 Today we're going to explore Septemia Severus and the Severan Dynasty, the last great dynasty of Imperial Rome, and their impact on the city. One of the most incredible, dynamic evolutionary dynasties in the history of Rome is the Severans. And we have finally the African Emperor in charge of the Empire. He has a harrowing beginning to his reign. He has to fight wars all over the Empire, ultimately very successful, ultimately even conquering the Parthen Empire and leaves behind not one heir, but two. Catechella and Gaeta. It doesn't go so well for Gaeta, of course. And then you have the dynasty perpetuated all the way to 235 with Alexander Severus. So it is a very, say there's a dynamic cast of characters in this dynasty. And I thought, who better to talk to you about this dynasty, these individuals, their achievements, their failings, than Dr. Simon Elliott, archaeologist and author. And in fact, coming out really soon is his latest book on the Severan Dynasty, on Septemia Severus. So you're going to want to check that out. But for Ancient Rome Live, we're pleased to be able to talk with him about this period of Roman history. Where else? Ancient Rome, starting off with in front of the Arch of Septemia Severus. My name is Dr. Simon Elliott, FSA. I'm a broadcaster, historian and archaeologist. And it's my absolute pleasure to be here with Ancient Rome Live in the former Roman and one of my favourite places in the entire world. Today, I'm going to talk about Septemia Severus, the great warrior emperor. I'm AD 145 to AD 211, born in Leptis Magna in April in the blazing heat of a late spring in North Africa, in the richest town of Roman North Africa, one of the richest parts of the Roman Empire, dies in the freezing cold of a northern British winter in February 211 in York, Ibarachum. But he came to Rome four times. So he was here in AD 193 when he became the emperor at the point of a sword. Entering the Curia Senate House, which is in front of me now at the point of a sword, literally, and forced the senators to accept him as the emperor. And then he went to campaign against his opponents in the Near East. And then he came back to Rome on the way to campaign against Claudius Albanus, a usurper in AD 197. And then he went back to campaigning in the Easter Gain. And this time he defeated Parthia and sat in their capital, Tessiphon. And then he came back to Rome again briefly in 202 after visiting Egypt. He was only here six months, went to North Africa on this triumphal parade through North Africa, visiting all the key sites there, ultimately going to Lectius Magna, his hometown, which he had not been to for nearly 30 years, and he rebuilt the whole thing. So today, Lectius Magna, as you see it, is the town that Severus built when he went on his visit. And then he came back to Rome again in 203 and was here from 203 to 208 when he went to Britain, campaigning 209 and 210 to try and conquer the far north of Scotland. Almost succeeded, but died in York in 211. So that's the story of Septimius Severus. When we look at the entire Severan dynasty, we have to remember the women as real protagonists, starting with Julia Domna. She was the second wife at Septimius Severus. She was from Syria and she brought with her a lot of prestige and her great intelligence, guided her sons, Caracalla and Gaeta. She's not the only one in the Severan dynasty. And when we delve into the history of the successive emperors and no one ever stands out as much as Septimius Severus, we see that the women are behind the throne, oftentimes the most important power. And they didn't just signal the importance of that extensive network of family members of the Severans, but also they were present. They were builders in Rome. Right behind me is the Temple of Vesta. Now the Temple of Vesta you can see here was rebuilt in the Severan period. The original Temple burnt down in the fire in 1.9.1, a great fire in which a lot of the buildings in the Forum were destroyed in the reign of Commodus. But when Septimius Severus became the emperor in 1.9.3, his wife, Julia Domna, his second wife, the mother of Caracalla and Gaeta, she championed the Temple of Vesta and she, Julia Domna, effectively had it rebuilt. So the building you see today is actually the building which was rebuilt on the orders of Julia Domna, the wife of Septimius Severus. I'm standing here in front of the site of the Temple of Iliogabulus and Iliogabulus was one of the Severan dynasties. So we'll start with the beginning in 1.9.3 with Septimius Severus. He's the emperor through to 1.8.2.11 when he dies in York. He's replaced briefly with a diarchy of Caracalla and Gaeta and then Caracalla by the end of 2.11 has either murdered or had murdered Gaeta. So then we have Caracalla. Caracalla is the emperor through to 2.17 when he's assassinated himself while having a comfort break on the eastern frontier and he's replaced by the Praetorian Prefect, Macrinus, who's only briefly the emperor and then we go back to the Severan dynasties again. So we have Iliogabulus and then finally Alexander Severus. Alexander Severus himself is assassinated on the Rhine frontier fighting the Germans by one of his own generals, Maximus Thrax. And that brings to the end of the Severan dynasty. Here we have the famous painted tondo today in Berlin chose the imperial family, the first of the Severan dynasty, Syrian Julia Domna. Septemia Severus, the first African emperor and their sons. There's Caracalla on the right and the defaced portrait of Gaeta. This truly was a hyper competitive family. One of the great and told stories about Rome is the Severan period and the Severan rebuilding program. So when Severus became the emperor in 1903, from that time he visited Rome four times before leaving in 208 and then he died in York in 211. But if you look at the Forum Romanum or if you look at the Palatine Imperial Palace, much of the structures you see today are still Severan, not just the arch of Septemia Severus, the magnificent, my favorite arch in the Forum Romanum. You go on the Palatine Hill, the buildings behind us are called the Severan building. So this is part of the Severan Imperial Palace, which he reconstructed. Severus was a huge fan of standing on the viewing platform, which he built more or less with the viewing platform is today to look at activities in the Circus Maximus, which is that way. And then in front of where I'm standing is the very famous Septozodium. Septozodium was an empham, this grand facade with cascading gardens and water at waterfalls, which Severus built on the front of the Imperial Palace, which was the entrance to the Severan Palace. And even the Temple of Vesta was rebuilt by Julian Donner. So much of Rome that you see today, ancient Rome, is Severan in period. So, Darius, where are we now? We are standing in this beautifully recently opened park, an archaeological park on the Kylian Hill. And it also houses the brand new former Urbis Museum, which is a great way to talk about the Severans, because the former Urbis plan, that marble plan that we have today preserved in the museum is actually dating to the time of the Severans. And this park right here has a lot of ancient Rome here, a lot of statues and reliefs and so forth. And actually right over here, you've got the part of a temple or shrine, which is to the goddess Fortuna Mulievres. So we actually have Fortuna of the Wives, dedicated by Augustus and Livia, but then you have a secondary inscription dedicated by Septemius Severus and Julian Donner. So wherever you look in Rome today, you're going to find the Severans. I've got to tell you, Darius, I think the story of the Severans in Rome is actually the untold story of classical Rome. Ancient Rome, because I reckon about a third of it is actually Severan in date, in some way, shape or form. Most of it being to the time of Septemius Severus, who became the Emperor in 193, died in 211, and his wife, Julian Donner, the mother and father of Caracalla and Gita, of course. So you have, I mean, because I'm saying we've been brainwashed, but we have, you know, the Augustan poets, we have Augustus, we have Julius Caesar, moving forward, you've got the Flavians, you've got the Spajians. There's the Colosseum right down there, but that Colosseum was repaired by the Severans after the famous fire in 217. Absolutely right. And indeed, actually, where we're standing here, you've got the Battle of Caracalla over here, which would have been the Battle of Septemius Severus, by the way. Absolutely. In fact, the construction started under Septemius Severus, and of course, Caracalla being Caracalla after Severus' death and having killed Gita in some way, shape or form, then renamed the Battle of Caracalla. Right. Personally, I still think this should be called the Battle of Septemius Severus, but I would say that as the author of a forthcoming biography of Septemius Severus. But even standing here, we could probably see in the Severan period on the hill behind us. Yeah. On the Palatine. On the temple of, you know, Gabulus, Severan emperor. You can see the Septus Odium, which is the façade. Yeah, right over there. Right over there. Exactly. And that's going to be greeting everyone. The idea was it's going to be greeting the Africans coming into Rome. Who run the show. Yeah, they're coming into the show. They're coming into Rome. And what do they see? They see that grand façade at the Septus Odium that celebrates the emperor. So that's a great encapsulation of this point here on the Kylian Hill to connect to so many different Severan projects. There you go. And one of the things that most people don't realize, Darius, is with the Severans, they effectively reset the whole Roman Empire along sort of North African lines. A lot of the administrators, a lot of the commanders of legions, they became North Africans. Some people call it a hostile takeover, actually. I mean, if you were Italian, you'd be very upset because you're the ones that had a good run and now you're out and income of the provinces incomes basically the wealthiest part of the empire, North Africa. And now they're in charge. The interesting thing as well is we call it North Africa today because it's North Africa. For the Romans, it's Africa. But it's part of the Mediterranean Roman Empire. So for the Romans, Africans coming here, Italians going there, it's absolutely normal. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. But it is a shocking jolt to suddenly find your empire being administrated largely by people from Africa, not from Rome. And it was a change that was ushered in and nothing was ever going to be the same. And then you're going to miss the Severans when you have that next period, that period of crisis. One of the things that I picked up in my own research from my book, actually, is Severus was for me one of the greatest Roman emperors. I think he was the most powerful because he had 33 legions. More legions than anybody else after he created the legio one, two and three pathica for his eastern campaigns. But it's very clear when you do a deep dive, he's also very avaricious. So one of the things he's doing is making sure that it's not only lining the imperial fiscous when he's popping off senator after senator after senator, executing them often without trial if they oppose him in any way, shape or form. But he's appropriating their wealth. It's not just going into his own fiscous. It's going also into his own purse. So he's the Roman emperor that all sets this standard to make sure that the imperial family are also not only the imperial family, not only the first people in the Roman Empire, but also individually incredibly rich. Our thanks again to Simon Elliott for all of his books, including his new one on Septimius Severus. Check the links in the description below. And we'll have more conversations on the Severans and separate videos. And of course, we want you to join us in Rome as well. Check out our courses, hromelive.org, slash courses. And we'll see you in Rome. This video was brought to you through a grant from the CAAS Martiantonio Award.