving Severin inscriptions. And when Hadrian’s Wall was first when the inscriptions were first deciphered in the 17th and 18th centuries, the wall was called Severan the Severn wall, because the first ones deciphered were Severan. It’s only in the 19th century you get the Hadrianic ones, and Caracalla and Geta get back to Rome, and then within a year, probably by Christmas, our Christmas Roman Saturnalia, Caracalla killed Geta, either killed him or had him killed, and Geta allegedly then dies bleeding to death in Julia Domna’s arms in the Imperial Palace on the Palatine Hill. And then you have this cascade of seven emperors. You have Caracalla, the survivor. He’s assassinated four years later, for six years later, 217 while he’s relieving himself against the tree. Be visiting a temple in the east, and he’s stabbed in the back. That’s a hell of a way to go. Very briefly, the Praetorian Prefect Macrinus then becomes the Emperor. He’s also assassinated with his son. Then the Severans are back with Elagabalus and his mum. Elagabalus is assassinated with his mum, and then finally, you have Alexander Severus with his mum, who was assassinated with his mum. So it’s not a good job being an emperor’s mum in the Severan dynasty, either. So that is it. So the dynasty peaks massively with Severus, and then suddenly you have this failure of a dynasty which finishes in 235, which causes, I think, the cascade into the crisis of the third century, which could have brought the Roman Empire down. Actually, to my point at the beginning of our chat, it takes another great warrior, Emperor, Diocletian, to rescue things. Otherwise, you know, our world would have been completely different.
Dr Rad 35:56
Yeah, God, if those two brothers had just got along, things could have been very I was gonna say,
Dr G 36:01
I feel like a counterfactual history moment is required for something like this. Like imagine if those two brothers, Caracalla and Geta, could have found a way to have followed their father’s advice, because it seems like everything takes a really bad turn, and I hate to bring up gladiator two back into this conversation, but that movie would have just been way more interesting if it had focused on the history, which is incredible,
Speaker 1 36:27
I tell you.
Dr Simon Elliott 36:27
I tell you. I tell you. Like, as you know, with you all over the Roman world, it’s more Game of Thrones and Game of Thrones. It’s more Tolkien than Tolkien. You know, it’s all there. Of course, Tolkien himself was obsessed by the Roman world and the Dark Ages, etc, which informs a lot of his writing. But for us, it’s all there, and if it’s done well on screen, it’s great TV or great movie. I mean, gladiators not close to history, but it’s good movie. Yeah, the HBO BBC series Rome was fabulous. The first series of that was fabulous. You know, a very good recreation of that particular world, so you don’t need to muck about with it that much to actually make fantastic narrative.
Dr Rad 37:07
No, it is one of the big mysteries as to why they decided, I know, let’s go against what’s known about this time period and create a far less interesting story.
Unknown Speaker 37:16
They should
Dr Simon Elliott 37:17
should have spoken to us shouldn’t they?
Dr Rad 37:20
If only we put the call out to Ridley Scott many times, still no reply.
Dr G 37:25
So I think in terms of the brothers, you’ve painted a pretty strong picture of what’s going on with those two in the wake of Severus death, I’m wondering if you can tell us a little bit more about the love of his life, Julia Domna, and how she comes into it, because later, mothers seem to not fare so well. What about her?
Dr Simon Elliott 37:47
I think Julia Domna is is literally half the story, actually, because they were a real power couple. First thing to know is that she’s a lot taller than he was. So if you go to the Forum Boarium meat market in Rome, which is at the bottom of the Palatine Hill, where it meets the Circus Maximus. So it’s quite easy to find. There’s two or three arches there, and it’s on the Tiber and there, there’s an arch, the arch of the argentari, where you who the money lenders, where you have a sculptured Julia Domna and Severus, who would have seen it, they’d have seen the sculpture. Severus is about foot shorter. Now bear in mind that the sculptor with this most militaristic of emperors would definitely wanted to have made him as big as he physically could without actually ending up in the arena or doing something silly. So you can guarantee Severus was probably a lot shorter than Julia Domna, for a start, and I think it was probably like a middleweight Olympic weightlifter all square and muscle. Julia Domna Is is portrayed as being very tall, and bear in mind where she came from. She came from a Emesa which is modern Aleppo. And her father was the chief priest of the sun god Elagabalus. That family had previously been the royal family of a Emesa before it became part of the Roman world. So there were some of the richest people in the Roman Empire. So very much a very, very good catch for Severus marrying into that family.
Dr Rad 39:10
How convenient that they fell in love.
Dr Simon Elliott 39:11
But I think, I think it was a love match. I really think it was a love match. Very unusually in contemporary sources, as you know, all Roman contemporary sources are all late middle aged men, or old men writing who are rich writing for other late middle aged men who are also rich in a very gender unbalanced society. Okay, so doing my research, for example, for Women of Power of the Roman World, you’re immediately faced with that that you have to hack through before you get to the true story of the women involved. But even then Severus Julia Domna is really well written up. Actually, she became a key patron of the arts in Roman across the Roman Empire, much more so than than Severus. And you know, the family were close. This is really unusual. What happened to Caracalla and Geta. They were very close for most of their life. They followed Severus and Julia Domna, the kids around the Roman world. When it was on campaign, they went to everywhere in the Roman world, and Julia Domna would have been very much a steady influence there. And I can only think that as the boys got older into their early teenage years, they end up with their own coteries around them who then can see a path for their own benefit by championing one of the siblings against the other sibling, which is probably what sparred out of control. Julia Domna’s end, though, is really sad. I mean, when Caracalla was assassinated, she’d had enough. She was in a Emesa, and she just turned a face to the wall and died because she just had enough, and she was heartbroken. In the Women of Power of the Roman World book, there is a chapter called The Severan Julias. Julia Domna wasn’t the only one of the Severan Julias. Her elder sister, Julius Soaemias, was like The Godfather. So Julius Soaemias was more powerful than Julia Domna, especially after Severus died, and she pulled the strings of the early Severan dynasty. And then it’s her two daughters who are the mothers of Elagabalus and Alexander Severus who died. Chances are Julia Soaemias, the elder sister of Julia Domna, was the one who ordered the assassination of Elagabalus and her own daughter, his mum, because they weren’t up to scratch, and then put her younger daughter and his her son, Alexander Severus, in power. And that lasted about decades. So that actually almost worked, but ultimately didn’t. So this is a really interesting story about the Severan Julias. There’s definitely, definitely a second pod here for us to talk about, about, about these amazing women who, because it’s very difficult to find women who held true political agency in their own right in the Roman world, because the sourcing issues and because it was a very gender unbalanced and unbiased, a very, very biased society. You can make a case that Livia Drusilla may have done. I do anyway, you can make a case certainly that Zenobia, who was a Palmyrene Queen, did you can make a very good case that Galla Placidia, who was the daughter of Theodosius, the first, the sister of Honorius and Arcadius, and the mother of Valentinian the second, she was a regent 16 years so being a regent meant you have proper political power. So she probably did have political agency. And then it comes to the Severan Julias, Julia, Domna, probably had a degree of agency, but she would always be in the shadow of this militaristic emperor, Severus Julia, Soaemias and her daughters, I think they are real political agency. So there’s a real story there. The Severans and Julias.
Dr Rad 42:40
I know I was thinking of a, you know, multi series television show that could follow the women. Be great. It’d be absolutely great. Are you listening Netflix? They’re crying out for content. Yeah, I Julia, that’s what I’m pitching.
Dr Rad 42:56
So let’s return, if we may, to Severus end, because you’ve hinted at some possible controversy around that and his legacy. I mean, obviously you could say that this dynasty is part of his legacy, but I think there’s probably a bit more to it than that as well.
Dr Simon Elliott 43:10
So in terms of his end, well, the controversy, there’s a reference in the primary sources that as the first peace treaty is being signed after the 209 campaign in the far north of Britain, Caracalla, who’s behind him on a horse, draws his sword, and it’s the Praetorian Prefect that stops him stabbing Severus in the back. Only one source may be true, maybe apocryphal. Will never know, but that that is there. I think he did die a natural death. I think he died a natural death because we know that he took his funerary urn, which was Porphyry, to York from Rome. So you’re not going to do that unless you think you’re on your last legs, are you? So he did take his funerary urn with him, and later, when he’s buried in Rome, like many Roman emperors, he’s buried in the mausoleum of Hadrian today’s Castel Sant’Angelo. So I think he knew it was the end of his life anyway. But I think, I think as he died, I think he thought he succeeded, and I thought he said in, I think he thought he said in trying a good succession as well, clearly didn’t read his sons particularly well later in life, because you have this cascade of events then which you have this dysfunctional dynasty. In terms of his legacy in Britain, you can argue there was one success for the Romans from a Roman perspective, in that you do have peace on the northern border for almost a century afterwards, which is the longest period of peace on the northern border in Britain until the modern era, by the way. But it was at a great cost, because certainly, almost certainly, was a genocide in that second 210 campaign. Did he conquer the Far North? Well, no, he didn’t. Did he because he dies, Caracalla and Geta can’t wait to clear off so the political agency is gone. So the all that effort, all those casualties, all the economic dysfunction, all that genocides complete waste of time, because the Romans then just go back down to the line of age as well, and actually do find.
Dr Simon Elliott 44:59
Find this in the far north of Britain only two times can you say the Romans actually or conquered it in the far north, the first times by Agricola on behalf of the Flavian emperors. And that probably was a proper conquest for at least six months. And then you have with the severance and the Severus dying, that fails so without the political imperative which drove Agricola because the mission called him back without the political imperative, with the severance the northern border always drops down. Probably it’s quite expensive to maintain troops that far north, so far from the Imperial center. So in actual fact, although, although you could say he was the most powerful African who ever lived. He was probably the most powerful military Roman Emperor terms of his legacy. At the point he died, he thought he’d done it, but he hadn’t.
Dr Rad 45:47
That sibling rivalry really screwed things up for everybody in so many ways. Not a crazy man. What a crazy guy. Heated Rivalry season two, Caracalla and Geta
Dr Simon Elliott 46:00
That’s a good idea.
Dr G 46:03
There’s so much potential in this material to wrap things up, I’m going to leave with a an easy question, a super easy question. It’s about the source material. Challenges with the source material, and challenges for the historian, looking at the types of source material that we have for Severus life.
Dr Simon Elliott 46:24
Oh, well, as we know, it’s always a challenge, because you’re dealing with it’s what we’ve got. I am an archeologist, though, so I am always keen to triangulate anything I get from a contemporary source than anything in the archeological record, which actually, with the Severan book was pretty easy, because there’s a very good archeological record of those campaigns in the far north, especially the marching camps where the Romans In fact, one of the fascinating facts about the Severan campaigns in the far north is because he was leading 50,000 men through the Scottish Borders, the largest marching camps in the whole Roman world are there actually from that campaign. But in terms of the written sources, they’re what we’ve got, so you just deal with what you’ve got, and you always take them with a pinch of salt. You always try and triangulate. I still love going back to them, though, because it’s what there’s. There’s a line. I’ll give you my favorite line from DIO and it’s not about service. It’s about Commodus, who is my least favorite emperor, because I think Joaquin Phoenix, when he portrays him in Gladiator, nails it. Absolutely nails it. I think he was exactly like that. There’s a scene in Dio where Commodus is is showing up, pretending to be Hercules in the in the Colosseum. And of course, all the senators are in the front seats, and they’re all having to applaud, yeah, it’s brilliant. Wonderful emperor. The guy’s mental. Wonderful emperor. Great, great. He’s mad. Wonderful. Well, great and Commodus. Big trick was to fire crescent shaped arrows to chop the heads off ostriches. On one occasion, apparently did 200 in one go. Dio describes Commodus picking up an ostrich head from the ground, going up to a Dio and the senators are sitting dear as a senator, and then wags the head up and down in front of them, and says, You better laugh, boys, because if you don’t, this is what’s going to happen to you, and they all have to start laughing.
Dr Simon Elliott 48:15
So even if that’s not true, I love it. I love it. I love having to go back to the primary sources, reinterpret them time and time again. The moment I’m dealing with Ammianus Marcellinus writing a book about Galla Placidia and again, just any going back to any source is an absolute joy for me. I think there is a real thrill as well. When you know that the writer that you’re reading is a contemporary of the people that they’re talking about, it doesn’t mean that it’s going to be any more useful, necessarily, but you feel that there’s a sense of an aliveness between the writer and their subject matter. And to have Dio there talking about these people that he’s living under the regimes of, I think is absolutely fascinating. Do you think? Do you think Dio so I’m going to Procopius now. Do you think Dio might have also written his own secrets. I would love that.
Dr G 49:05
How much worse could it get? Oh, my God.
Dr Simon Elliott 49:09
Tune in. Everybody. Just go through it. Just just get just go through the list of the I just love doing this when I’m giving talks in public. Severus died in his own bed. Caracalla, assassinated Geeta, assassinated Macrinus, assassinated Elagabalus assassinated with his mum. Alexander Severus assassinated with his mum, who wants to be a Roman Emperor. It’s a dangerous, dangerous job, really, is stick. Stick with being historians not killing Sure. Well. Thank you so much for joining us. I’m sure our listeners will be dying to get their hands on on a copy of this book. Would you like to tell them where to follow you, where to find you as well. You
Dr Simon Elliott 49:48
can find me across all social media platforms, at Simon Elliott, 20 my email address, and I’m very happy for your your followers to get in touch. Simon dot, Elliot at Sentinel communications, or one word or.Dot co.uk, and the African Emperor is a Sunday Times bestseller, by the way. So who knew there was so much interest in a Roman Emperor with with from North Africa? But now you know why? Because it is amazing story, and that’s published through icon books. But also, crucially, Belinda audio, based in Australia.
Dr Rad 50:20
Love the connection.
Dr Simon Elliott 50:22
So thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you.
Dr G 50:25
It’s been an absolute pleasure. I’ll show a couple.
Dr Simon Elliott 50:28
There you go. That’s Beinda audio in Australia. Lovely. And it sounds like we will have more to talk about in forthcoming episodes. I would love to talk to you guys again. Fabulous. Talking to you. Thank you so much for having me on Thank you.
Dr Rad 50:52
Thank you for listening to this special episode of the Partial Historians. You can find our sources sound credits and an automated transcript in our show notes. Our music is by Bettina Joy De Guzman. The Partial Historians is part of the Memory Collective, creators and educators dedicated to sharing knowledge that is accessible, contextualized, socially conscious and inclusive, to find more from the memory collective head to collective mem.com. You too can support our show and help us to produce more engaging content about the ancient world by becoming a Patreon. In return, you receive exclusive early access to our special episodes and ad free content. If monthly patronage is not your style, we have merch. We have a book, or you can just buy us a coffee on ko fi. And we’d like to say a big thank you to all our Patreon supporters for making special episodes like this. One possible. However, if your Imperial coffers do not overfloweth, one of the easiest and most important ways to help us is to tell someone about the show or give us a five star review wherever you listen. Until next time we are yours in ancient Rome.
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