Septimius Severus and the Severan dynasty

Learn about the Severan dynasty and its founder, Septimius Severus, the African emperor. Dr. Simon Elliott joins us for a discussion of the individual Severan rulers and their impact on Rome. We'll examine a number of monuments, keeping in mind that they essentially rebuilt much of Rome- and their monuments are still visible today!
Catch up on all of the publications of Dr. Simon Elliott
www.simonelliott20.com/Author
His new book on the Septimius Severus is coming this fall!
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0:00 Introduction
1:02 Dr. Elliott presents the life of Septimius Severus
3:13 Severus, Julia Domna, and the Severan dynasty
5:52 Where Severans rebuilt Rome
7:00 Conversation on the Severans in Rome

[@mikki3961]

My only complaint, your videos are too short! Fascinating Darius, thank you so much.

[@dalmaticus9610]

Great video, very interesting. Explains how Septimus Severus could rebuild his home town so grand and fast. Appropriating all that welf put him in a good position as rebuilder of the Roman Empire.

[@AncientRomeLive]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@wesleymons]

love this!!! one of my absolute favorite imperial dynasties🔥🔥🔥

[@AncientRomeLive]

Thank you!

[@simplepixel5617]

We thought that Italians gesticulate a lot, but Dr. Simon Elliott beats them all.

[@woodrow60]

Quality work Darius. If I get to Rome again - last time was over 30 years ago - I’ll want to take one of your tours.

[@AncientRomeLive]

thanks- keep in touch!

[@amgymrat4546]

Please keep posting I’ve watched all your videos!!!

[@AncientRomeLive]

thank you

[@maggielandow2686]

Thank you.

[@FitzRabbits]

Such a fascinating video. Thank you Darius and Simon. That was very informative. I didn't realise how much of an influence Septimius Severus and the rest of the dynasty had on the city. And if I'm not mistaken, is that the Gemonian Stairs in the background at the start of the video?

[@AncientRomeLive]

Thanks for watching- yes it's the modern version of it.

[@user-uz2op6og3l]

Wonderful!

[@AncientRomeLive]

Many thanks!

[@renatoe9648]

"I Julia" is a wonderfull novel about the rise of Severus and Julia by S Posteguillo

[@petersanders4884]

Thanks Guys. Enjoyed the vid 😁

[@AncientRomeLive]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@26Bluegb]

I just saw Dr. Elliot on the History Hit channel doing the top Googled Q's about Rome.

[@AncientRomeLive]

Yes, he's great and appears online a LOT

[@tunnus.123]

Great.

[@AncientRomeLive]

Grazie!

[@marial8235]

Excellent topic and analysis of the African dynasty.

[@hollymedici2936]

They were Africans on the continent of Mediterranean descent

[@AncientRomeLive]

Thank you.

[@dirksawyer5667]

Great to see Simon Elliott. Love the guest appearance idea, Darius. How about an invite for Mary Beard? 😉

[@AncientRomeLive]

Yes, more special guests on the way!

[@jakegarvin7634]

2:48 Fine Marble, a temple These columns on stilts, Yes, this is the Town that Sev built, yeah

[@sc2320]

like it 💯💪🏻

[@user-bc4kt6nc1p]

Interesting video, but Dr. Eliott is talking too fast, at least for me as a nonnative speaker, although I could understand him

[@bobloblaw10001]

Change playback speed to 0.75x

[@garyi.1360]

Wonderful segment. How nteresting. Consider how the assumption by the line of African emperors might have otherwise altered a prior cohesion where all had considered themselves part of a whole, which you briefly mentioned, but was eroded ever so little and set in motion a later upheaval and decline as the peoples of Rome came to feel less than whole. With time then citizens may not have been dedicated to holding the empire together. Would that be the point where a Fall was no longer avoidable?

[@AncientRomeLive]

thank you. Great questions. Lot of variables. I don't think that SS was the one who led to the fall- his dynasty was the last one to have a huge impact - positively - for the cohesion of the empire.. but times had change, and as we've seen - it all falls apart afterward ...

[@hollymedici2936]

This is so ridiculous in ethnocentric and it seems like it has a political agenda because the truth is the people that came from that region of North Africa were similar to Mediterranean and Arab people that were actually the genetic groups that actually formed ancient Rome​ .Romans during the Imperial Roman Empire were genetically closer to Middle Easterns than to Europeans... Italy_Roman_Empire_Rome_(Levantine_F 1/2 0.02882943 Cypriot 0.02912837 Lebanese 0.03096089 Palestinian 0.03146985 Druze 0.03881318 Samaritan 0.04915719 Greek Dodecanese 0.05848521 Syrian 0.06139939 Armenian_Erzurum 0.06177026 Jordanian 0.06188738 Assyrian 0.06466487 Italian_Calabria 0.06954327 Maltese 0.07131108 Georgian 0.07513171 Iraqi 0.08079697 BedouinA 0.08532958 Turkish_Kayseri 0.08579880 Udi 0.09085079 Turkish_Adana 0.09279662 SaudiA 0.09375318 Ezid 0.09432828 Ahiska 0.09435804 Kurdish 0.09467638 Yemenite_Amran 0.09527678 EmiratiB 0.09710094 Turkish

[@r0ky_M]

Trajan and Hadrian were from distant Hispania, so why would Severus from Africa be such a shock or upheaval?

[@AncientRomeLive]

Long story short- there was a difference between those provinces. Spain was historically more similar to Rome... SSeverus came in and essentially marginalized the Italians, replacing the key positions (esp military) with N. African provincials. A huge change!

[@hollymedici2936]

Septimius was born in Leptis Magna, today the city of Al-Khums in Libya. His mother’s family was originally from Italy. His father’s family was native to North Africa; they were part of the provincial aristocracy, tracing their roots back to the Carthaginian settler elite but probably also to the local Numidian or Libyan upper classes. The Carthaginians originated in modern Lebanon; the Numidians are ancestral to the Berber population of today’s North Africa.

[@hollymedici2936]

Africa is a very large continent with people of multiple races and ethnicities people from where septimium serverus came from their genetics is not that far off from the people that created the Roman empire

[@r0ky_M]

​@@AncientRomeLiveIIRC , Severus already had cousins and uncles of senatorial class with military commands who served under Antonius Pius, Marcus Aurelius and Commodus...It was a cousin sent to Africa as proconsul that got Severus the position of military Legatus, and Severus himself legitimately worked his way up through the senatorial ranks like his family members before him...Severus as Emperor did appoint the Praetorian Prefect - Gaius Fulvius Plautianus who was also from Lepsis Magna, but the record seems to show that previous Emperors appointed African Romans to prominent military positions, which makes Severus's choices not all that extraordinary.

[@Allright890]

What do you do for living in this country?

[@panathenaea]

do let us know when the book is released - and its title

[@AncientRomeLive]

Fall 2024: Septimius Severus, the African emperor - along those lines!

[@kevin02mulder]

cool :)

[@AncientRomeLive]

than you.

[@Amc933]

Fun, but why is Dr. Simon talking so fast?

[@Insectoid_]

Is he

[@Insectoid_]

I think he’s talking at the normal pace for an English guy

[@SARMATIAN13784]

Ilirian(serb) sever means north

[@lammah4070]

At the end of the 2nd century AD, a third of the Roman senate was North African ( from modern-day Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya) while Emperor Septimius Severus was growing up in Leptis Magna (in Libya). Septimius Severus represented the new emerging North-African class who had little ties with Rome, that's why he was popular in North Africa.

[@AncientRomeLive]

He spent quite a bit of time in Rome, as well.

[@mademoiselledusfonctionell1609]

Is there a new camera (or have I managed to clean my glasses better this time)?

[@AncientRomeLive]

Same as before

[@uncleeric3317]

Darius, has the Severan dynasty ever been depicted in film or tv?

[@AncientRomeLive]

Stay tuned for Geta and Caracalla in Gladiator 2!

[@dansmith5280]

You mentioned the Septizonium, but did not point it out in the two times it was shown.

[@AncientRomeLive]

We changed the lighting so it was highlighted in the reconstruction as we "flew" past it- that's how we "pointed" it out. And we showed it on the forma urbis map.

[@maggielandow2686]

A family full of killers. Power was everything I take it. Sounds familiar today.

[@AncientRomeLive]

Exactly!

[@randomvintagefilm273]

My last name is Severyn with a y. Cool

[@TWOCOWS1]

I like it a lot more when you explain things yourself. That fellow is often incomprehsible, either by garbbleed diction and/or by racing through topics at the gallopping pace. I only understood what is what when you spoke. I hope you make another one on this important topic and present it at your own normal, clear way.

[@nicholasturner7931]

Punic and Roman Heritage, yes from North African but not sub Saharan (black) it seems like they’re trying to insinuate septimius was black.

[@AncientRomeLive]

He's a North African Roman of Punic/ Berber descent. It's all about the place he's from as defining characteristic for the Romans

[@Insectoid_]

I wish people wouldn’t get such a bee in their bonnet over this.

[@TheZestyTea]

I got to be honest: I did not get that impression. As the guest speaker mentioned, the Romans considered North Africa just Africa, so saying S. Severus was from Africa is neither inaccurate in antiquity nor today. They never mentioned his skin color just like they never mentioned his height or other auxiliary characteristics probably because they didn't matter to the subject of the video.

[@nicholasturner7931]

@@TheZestyTea yes they eluded to it, and admittedly I probably got that vibe because the severan expert said exactly that in an interview on the bbc .The bbc that routinely non black historical figures with black people.

[@Caligulashorse1453]

The ancient biographical collection Historia Augustus explains that Severus was disturbed by the sight of a black person on one occasion, taking his “ominous colour” as a bad omen while on campaign. 💀💀💀

[@RoxanaCastellanos71]

Séptimo Severo era negro o árabe?

[@Alexq79-]

Neither, he was a Roman with Punic heritage

[@ladyflimflam]

His father was Punic, his mother was Roman.

[@AncientRomeLive]

Punic Roman

[@oluffriesthomsen7680]

tRump makes me laugh every time he talks. Shocking people can not see it, still woting for him. 😢🤢

[@spankflaps1365]

Amazing they could build all that in a fairly short space of time, with only ox, horse and manpower. Note that all the posh marble work was done by sophisticated artisans, not slaves.

[@AncientRomeLive]

Amazing productivity!