Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Map
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I. Architecture in the Roman Forum during the Empire: A Brief History
- Part II. The Monuments
- 3 The Temple of Antoninus and Faustina
- 4 The Temple of Caesar (Aedes divi Iuli)
- 5 The Basilica Æmilia
- 6 The Curia
- 7 The Arch of Septimius Severus
- 8 Minor Monuments
- 9 The Temple of Concord
- 10 The Temple of Vespasian
- 11 The Tabularium
- 12 The Portico of the Dei Consentes
- 13 The Temple of Saturn
- 14 The Basilica Julia
- 15 The Arch of Tiberius
- 16 The Schola Xanthi
- 17 The Diocletianic Honorary Columns
- 18 The Temple of Castor and Pollux
- 19 The Parthian Arch of Augustus (19 BCE)
- 20 The Temple of Vesta
- Part III. Conclusions
- Glossary
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Sources for Coin Images from the Internet and for Other Images
- Index
7 - The Arch of Septimius Severus
from Part II. - The Monuments
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2015
- Frontmatter
- Map
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I. Architecture in the Roman Forum during the Empire: A Brief History
- Part II. The Monuments
- 3 The Temple of Antoninus and Faustina
- 4 The Temple of Caesar (Aedes divi Iuli)
- 5 The Basilica Æmilia
- 6 The Curia
- 7 The Arch of Septimius Severus
- 8 Minor Monuments
- 9 The Temple of Concord
- 10 The Temple of Vespasian
- 11 The Tabularium
- 12 The Portico of the Dei Consentes
- 13 The Temple of Saturn
- 14 The Basilica Julia
- 15 The Arch of Tiberius
- 16 The Schola Xanthi
- 17 The Diocletianic Honorary Columns
- 18 The Temple of Castor and Pollux
- 19 The Parthian Arch of Augustus (19 BCE)
- 20 The Temple of Vesta
- Part III. Conclusions
- Glossary
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Sources for Coin Images from the Internet and for Other Images
- Index
Summary
The Rise of Severus
On December 31, 192, the rule of the Antonine dynasty, which had given Rome almost a century of unparalleled peace and prosperity, ended abruptly with the murder of Marcus Aurelius’ son, Commodus. Neglectful of his official duties and increasingly unstable, he had alienated his own courtiers. Laetus, his praetorian prefect, and Pertinax, a prominent senator, arranged the assassination and Pertinax’s succession. Although Pertinax was a stable, conservative reformer, his common sense and discipline enraged the Praetorian Guards who had been thoroughly corrupted by Commodus’ excesses. They murdered the new emperor after three months and sold the throne to Didius Julianus, a wealthy senator who had promised each praetorian a bounty of 25,000 sesterces.
The Roman people and the members of the imperial administration refused this dishonorable pact, and the governors of three militarized provinces, Pescennius Niger in Syria, Clodius Albinus in Britain, and Septimius Severus in Upper Pannonia (the western part of modern Hungary) openly rebelled. On April 9, Severus was proclaimed emperor. By June 1, he was in Italy. When he was sixty miles north of Rome, Julianus was murdered, and the Senate recognized Severus as emperor. The next year (194) he gained control of the East from Niger and marched against Niger’s Parthian supporters. The probable annexation of northern Mesopotamia in 195 prompted him to adopt the titles of “Parthicus Arabicus” and “Parthicus Adiabenicus”; and, in 197, a fi nal battle with Albinus at Lugdunum (Lyons) gave him the Western Empire. 6 Returning to the East in 198, he conquered the Parthian capital at Ctesiphon (thirty-five miles south of modern Bagdad) and took the title of “Parthicus Maximus.”
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- The Roman ForumA Reconstruction and Architectural Guide, pp. 133 - 146Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015