SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS (L. Septimius Severus), Roman Emperor. - Born at Leptis Magna (Libya) on 11 April 146, died at York (England) in February 211.
A descendant of an equestrian family, he went to Rome and, under the protection of Marcus Aurelius, embarked on the career of honors; he was quaestor (170), tribune of the plebs (176) and praetor in Spain (178). Under Commodus he fell into temporary disfavor but then regained credit and was governor in Gaul (187), in Sicily (189) and in Upper Pannonia (192). There, on the death of Pertinax (March 193), he was acclaimed emperor by his soldiers while those of Gaul acclaimed their commander Clodius Albinus, those of the East Pescennius Niger, and at Rome the praetorians elected Didius Julianus, S. came at once to Italy; he allied himself with Albinus while Julianus was killed, and the Senate recognized him as emperor. He then marched against Pescennius and defeated him near Issus (194). Having returned to Italy, he fought against his colleague Albinus and defeated him at Lyon (197), remaining sole emperor. He then established an anti-Senatorial policy, linking it to that of Commodus, to whom he decreed apotheosis. After a new campaign in the East that ended badly, he returned to Italy and set about organizing and pacifying the Empire, which was struggling in a profound social, moral and military crisis. He put down the revolt of Bullus Felix, filled the state coffers by increasing fiscal collections, and favored the military in every way in order to remove from them any pretext for revolt. He attended to the organization of the provinces, especially of Africa, and devoted himself to the codification of law; he gave new impetus to the imperial cult.
With regard to Christianity, S. at first showed himself tolerant, indeed even favorable. Tertullian reports that he had a Christian physician in his palace, that he entrusted his son Bassianus to a Christian nurse, and that he energetically opposed the popular fury rioting against the Christians (Ad Scapulam, 4). Yet even in the early years of his reign there were not lacking victims, due to popular uprisings or to the hostile disposition of some provincial magistrate, as in Africa (Tertullian, Apolog., 12, 30, 37), at Alexandria (Clement, Stromata, II, 125), in Cappadocia (Ad Scapulam, 3). But the good dispositions of S. S. toward the Christians did not last long. After the Parthian war, in 202, while traveling in the East, as he was making his way from Palestine toward Alexandria, he suddenly issued a decree by which Judaeos fieri sub gravi poena vetuit, item de christianis tanxit (Script. Hist. Aug., Vita S., 17). The motive for this decree is not entirely clear. It seems that S. S. was frightened and worried by the great spread of Christianity, so as to see in it a danger for the stability of the Empire, and therefore forbade conversions, punishing those who converted and those who proselytized. By virtue of the Edict the famous school of Alexandria was dispersed and several of its students suffered martyrdom (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., VI, 4); the father of Origen was one of the victims (ibid., VI, 1). At Carthage the group of Perpetua, Felicity and companions was condemned (v.). For other provinces of the Empire there is no certain information, but there is no reason to doubt that there were other victims.
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Agostino Amore