Severus Alexander

Emperor

Severus Alexander became emperor at around age 13, succeeding his slain cousin Elagabalus. His grandmother Julia Maesa, believing Alexander had more potential to rule and gain support from the Praetorian Guard, had Elagabalus adopt the young Alexander and then arranged for Elagabalus's assassination. The Roman army hailed Alexander as emperor on 13 March 222, and the Senate ratified his acclamation the following day, conferring on him the titles of Augustus, Pater patriae, and Pontifex maximus. Throughout his life, Alexander relied heavily on guidance from his grandmother Maesa, before her death in 224, and his mother Julia Mamaea. As a young, inexperienced adolescent, he knew little about government, warcraft, or ruling an empire, but the army later came to admire his simple virtues and moderate behavior. Under his mother's influence, he improved morals and the condition of the people, and enhanced the dignity of the state. He employed noted jurists such as Ulpian to oversee justice, and his advisers included the senator and historian Cassius Dio. He created a select board of 16 senators, though this claim is sometimes disputed, and a municipal council of 14 to assist the urban prefect in administering Rome's 14 districts. Excessive luxury at court was diminished, and he restored the Baths of Nero in 227 or 229, which are sometimes called the Baths of Alexander. He extended the imperial residence at the Horti Lamiani on the Esquiline Hill and created the Nymphaeum of Alexander, a great fountain at the end of the Aqua Claudia aqueduct.

Assassination

In the early months of 235, the emperor Severus Alexander was compelled to confront Germanic forces. By the time he and his mother, Julia Mamaea, reached the front, the immediate threat had calmed. Acting on her advice, he chose to bribe the Germanic army into surrender rather than engage in battle. This decision, along with growing disobedience among his own soldiers, severely damaged his standing. In early March, during a meeting with his generals at Moguntiacum, modern Mainz, a mutiny by the Legio XXII Primigenia resulted in the assassination of both Alexander and his mother, paving the way for Maximinus to take the throne.

The Historia Augusta presents two accounts of the killing. One theory holds that resentment toward Mamaea was the primary cause. The other, favored by the writer Lampridius, describes a different scene. After his midday meal, Alexander was consulting with his rebellious troops inside an open tent. The soldiers compared him unfavorably to his cousin Elagabalus, a deeply unpopular emperor whose own murder had cleared the path for Alexander’s rule. A Germanic servant then entered the tent and raised the first cry for assassination, prompting many soldiers to join the attack. Alexander’s personal guards fought back but were overwhelmed. Within minutes, Alexander was dead. His mother, who was in the same tent, was soon killed by the same group.

Tradition holds that the bodies of Alexander and his mother were interred together in a Roman mausoleum known as Monte del Grano, the third largest in the city after those of Hadrian and Augustus. A large sarcophagus discovered inside the tomb in the 16th century, now housed in the Palazzo dei Conservatori Museum, was once believed to contain the emperor’s remains, but that claim has been dismissed as unfounded.

Legacy

The Severan dynasty ended with the death of Severus Alexander. He was the final ruler from the Syrian line and the first emperor removed by widespread military rebellion. After he was killed, his economic measures were abandoned and the Roman currency lost value, triggering the Crisis of the Third Century that nearly destroyed the empire. His downfall also changed expectations for future emperors. While they were not required to fight personally, they now needed to show real military skill. Alexander followed his mother’s advice to avoid combat, used shameful tactics against Germanic tribes, and failed in his Persian campaign. Soldiers found this unacceptable. Maximinus overthrew him by stressing his own military strength compared to Alexander’s cowardice. By claiming the power to depose an emperor, the legions created fifty years of chaos and instability. Alexander was made a god after Maximinus died in 238. His most lasting link to later history is the Portland Vase, a cameo glass piece from around Augustus’s reign. It was supposedly found in the 16th century at the Monte Del Grano mausoleum of Alexander and his family. Pietro Santi Bartoli described the discovery and claimed the vase held Alexander’s ashes, but no proof ties it to his sarcophagus, and the scenes on it remain disputed. The vase went to Sir William Hamilton, then to the Duchess of Portland in 1784, giving it its name. In 1845, a disturbed man shattered it in the British Museum, and it has been reassembled three times. Josiah Wedgwood copied it in black Jasperware in 1786, adding drapery to cover nudity, and his replicas later helped with the vase’s reconstructions.

Personal life

According to the Historia Augusta, Alexander's chief amusement consisted in having young dogs play with little pigs. Herodian portrays him as a mother's boy. His only known wife was Sallustia Orbiana, Augusta, whom he married in 225 when she was 16. The marriage was arranged by his mother Mamaea, but as soon as Orbiana received the title of Augusta, Mamaea became increasingly jealous and resentful, leading Alexander to divorce and exile Orbiana in 227 after her father Seius Sallustius was executed for treason. According to the Historia Augusta, a work of dubious reliability, Alexander was also at some point married to Sulpicia Memmia, a member of an ancient Patrician family and daughter of a man of consular rank; this marriage has been questioned. The ancient historian Zosimus claimed Alexander was married three times. A man named Varius Macrinus may have been his father-in-law, but it is uncertain if he was the same as Seius Sallustius, the father of Memmia, or the father of an entirely unknown third wife. Alexander is not known to have fathered any children, though the Talmudic figure of Aseverus, son of Antonius was said to have a daughter named Justina. He was extremely tolerant of Jews and Christians, continuing all privileges towards Jews during his reign. The Historia Augusta, considered generally unreliable, relates that Alexander placed images of Abraham and Jesus in his oratory, along with other Roman deities and classical figures, and prayed there every morning.