The “Severan dynasty” was founded by Septimius Severus at the end of the “year of five emperors” (193 C.E). Although the judgement of history has been relatively kind to Septimius, his choice to name his young and relatively unqualified sons as his successors was a disaster, comparable to Marcus Aurelius’ choice of his son Commodus to be his successor. Upon his death, Septimius’s two sons, Geta and Caracalla became, very briefly, Co-emperors. Within two months, Caracalla had his brother murdered, making himself sole ruler of Rome. However, like Caligula, Nero, and Commodus before him, Caracalla became intoxicated by imperial power to the point of believing in his own divinity. Some ancient peoples, like the Egyptians, were willing to accept their kings as living gods and worship them. However, like the Greeks of Athens, the Romans were more inclined to kill those who would be their kings than to worship them. It might be argued that the Emperors of Rome aspired for the status achieved by the successors of Alexander. The descendants of Ptolemy and Seleucus were hereditary monarchs, worshiped as gods in their kingdoms. However, it should be remembered that, to the Greeks of Athens, all of the successors of Alexander were not true Greeks but Macedonians and pretenders to the Greek heritage. Unlike the citizens of Athens, the Macedonians had never freed themselves from the yoke of kings.
The regal posturing of Caracalla led to his assassination in 217 and the short reign of Macrinus, the prefect of the Praetorian guard, who orchestrated the murder. It was at this point that the eldest of the “five Julias” (see previous post) took charge of the empire. Julia Maesa, sister in law of Septimius Severus, used her wealth to put her undeserving 14-year-old grandson Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus, on the throne. As emperor, he took the name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, but because in his early youth he had served the god Elagabalus as a priest in Emesa, and he tried to promote the worship of this eastern god in Rome, he is known to history as Elagabalus. In order to provide some credibility to Elagabalus’ claim to the throne, his mother and grandmother put it out that he was in fact an illegitimate son of Caracalla. This is not really credible, as Elagabalus was born in Syria at a time when Caracalla was in Rome, ruling Co-emperor with his father Septimius.
The atrocities and scandals of Elagabalus are legendary and included forcing the vestal virgin, Aquilia Severa, to be his wife after he divorced his first wife Julia Paula. His mother Julia Soaemias and grandmother Julia Maesa knew that this would be unacceptable to the Roman nobility and persuaded him to divorce Aquilia Severa and marry Anna Faustina, a descendent of the brides of the great emperors Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, Faustina the elder and younger, respectively. The exact lineage connecting Anna Faustina to the wife of Antoninus Pius is unclear to me.
To the disappointment of his grandmother, and many others, in less than a year, Elagabalus divorced Anna Faustina in order to remarry Aquilia Severa. Elagabalus had liaisons with several men, as well as other women. At one point, he “married” his chariot driver, a blond slave from Caria name Hierocles, whom he referred to as his husband. Reportedly, he also offered a large reward to any physician who could surgically provide him with a vagina. To some he is considered a pioneer/martyr to transgender equality.
In 222 Elagabalus was assassinated. Apparently, the cadre of Julias anticipated this possible outcome and had persuaded Elagabalus to adopt his cousin Severus Alexander as his heir. Severus Alexander ruled for thirteen years until he and his mother were assassinated by Roman troops on the German frontier.
Although we consider the Severan dynasty as founded by Septimius Severus, the real root and strength of this dynasty were the five Julias, and the last two emperors of the dynasty were not blood relations of the founder at all. After the assassination Severus Alexander, Rome was thrown into chaos again, a period known as “The Crisis of the Third Century”.
