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Septimius Severus,  Lucius  (145/6-211), Roman emperor, was the founder of the Severan dynasty and passed his last four years in Britain directing military operations against peoples beyond the northern frontier of the Roman province. A ruthless reformer and efficient administrator, his reign ranks only after those of Augustus and Hadrian in the evolution of the empire. Severus was born on 11 April 145 or 146 at Lepcis Magna in Tripolitania (Libya), a prosperous Phoenician city on the north coast of Africa; his mother was Fulvia Pia, but the name of his father is not recorded. The Septimii may have been of local Punic origin who chose to assume the Italian family name. At seventeen Severus spoke in public and then departed for Rome, retaining, it is recorded, an 'African accent' for the rest of his life  (Magie, 19.9).

Having entered the Roman senate in 169, Severus rose steadily through the succession of traditional magistracies at Rome and imperial appointments in the provinces. His first wife was Paccia Marciana; she died at some time before 185, when, during a tour of duty in Syria, he married his second wife, Julia Domna. She belonged to the priestly dynasty of Emesa in Syria and as empress became a powerful figure in her own right. Severus achieved the consulship c.190 and was appointed governor of Upper Pannonia (Hungary and northern Croatia), a major command over three legions on the Danube frontier. The murder of Pertinax (28 March 193) triggered off a competition for power between three major provincial armies: that in Britain under Decimus Clodius Albinus, the Pannonian under Severus, and the Syrian under Gaius Pescennius Niger. It was Severus who made the first and, as it proved, decisive move: proclaimed emperor by his troops on 9 April, he was ruling in Rome by the end of May. To Albinus, Severus offered the novel title 'Caesar' with its implied promise of the succession and the consulship of the following year. In 196 Albinus, who was gaining popularity among the upper classes of the west, was declared a public enemy by the senate and replaced as Caesar by Caracalla [see below], Severus's elder son (he was raised to Augustus in 198). Severus's Danube legions defeated the weaker army of Albinus near Lugdunum (Lyons) on 19 February 197 amid scenes of horrific carnage. Harsh measures against adherents of Albinus resulted in confiscations of property and may even have caused a disruption of the commerce in wine and olive oil between Spain and Britain.

Cassius Dio informs us of the state of affairs on the northern frontier of Britain  (Dio's Roman History, 75.5.4): the Caledonii, inhabitants of the Scottish highlands, had broken their pledge not to aid the Maeatae of central Scotland and, since Severus was busy with the Parthians, in order to ward off trouble, the new governor, Virius Lupus, could do no more than offer a large subsidy in exchange for a few prisoners. The same historian records a destructive invasion by peoples beyond the northern frontier around fifteen years before  (Dio's Roman History, 72.8.2-6); yet there is no conclusive evidence for a major attack from the north in 197. Repair and rebuilding of the northern forts continued. An allusion in Cassius Dio to victories won in Britain and the dedication of an altar at Benwell  (Collingwood and Wright, RIB 1337) on Hadrian's Wall to celebrate imperial victories may indicate that no major catastrophe brought Severus to Britain in 208. Yet there is the testimony of Herodian that a message came from the governor in Britain that 'the barbarians there were in a state of rebellion and were causing great damage, looting and wrecking virtually everything'  (Herodian, 3.14.1). Both Cassius Dio and Herodian in fact give greater prominence to Severus's concern that his sons and the army needed the harsh discipline of war  (Dio's Roman History, 76.11.1; Herodian, 3.14.2).

The imperial expedition to Britain in 208 was undertaken with characteristic vigour. Although coins of that year bearing the legend PROF[ECTIO] AUG[USTORUM] depict Severus riding on horseback  (Coins of the Roman Empire, 568, 854) he was now suffering from a crippling disease (gout or arthritis) which caused him to be carried everywhere in a litter but 'in spirit he was tougher than any youth'  (Herodian, 3.14.2). Accompanied by the empress, his sons, and senior military advisers (who included Papinian, prefect of the praetorian guard and the most distinguished jurist of the time), Severus crossed into the province with a large military force and a vast sum of money. The record of his British campaigns is deficient in many respects  (Dio's Roman History, 16.12.1-5; Herodian, 3.14.6-8). There are no topographical details but only the outline of a guerrilla war in which the enemy harassed an army 'cutting down forests, levelling hills, filling up swamps and bridging rivers' (Dio's Roman History, 6.13.1). Operations continued during the following years, first against the Caledonii and subsequently against the Maeatae. By 210 Severus and both his sons had formally assumed the triumphal title Britannicus  (Coins, 25, 34, 47, 49). Severus persisted with the effort until, having almost reached the extremity of the island, the Britons were forced to a settlement and to cede a great part of their territory. The victory was not conclusive and Severus was preparing to lead another attack on the Caledonii when he died at Eboracum (York) on 4 February 211.

The direction and scope of Severus's campaigns remain little known. A great deal of movement appears to have taken place by sea, for which a special combined command was created of the British, Rhine, and Danube fleets (coins of 209-11 bear images of Neptune and Oceanus). In Scotland only Cramond on the Forth and Carpow near Abernethy on the Tay can be linked with these campaigns: the former is a stone fort of normal auxiliary size (about 6 acres), the latter a purpose-built legionary base (about 24 acres). A rare coin of Caracalla showing a bridge of boats and the legend TRAIECTUS  (Coins, p. 353) may depict the Tay crossing at Carpow where remains of large temporary enclosures have been found on both banks. Severus died in his sixty-sixth year in the eighteenth year of his reign. For all his unconcealed dislike of the regime, Cassius Dio offers what seems an authentic portrait:

Small in stature but powerful until he grew weak from his illness his mind was sharp and very active. He was eager for more education than he had actually received. He was a man of few words but many ideas. He was considerate to friends, unforgiving towards opponents, single-minded in achieving his aims but caring nothing for his reputation. He raised money from every source but without killing anyone in the process, while for his part he paid out what was due without hesitation. (Dio's Roman History, 76.16.1-3)

Caracalla  [Marcus Aurelius Antoninus]  (188-217), Roman emperor , was Severus's elder son, who was born Septimius Bassianus on 4 April 188. He was known by his common nickname, which derived from his favourite dress, the Gallic cloak or caracullus. He succeeded Severus in 211, along with his brother Publius Septimius Geta. Despite the efforts of their mother, the brothers ignored their father's advice to work together, until Geta was murdered in the palace at Rome the following year, after which Caracalla ruled alone for a further five years, until his death on 8 April 217. On becoming emperor Caracalla immediately gave up the effort against the Britons: 'he made a settlement with the enemy, withdrew from their territory and evacuated the forts'  (Dio's Roman History, 77.1.1) and with his brother rapidly headed back to Rome with the army 'as if they were returning as conquerors of Britain'  (Herodian, 3.15.8). Nevertheless, Caracalla may have completed the campaign his father had planned for 211, while an inscription set over the east gate at Carpow seems to belong to the period when he was ruling alone. The division of Britain into two separate provinces, which Severus may have decided upon in 197, was now carried into effect, with the larger Upper Britain (Britannia Superior) in the south under a consular governor with two legions and in the north the smaller Lower Britain (Britannia Inferior) containing the remaining legion based at Eboracum. In the event, Caracalla's settlement proved lasting. The reconstruction of Hadrian's Wall defined permanently the northern limit of the Roman province, though effective control extended further north to roughly the line of the later England-Scotland border.

John Wilkes 

Sources  Dio's Roman history, ed. and trans. E. Cary, 9 vols. (1914-27) + Herodian, History, trans. C. R. Whittaker, 1 (1969) + D. Magie, ed. and trans., 'Life of Septimius Severus', Scriptores historiae Augustae, 1 (1921) + [Eutropius], Eutropi Breviarium ab urbe condita, ed. H. Droysen, MGH Auctores Antiquissimi, 2 (Berlin, 1879) + Sexti Aurelii Victoris liber de caesaribus, ed. F. Pichlmayr (Leipzig, 1911), 20 + Pauli Orosii Historiarum adversus paganos, ed. K. F. W. Zangemeister, 7 (Leipzig, 1889), 17 + A. R. Birley, The African emperor, Septimius Severus (1988) + S. S. Frere, Britannia: a history of Roman Britain, 3rd edn (1987), 154-70 + R. G. Collingwood and R. P. Wright, eds., The Roman inscriptions of Britain, 2 vols. (1965), RIB 1337 + Coins of the Roman empire in the British Museum, British Museum, Department of Coins and Medals, 1 (1923)
Likenesses  bronze bust, BM [see illus.] · coins, repro. in H. Mattingly and E. A. Sydenham, The Roman imperial coinage, 4. 1 (1936), 54-206, 212-308 · portraits, repro. in A. M. McCann, The Portraits of Septimius Severus, AD 193-211 (1968) · portraits, repro. in J. D. Breckenridge, 'Roman imperial portraiture from Augustus to Gallienus', Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Welt, II/12/2 (1981), 477-512

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