Septimus Severus was a Numidian African Moor from North Africa. He was the founder and ancestor of all the members of the Severan Dynasty.
âSeptimius Severus was the first Roman emperor not born and raised in Italy. His fatherâs family originally came from Libya (Leptis Magna) and his motherâs family were Etruscans (Italian).
His grandfather, a Muurish knight of the Roman empire, owned land near Rome, but Septimius had grown up in Libya, Africa with his father.â
âSeptimius married Julia Domna, a Syrian, daughter of a high priest. The name Domna is derived from the archaic Arabic word dumayna, meaning âblackâ. Septimius and Julia had two sons, Caracalla, the elder, born in AD 188, and Geta.â
Because Septimiusâs family were highly placed Roman citizens, he was entitled to be educated in Rome. Upon graduation he became a lawyer and practised briefly in Rome.
His family background, education and experience placed him within a strong network of influence and privilege. He had solid support and patronage within the highest ranks of the empire.
He became a Roman senator at the age of 18 years upon an imperial appointment sanctioned by Marcus Aureilus in 175 AD.
He then joined the imperial legion, as an officer. From the age of 24 he took part in campaigns in Spain, Syria, Gaul, Sicily and Athens. Soon he had attained the rank of a military commander in the imperial legion, and became a member of the Praetorian Guards.
He also served as the governor of Gallia Lugdunensis and Sicily and, towards the end of Commodusâ reign, he was made consul in AD 190.
As should be obvious to anyone with any knowledge of Roman history, black people in generally were foundational in the demographics of Rome. It is generally known that the kingdom that preceded Rome, Etruria, was basically built by a black and brown people who had immigrated to the Roman penninsula via North Africa.
Roman empire thus had many prominent black people, some being aboriginal Europeans, otherwise known as European Muurs, others came from Anatolia from the regions of Smyrna, Sardis, Cappodocia and Syria. Many of the ancient Bishops of the orthodox church were from this branch of black people, and their iconic images still exist today to bear testimony to their ethnicity.
One also had Muurs from Africa, Ethiopia and Libya. Muurish Africans from Morocco, from Egypt, as far as the present day Nigerbend countries like Nigeria and Mali were also prominent in the Roman empire. Many were landed aristocracy like the family of Septimius Severus, (and others such as Gaius Nigrinus etc).
Rome actively sought out the Muurish Africans because they were the founts of knowledge, religion and culture. Egyptian and Ethiopian priest presided over the shrines of Isis, which were prevalent all over the Roman empire.
Engineering geniuses from Alexandria, from Thebes, Egypt and others from Kart Hadash, from Meroe, and Abbyssinia all flocked Rome because there was a sore need of them in the construction and finishing of the imperial building projects.
Master stone cutters of Nubia and Ethiopia, master stone masons of Egypt and Libya, master builders of Anatolia, Cretes, Cyprus, Malta and southern Greece, all black, all children of Africa, were the real builders of the cities of the Roman Empire. It was almost comparable to how black people built the Americas, just that in Roman, those builders were celebrated nobility, whereas in the case of Americas, there were degraded as slaves. (Which is why it is generally said that ancient Romans invented nothing new and simply built on the foundations of more sophisticated but more ancient civilizations).
The point cannot be overemphasized. The Africans were foundational to the building and the expansion and the success of Rome. Thus, at the time of Septimius Severus, the African Muurs had gotten so influential and so numerous in the Empire that it was only a matter of time before they would take over the reigns of command.
The African called Laetus: Wars and Conspiracy
In those days, there were lots of discontentment with the politics of the day, both amongst the commoners and the elites. Rome was being ruled by a carry over from the days of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Emperor Commodus, who was hated by everyone including those entrusted to protect him.
In the military, African muurs had become so strategically important that they even had a circle which determined the overarching contours of the empireâs military politics. It was a shadow government of sorts that ruled Rome from behind the curtains. This secret group of Muurish politicians and military officers were sick and tired of Emperor Commodus and had resolved to get rid of him one way or the other.
Right at the heart of the midst of the plot to kill Emperor Commodus, was an African friend of Severusâ called Laetus. He was the then current grand master of the secret cabal that ruled Rome. Laetus was the Praetorian Prefect. The praetorian prefect was the head of the palace guards that protected the person of the Emperor. The palace guard was a legion of elite soldiers, trained to the highest standard who maintained the security of the Imperial circle. Thus next to the Emperor himself, the office of the praetorian prefect was the most powerful pedestal for affecting events in the empire.
In those treacherous days, when plots swirled in dark alleys of Rome, and the dogs hung in the shadows waiting for the moment the prey lost its wariness, and every walls had ears, Prefect Laetus could not afford to be caught with his guards down. Many had been so caught and had paid the ultimate price. So, Laetus placed people he could rely on in key positions of the empire. And so his friend and African brother Septimus Severus was put in place as governor of Upper Pannonia and the commander of the imperial legion.
Pannonia was a province of the Roman Empire, corresponding to present-day western Hungary and parts of eastern Austria, as well as portions of several Balkan states, primarily Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia (Vojvodina). The Pannonians were mainly Illyrians, but there were some Celts in the western part of the province.
The army commanded by Septimius Severus in Pannonia was no odinary one. For one it was mostly composed of a corp of crack Muurish soldiers recurited in Mauritania and the Niger bend. They were all dreadlock soldiers. They were known as the Illyrian legions.
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