Severans: The Changed Roman Empire, The
Michael Grant
Number of quotes: 24
Book ID: 350 Page: 1
Section: 3B
The end of the Antonine period in AD 192{1} marked what could be called the termination of the high-water mark of the Roman empire. It has always seemed strange to many that Marcus Aurelius (161-80), a clever man, should have been so besotted by the dynastic, paternal principle that he left the empire to his inadequate son Commodus (180-92). But the murder of Commodus not only marked the conclusion of the Antonine house, properly so-called, but ushered in a period of civil war and imperial chaos, marked by a number of short-lived reigns and attempted reigns.
Quote ID: 8046
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 350 Page: 3
Section: 3B
It is a Roman empire in which the emperor dominates events not through the senate or any other organ of the state, but by means of the soldiers.They, whether members of the praetorian guard of legionaries, were nowadays very often not Italians but provincials (Chapter 5, 6). Here is another keynote of the period. Septimius Severus himself originated from Africa, and his wife and subsequent emperors came from Syria. We are witnessing the rise of the provinces and of provincials (Chapter 5). This must not be overstressed because Rome was still the ruler of the world. But the provinces, especially Africa and Syria, were taking giant steps towards equalling Italy as dominant regions of the Roman empire.
Pastor John notes: John’s Note: Septimius
Quote ID: 8047
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 350 Page: 4
Section: 3B
Two other features of the period deserves special notice. One is the prominence of women (Chapter 8). Septimius’s wife Julia Domna was clearly a remarkable person. She did not, however, rule the empire, because her very powerful husband did that. But her sister Julia Maesa and her niece Julia Mamaea did, after that, control the Roman world. It was an age, that is to say, in which the greater part of the civilized world was ruled by women. This had never happened before, to the same extent.
Quote ID: 8048
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 350 Page: 5
Section: 2B,3B
Three more points need to be made about what we may call the ‘Severan’ period, AD 193-235.....
Monotheistic religion, too, had gained ground to an extraordinary extent. When one says this, one thinks of course first of Christianity, whose writer Tertullian possessed immense authority and power (Chapter 12). But it is also necessary to recognize that the pagan, monotheistic worship of the Sun, despite the excesses of Elagabalus in importing a Syrian version of the cult, had become very widely practised; and that the Olympian deities tended increasingly to be regarded as appendages or manifestations of this all-powerful deity.
....
There was a great deal of pagan monotheism.
Quote ID: 8049
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 350 Page: 15
Section: 3B
There emerged in his place the first legionary to become emperor (Maximinus I).
Quote ID: 8050
Time Periods: 3
Book ID: 350 Page: 23
Section: 3B
Conservatives held it against him that he was not only the first Mauretanian but also the first non-senator to occupy the imperial throne, although Macrinus tactfully apologized for his non-senatorial origins and met with some approval from the senators because they had so greatly disliked Caracalla.
Quote ID: 8051
Time Periods: 3
Book ID: 350 Page: 24
Section: 3B
Elagabalus had been born in 204, and was emperor from 218 to 222. It was Julia Domna’s sister Julia Maesa who had decided to get rid of Macrinus. He had requested her, as he saw, to withdraw to her home at Emesa in Syria. But this town, and the soldiery stationed in Syria, gave her a suitable base for revolt. The 14-year old son of her daughter Julia Soaemias, whom we know as Elagabalus, occupied the hereditary priesthood of the Sun-god El-gabal (an offshoot of the principal Semitic god El) at Emesa. He possessed a striking personal beauty which meant that he contributed spectacular picturesqueness to the elaborate, jewel-encrusted ritual of his cult.
Quote ID: 8052
Time Periods: 3
Book ID: 350 Page: 28
Section: 3B
Furthermore, Septimius was a great expander of the empire-PROPAGATOR IMPERII, as his coins and medallions tell:{6} the greatest expander, it has been said, since Trajan (98-117), and the last.
Quote ID: 8053
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 350 Page: 29
Section: 3B
But it was not only the frontier provinces that benefited from the new spirit. Additional colonies were established. In the province of Asia alone we know of four appeals by Lydians to the emperors against what they considered, no doubt rightly, to be grievances. Moreover, the Celtic language, as well as Punic, came to be used in official documents.{11}Septimius talked in world terms: of the genus humanum and the orbis. Whether or not he fully appreciated Roman institutions, and whether or not his spirit was, in fact, alien to that of Rome, certainly his understanding of the empire and its needs was wide.
Quote ID: 8054
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 350 Page: 30/31
Section: 3B
His Constitutio Antoniniana (212) appears to us one of the outstanding features of the period, although whether it seemed the same to contemporaries is uncertain. Perhaps they just regarded it as a further stage in the tendencies already noted under Caracalla’s father Septimius, to level citizens and other subjects.{17} At any rate, that is what the Constitutio did, because its principal purpose was to make the vast majority of the free population of the empire into Roman citizens. The only exceptions were people called the dediticii, and there has been a great deal of discussion about who these were. It may be concluded, with some confidence, that they were tribesmen from beyond the Danube or Euphrates who had been recently conquered, had surrendered to the Romans, and had come into their empire lured by its higher living standards and better security.Very probably one of Caracalla’s motives in promulgating the Constitutio Antoniniana was to obtain increased revenue from the inheritance and manumission taxes that citizens paid.{18} But the enactment was also symbolic of a vast change that had gradually overtaken the Roman empire.
Quote ID: 8055
Time Periods: 3
Book ID: 350 Page: 34
Section: 3B
For Septimius, who tied the soldiers closely to his own imperial person, was well aware that everything depended on the army. And in consequence he drew the deduction that, if the soldiers were to be effective and loyal, they had to be better remunerated. As a result, not only were centurions now paid 8,333-33,333 denarii - instead of the 5,000-20,000 of the late first century AD - but legionaries received perhaps 500 denarii (or a little less?) instead of the 300 which had been their pay for the past century and more.
Quote ID: 8056
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 350 Page: 41
Section: 3B
So the army had become a huge burden on the state and public. And the equestrian procurators, too, whose numbers rose from 136 to 174, had to be paid. But under Septimius the public, too, were not neglected, especially at Rome itself. The congiaria to civilians there consisted of gigantic distributions, to over 100,000 people, of free grain and oil {6} and medicine, at festivals and on other festive occasions.....
Nevertheless, such lavish imperial giving was required as part of the Golden Age which was allegedly coming into existence.{7}
Quote ID: 8057
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 350 Page: 47/48
Section: 3B
It was now that female rule really came into its own, since when Severus Alexander came to the throne he was (like Elagabalus before him) only 14, so that his mother Julia Mamaea, who was the second daughter of Julia Maesa (and wife of a Syrian from the cult centre Arca Caesarea ad Libanum, Arqa), and had possibly connived in the death of Elagabalus, inevitably and necessarily had to look after the boy - and thus ruled the vast empire.{6}Moreover, when Alexander grew up, although he was quite popular, at first, with the troops, he remained vacillating and ineffective, so that Mamaea continued to rule. He was often known, merely, as the ‘son of Mamaea’, whereas she was described as ‘Mother of the Augustus’, as well as ‘Mother of the Camp’.{7} This was the climactic point of feminine power.
Quote ID: 8058
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 350 Page: 48
Section: 3B
Julia Mamaea also made the mistake, as we have seen (Chapter 2), of amassing too much personal wealth. Her excuse that it was intended for the praetorians fell on deaf ears. She gained a reputation for meanness, which together with the military weakness of herself and her son - whom she accompanied to the north, where they were said to have made a disgraceful peace with the Germans (Chapter 5) - eventually alienated the army and led to the murder of both of them in 235. Julia Mamaea was in her early forties.The extraordinary period in which women ran the Roman empire was at an end.
Quote ID: 8059
Time Periods: 3
Book ID: 350 Page: 58
Section: 2B
Picture. As a prominent feature of the fashionable cult of past heroes, there was an immense respect for Alexander III the Great (356-323 BC), especially in his native Macedonia, where this gold medallion was a prize at the Games of AD 242-3. The lasting reverence for Alexander was enhanced by Caracalla (his portrait appears on the other side of the medallion), who was particularly attached to his memory, and by Severus Alexander (it was in his reign that the medallion was created), who on coming to the throne changed his name from Alexianus to Alexander.On this medallion Alexander the Great looks upward, with the gaze into the heavens that had become so familiar in the third century, which was so devoted to the cult of the Sun and to monotheism.
Quote ID: 8060
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 350 Page: 62/63
Section: 4B
Painting was another art which was by no means inactive under the severi. {7}As for sarcophagi, they had already during the preceding period become of major artistic importance, reflecting contemporary interest in achieving victory, in the after-life and eternity. And now, such concern was intensified, stressing allegorical, mystical mythology, in various shapes. These prestigious, costly coffins or sarcophagi were made not only at Rome, but also at Athens, and close to sculptural quarries such as those at Aphrodisias and other centres of Asia Minor.
In the history of art, these sarcophagi became increasingly predominant, replacing and superseding other artistic media, and attracting the talents of the best Roman, Greek and eastern craftsmen and artist of successive generations. Indeed, these men made such burial monuments the principal vehicles for the sculptural ornament and pattern-making of the empire.
....
And so, in the history of Roman sculpture, the sarcophagi of this period play a role of major significance - even if artistic masterpieces of the first quality are rare.
Quote ID: 8063
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 350 Page: 64
Section: 3B
Picture. Plate 21 Julia Maesa, during the reign of her grandson Elagabalus (218-22)(British Museum; M. Grant, Roman Imperial Money (1954), plate 40, no. 1)
Julia Maesa, although we do not hear of her from any first-class historian, was the most powerful woman Rome had ever known, or would ever know. A Syrian from Emesa (Homs), she was the grandmother of the eccentric young emperor Elagabalus - and after she abandoned him was grandmother of the next juvenile emperor as well, Severus Alexander, until she herself died not long after his accession.
Quote ID: 8061
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 350 Page: 66
Section: 3B
Picture. Plate 25 Julia Mamaia. Museo Nazionale (Terme), Rome (Alinari)Portraits of Julia Mamaea, not always readily identifiable - although she had, to judge from her coins, a rather distinctive hair style - recall a remarkable period in the history of the Roman empire, during which the supreme power was in the hands of a woman.
It was when ‘the Syrian princesses’ arrived on the scene, under the Severans, that this feminine rulership became truly established. And this was never more the case than during the reign of Severus Alexander. The emperor himself was at first only a boy, who needed his mother’s control and decisiveness - his mother being Julia Mamaea. And he grew up to be a different and ineffective young man who was never able (and we do not know whether, except perhaps at the last moment, he even tried) to liberate himself from maternal direction and decision-making.
Quote ID: 8062
Time Periods: 3
Book ID: 350 Page: 72/73
Section: 2B,3B
In Rome, Elagabalus (built a) magnificent temple on the Palatine to house the cult-image of the Baal of Emesa, together with an adjoining garden and shrine of Adonis....The Temple of Sol Invictus Elagabalus occupied the site of what had been the Aedes Caesarum on the east spur of the Plaltine, opposite Hadrian’s Temple of Venus and Rome.....
After Elagabalus’s death it was rededicated to Jupiter the Avenger (Jup[p]iter Ultor.{25}
The successor of Elagabalus, Severus Alexander, was responsible for this rededication.
Quote ID: 8065
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 350 Page: 74
Section: 2B,3B
The age of the Severi witnessed two very important developments in paganism: the persistence of monotheistic views and the growth of syncretism, which imported Egyptian and Syrian religious motifs to Rome, with the encouragement, no doubt, of the Syrian Julia Domna, the wife of Septimius (Chapter 8)As to monotheism, it came to be increasingly felt that there was one god, who might as well be called Jupiter, and that the other Olympians were, as one could say, manifestations of the single deity. He should be worshipped with high-minded austerity. The most significant pagan writing of the time was the long, partly fictitious Life of Apollonius of Tyana (215-38) by Flavius Philostratus. {2}
Quote ID: 8066
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 350 Page: 75/76
Section: 4B
In the early years of the Christian era, the memory of the great mystic Apollonius of Tyana moved through the known world of the time, teaching wisdom and leaving strange legends of his miracles wherever he passed. Many devotees considered him divine. G. R. S. Mead, who wrote a fine study of his life and work, says:With the exception of the Christ, no more interesting personage appears upon the stage of Western history in those early years....There is much opinion, gossip and rumour to sort out from the story of Apollonius...Alexander Severus, the son of Julia Mamaea, worshipped Apollonius.
....
I for my part bless his memory, and would gladly learn from him, as he is.{7}
Pastor John notes: John’s note: see page 109, too.
Quote ID: 8067
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 350 Page: 77/78
Section: 2B,3B
Monotheism was often identified with the worship of Sol or Helios (the Sun).There was a belief, during this same epoch, which much more nearly (than Neo-Platonism) competed with Christ for the control of the western world. This was the cult of the Sun, which was revered by millions of the inhabitants of the Roman empire. And its religion for a time even became the state worship...There was an ever-increasing tendency to explain the other traditional deities in terms of the Sun, in all but monotheistic fashion.
The cult of this deity offered flattering analogies to the imperial regime and its resplendent, sun-like leaders. Under Septimius Severus, whose wife Julia Domna came from Syria where reverence for the Sun was expecially strong, its worship almost took command of the whole state religion.
The Sun-cult could well have become the religion of the Mediterranean area for an indefinite period ahead. But it did not do so, in the end, because such a divinity was too impersonal, too lacking in urgent human appeal. Devotees of the Sun themselves felt that this excessive remoteness failed to satisfy their needs. And a branch of the cult came into vogue in order to respond to such yearnings. It was the worship of an ancient Iranian deity, Mithras, who was god of the Morning Light, and...was identified with the Sun himself.
But unlike the solar cult the ritual of Mithras always retained its private character...in marked contrast to the Sun’s innumerable appearances on the official coinage....[So] it was Christianity, instead, that won the day. For the ‘biography’ that was Mithras’s holy book...failed to persuade its readers that he had ever really appeared on earth to provide help for human beings.
Besides, Mithraism had no place for women; and it is they, as the cults of Isis and Cybele and Jesus made clear, who provided the largest numerical support for successful faiths. {12}
Quote ID: 8068
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 350 Page: 78
Section: 2B,3B
A figure of Sol had the features of Commodus, whose father Marcus Aurelius, on his death-bed, declared him to be the Rising Sun. A relief from Ephesus shows the deified Marcus ascending to the sky in the god’s chariot which returns dead souls to their heavenly element.
Quote ID: 8069
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 350 Page: 81/82
Section: 4A
Clement of Alexandria, born in c. 150 - probably at Athens - of pagan parentage, became a convert to Christianity.....
Clement, although serene and optimistic, underwent a good deal of criticism. This was partly because of his extensive knowledge of Greek literature, since he was said to have introduced too much Hellenism and humanism into his Christianity.{22} Yet his writings mark an epoch in early Christian intellectual development.
Quote ID: 8071
Time Periods: 2
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