Severus

Sevērus, ī, m.: a mountain in the Sabine country, 7.713.

Sĕvērus, i, m. [1. severus],

• a proper name.
• • A Of several men.
  • • 1 Cornelius Severus, a poet in the Augustan age, Quint. 10, 1, 89; Ov. P. 4, 2, 2 sqq.; 4, 16, 9.—
    • 2 Septimius Severus, a Roman emperor, A.D. 193-211.—
    • 3 Alexander Severus, a Roman emperor, A. D. 222-235, Eutr. 8, 10; Spart. Sev. 1 sqq.—
    • 4 T. Cassius Severus, a Roman orator, in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, Quint. 10, 1, 116; Tac. Or. 19.—
    • 5 Sulpicius Severus, a bishop in Gaul, author of a Historia Sacra, and of the Vita S. Martini, and several smaller works.—
  • B Mons Severus, a mountain in the country of the Sabines, Verg. A. 7, 713.

2. Sevērus, ī, m., ein römischer Familienname, unter dem bes. bekannt sind a) in literarhistor. Beziehung, Cornel. Severus, ein epischer Dichter zur Zeit des Augustus, Quint. 10, 1, 89. Sen. suas. 6, 25 sq.: Freund des Ovid, Ov. ex Pont. 4, 2, 1 sqq.; 4, 16, 9. Vgl. W. Teuffel Gesch. der röm. Liter.⁶ § 252, 5. – T. Cassius Severus, röm. Rhetor zur Zeit des Augustus u. Tiberius, Sen. exc. contr. 3. praef. § 1 sqq. Quint. 10, 1, 116. Plin. 7, 55. Tac. dial. 19 u. 26. Vgl. W. Teuffel Gesch. der röm. Liter.⁶ § 267, 11. – Septimius Severus, aus Afrika gebürtig, ein Rhetor, Zeitgenosse des Quintilian u. Statius, Quint. 4, 1, 9. Stat. silv. 4. prooem. p. 95, 15 Baehr. u. 4, 5, 34. Vgl. W. Teuffel Gesch. der röm. Liter.⁶ § 315, 5 u. 326, 9. – Sulpicius Severus, ein christlicher Schriftsteller im fünften Jahrh., Verf. einer historia sacra (chronica gen.), einer vita Martini u.a. Schriften. Vgl. W. Teuffel Gesch. der röm. Liter.⁶ § 441. – b) als Kaiser, L. Septimius Severus, reg. 193–211 n. Chr., Spart. Sever. 1 sqq. Eutr. 8, 19. – Aurelius Alexander Severus, reg. 222 bis 234 n. Chr., Lampr. Alex. Sev. 1 sqq. Eutr. 8, 23. – Dav. Sevēriānus, a, um, severianisch, des Kaisers (Septimius) Severus, thermae, Spart. Sev. 19, 5.

2 Sĕvērus, (12) ī, m. , surnom romain : Quint. 10, 1, 89 ; 10, 1, 116.

Sevērus, A. Caecina

See Caecina.

Sevērus

Cassius. A celebrated orator and satirical writer in the time of Augustus and Tiberius, was born about B.C. 50 at Longula, in Latium. He was a man of low origin and dissolute character, but was much feared for the severity of his attacks upon the Roman nobles. He must have commenced his career as a public slanderer very early, if he is the person against whom the sixth Epode of Horace is directed, as is supposed by many ancient and modern commentators. Towards the latter end of the reign of Augustus, Severus was banished by Augustus to the island of Crete on account of his libellous verses; but as he still continued to write libels, he was removed by Tiberius in A.D. 24 to the desert island of Seriphus, where he died in great poverty in the twenty-fifth year of his exile, A.D. 33.

Sevērus, Cornelius

, the author of a poem entitled Bellum Siculum. He was contemporary with Ovid, by whom he is addressed in one of the Epistles written from Pontus.

Sevērus, Flavius Valerius

A Roman emperor (A.D. 306-307). He was proclaimed Caesar by Galerius in 306, and was soon afterwards sent against Maxentius, who had assumed the imperial title at Rome. The expedition, however, was unsuccessful; and Severus, having surrendered at Ravenna, was taken as a prisoner to Rome, and compelled to put an end to his life. See Maxentius.

Sevērus, Libius

A Roman emperor (A.D. 461- 465). He was a Lucanian by birth, and owed his accession to Ricimer, who placed him on the throne after the assassination of Majorian. During his reign the real government was in the hands of Ricimer. Severus died a natural death (Iornand. De Rebus Goth. 45).

Sevērus, Lucius Septimius

A Roman emperor (A.D. 193-211), who was born 146, near Leptis in Africa. After holding various important military commands under M. Aurelius and Commodus, he was at length appointed commander-in-chief of the army in Pannonia and Illyria. By this army he was proclaimed emperor after the death of Pertinax (193). He forthwith marched upon Rome, where Iulianus had been made emperor by the Praetorian troops. Iulianus was put to death upon his arrival before the city. (See Iulianus.) Severus then turned his arms against Pescennius Niger, who had been saluted emperor by the Eastern legions. The struggle was brought to a close by a decisive battle near Issus, in which Niger was defeated by Severus, and, having been shortly afterwards taken prisoner, was put to death by order of the latter (194). Severus then laid siege to Byzantium, which refused to submit to him even after the death of Niger, and which was not taken till 196. The city was treated with great severity by Severus. Its walls were levelled with the earth, its soldiers and magistrates put to death, and the town itself, deprived of all its political privileges, made over to the Perinthians. During the continuance of this siege, Severus had crossed the Euphrates (195) and subdued the Mesopotamian Arabians. He returned to Italy in 196, and in the same year proceeded to Gaul to oppose Albinus, who had been proclaimed emperor by the troops in that country. Albinus was defeated and slain in a terrible battle fought near Lyons on the 19th of February, 197. Severus returned to Rome in the same year; but after remaining a short time in the capital, he set out for the East in order to repel the invasion of the Parthians, who were ravaging Mesopotamia. He crossed the Euphrates early in 198, and commenced a series of operations which were attended with brilliant results. Seleucia and Babylon were evacuated by the enemy, and Ctesiphon was taken and plundered after a short siege. After spending three years in the East, and visiting Arabia, Palestine, and Egypt, Severus returned to Rome in 202. For the next seven years he remained tranquilly at Rome, but in 208 he went to Britain with his sons Caracalla and Geta. Here he carried on war against the Caledonians, and erected the celebrated wall, which bore his name, from the Solway to the mouth of the Tyne. After remaining two years in Britain, he died at Eboracum (York) on the 4th of February, 211, in the sixty-fifth year of his age and the eighteenth of his reign. His life is written by Spartianus. See Duruy, Septime - Sévère (Paris, 1878); and Hassebrank, Kaiser Septimius Severus, 2 pts. (1890-91).

Sevērus, Marcus Aurelius Alexander

, usually called Alexander Sevērus. A Roman emperor (A.D. 222-235), the son of Gessius Marcianus and Iulia Mamaea, and first cousin of Elagabalus. He was born at Arcé, in Phoenicia, in the temple of Alexander the Great, to which his parents had repaired for the celebration of a festival, on the 1st of October, A.D. 205. His original name appears to have been Alexianus Bassiānus, the latter appellation having been derived from his maternal grandfather. Upon the elevation of Elagabalus, he accompanied his mother and the court to Rome, a report having been spread abroad that he also, as well as the emperor, was the son of Caracalla. In 221 he was adopted by Elagabalus and created Caesar. The names Alexianus and Bassianus were laid aside, and those of M. Aurelius Alexander substituted; M. Aurelius in virtue of his adoption; Alexander in consequence, as was asserted, of a direct revelation on the part of the Syrian god. On the death of Elagabalus, on the 11th of March, A.D. 222, Alexander ascended the throne, adding Severus to his other designations, in order to mark more explicitly the descent which he claimed from the father of Caracalla. After reigning in peace some years, during which he reformed many abuses in the State, he was involved in a war with Artaxerxes, king of Persia, who had lately founded the new Empire of the Sassanidae on the ruins of the Parthian monarchy. Alexander gained a great victory over Artaxerxes in 232; but he was unable to prosecute his advantage in consequence of intelligence having reached him of a great movement among the German tribes. He celebrated a triumph at Rome in 233, and in the following year (234) set out for Gaul, which the Germans were devastating; but before he had made any progress in the campaign, he was waylaid by a small band of mutinous soldiers, instigated, it is said, by Maximinus, and slain, along with his mother, in the early part of 235, in the thirtieth year of his age and the fourteenth of his reign. Alexander Severus was distinguished by justice, wisdom, and clemency in all public transactions, and by the simplicity and purity of his private life. His life is written by Lampridius. See Porrath, Der Kaiser Alexander Severus (1876).

Sevērus, Sulpicius

A writer chiefly celebrated as an ecclesiastical historian. He was a native of Aquitania, and flourished towards the close of the fourth century under Arcadius and Honorius. He was descended from a noble family, and was originally an advocate; but he eventually became a presbyter of the church, and attached himself closely to St. Martin of Tours. The extant works of Severus are: (a) Historia Sacra, an epitome of sacred history, extending from the creation of the world to the consulship of Stilicho and Aurelianus, A.D. 400; (b) Vita S. Martini Turonensis; (c) Tres Epistolae; (d) Dialogi duo, containing a review of the dissensions which had arisen among ecclesiastics in the East regarding the works of Origen; (e) Epistolae Sex. The best edition of the complete works of Severus is by Hahn (Vienna, 1886).