SEVERUS. 



raifed to the higheft honours, being fucceflively appointed 

 governor of the diftridl of JLyons, conful, and commander 

 of the legions polled on the banks of the Danube. 



At the death of Commodus, Severus acquiefced in the 

 elevation of Pertinax to the throne ; but when, after the 

 murdifr of that prince, the empire was purchafed by Didius 

 Juhanus, he procured himfelf to be declared emperor by his 

 Paniionian lejyions, in the year 193. Senfible that nothing 

 was fo eflential to his fuccefs as celerity, after preparing his 

 troops, he immediately commenced his march, which he per- 

 formed on foot, at the head of a feleft body of guards, 

 (haring with the meanell foldier all the hardihips of his rapid 

 advance. He entered Italy without meeting with any re- 

 filtance, Julianus being incapable of any confillent and 

 cfFeftive meafures. On his approach to Rome, his competitor 

 was depofed and put to death, and Severus received the de- 

 cree of his eleftion to the empire. His firll aft of power 

 was to inflift a jult punifhment on thofe of the prstorian 

 guards who were immediately concerned in the murder of 

 Pertinax, which was the only blood that his elevation 

 hitherto coft. Though he fpared the lives of the reft of that 

 mutinous and dilTolute body, he determined to difband 

 them, and with this view he fummoned them on a plain near 

 the city, ordering them to come without arms. He now re- 

 proached them for their want of diicipline, llripped them of 

 their ornaments, and ordered them, on pain of initant death, 

 to depart to the diftance of one iiundred miles from the 

 capital. Severus was not fecure on his throne, having to 

 contend with two formidable rivals, Pefcennius Niger, go- 

 ■vernor of Syria, and Clodius Albinus, commander in Britain. 

 Niger being the more powerful, Severus made the firft attack 

 upon him ; and in the mean time, to fecure himfelf againft 

 the attacks of Albinus, he flattered his vanity, conferring 

 upon him the title of Ca:far ; and in a letter conceived in 

 terms of apparent refpedl and friend(hip, he requefted him to 

 partake with himfelf the toils of government, which age and 

 infirmity rendered him unable to undergo without an aflb- 

 ciate. In this manner he difarmed the unlufpefling foldier. 

 Severus now marched out to encounter Niger, whom he 

 defeated in feveral battles, of which the laft was at Illus, in 

 Cilicia. Severui was now freed from further conteft by the 

 death of his rival, who was flain in his flight to the 

 Euphrates, but he ufed his victory with great rigour ; he 

 banilhed and afterwards put to death the fons of Niger, 

 feverely fined all the towns which had taken his part, and 

 executed all the fenators who had been officers in his army. 

 Taking Byzantium after a long fiege, he difmantlcd and 

 reduced it to the condition of a village, confifcating all the 

 property of the inhabitants. He remained in Afia fome 

 time after the victory over Niger, and made an expedition 

 into Melopotamia, where he obliged the Parthians to raife 

 the fiege of Nifibis, and gained other advantages over the 

 Barbarians on the frontiers. 



Severus was now too great to think of fharing his power 

 with a partner : he accordingly deprived Albinus of the 

 prerogatives attaching to the title of Caefar, while Albinus 

 laid claim to the rank of Auguftus. An open rupture 

 enfued, and each prepared to decide the conteft. They met 

 at Lyons, each at the head of 150,000 men, equal in valour 

 and difciplinc. Severus was the conqueror, and his rival 

 dertroyed himfelf. This event took place in 197. Severus 

 being now undifputcd mafter of the empire, indulged 

 without reftraint his difpofition to cruelty. After putting 

 to death the family of Albinus, and all the prifoners of rank 

 taken in the battle, together with many citizens in the towns 

 of Gaul, which had favoured his rival, he extended his 

 Severity t« the Roman fcnate, which had difpUyed an 



inchnation towards the caufe of Albinus. By way of infult 

 to that body, he conferred divine honours on the tyrant Com- 

 modus, whofe memory they had declared to be deteftable and 

 mfamous ; and when he returned to Rome, he made a 

 reproachful and menacing fpeech to the allembled fenate, 

 followed by the execution, without trial, of twcnty-ninc, or, 

 as another account fays, of forty-one of the molt diilinguilhed 

 members, whom of his own accord he pronounced guilty of 

 favouring the enemy. Confcious of having thus made 

 himfelf odious to the fuperior dalles, he endeavoured, by 

 all the means in his power, to ingratiate himlelf with the 

 people at large by public exhibitions, and by exemptions from 

 certain duties ; and it has been affirmed that, notwithllanding 

 his tyranny, peace and profperity were generally prevalent 

 throughout the empire during the reign of this emperor. 

 Severus ftudioully cultivated the affeftion of the foldiery, 

 by the augmentation of their pay, and by privileges and in- 

 dulgences which he granted them, and which have been con- 

 fidered as materially tending to introduce that relaxation of 

 military difcipline which in the end put a period to the 

 Roman empire. 



He fupplied the place of the praetorian guards, whom he 

 had difbanded, by a more numerous body, feleded from all 

 the legions, and confifting, in great part, of the natives of 

 barbarous natfons ; and he conferred unufual authority on 

 their commander Plautianus. To his reign is chiefly attri- 

 buted the introduftion of thofe maxims of imperial preroga- 

 tive which entirely put an end to all ideas of a republic, and 

 placed the government upon the footing of an abfolute and 

 unlimited monarchy. The indolence of the capital did not 

 fuit the difpofition of Severus. Learning that, while he wai 

 engaged with Albinus, the Parthians had made an irruption 

 into Mefopotamia, and threatened Nifibis, he hartened into 

 the Eaft, and not only relieved that city, but took Seieucii 

 and Cteflphon. He then marched towards Armenia, the 

 king of which country fued for peace, and obtained it. 

 Some fuccefsful incurfions into Arabia concluded his eallern 

 expedition, from which he returned in the year 203, after an 

 abfence of five or fix years. He celebrated hi.s vidorics by 

 many fplendid fpeftacles ; and in the fame year he married his 

 fon Caracalla, whom he had fome years before created Au- 

 guftus, to the daughter of Plautianus ; his fecond, Geta, 

 had been elevated to the rank of Crfar, and both thefe 

 princes had received their honours at a very early age. 

 This union, which feemcd likely to exalt the favourite 

 minilter Plautianus to the fummit of fortune, was the caufe 

 of his dellruftion, for Caracalla, who had acquired a great 

 afccndancy over his father, fcorned his bride, and hated her 

 father, and procuring an accufation againll him of having 

 formed a conlpiracy to take away the emperor's life, he 

 caufed him to be killed in the prefence of Severus. His 

 death drew after it that of many of his relations and ad- 

 herents, and the cruelty of the emperor increafed with hit 

 years. The reciprocal hatred between his two fons, and 

 the ferocious charaftcr of the eldeft, were fourccs of the 

 utmoil difquietude to him in the midft of his external pro- 

 fperity. He in vain employed every argument to reconcile 

 them, and at length he placed them on a pcrfeit equality, by 

 raifing Geta, as well as his brother, to the rank of Auguftus. 

 It was chiefly with a view of removing thefe princes from 

 the liccntioufiiefs of the capital, and keeping them under 

 his own eye, that in the year 208 he undertook an ex- 

 pedition to the northern part of Britain, the uncivilized 

 tribes of which had made incurfions into the Roman pro- 

 vinces. He took his fons with him, and at the head of a 

 powerful army proceeded beyond the walls of Adrian and 

 Antoninus, and penetrated to the northern extremity of the 

 Y y 2 ifland. 



