“It was the winter of A.D. 210, and the Roman emperor Septimius Severus lay dying. He had been in Britain since 208, overseeing a series of merciless campaigns into present-day Scotland. Roman armies streamed north from Hadrian's Wall, scarring the landscape with their huge camps. The damp climate and the rigors of life on the march were tough for a man in his 60s who had long suffered from crippling gout and could often barely walk. It became clear that the end was approaching.
Driven by rumors of Severus' impending death, some bored soldiers proclaimed one of his brutish sons as their emperor. But the old man was not finished. He ordered the army to assemble and, too feeble to stand, had himself carried out to address his men. The sight of the emperor -- weak but alive -- terrified the mutineers. They fell on the ground and tearfully begged forgiveness. After a long silence, Severus tapped his brow and said to them: "Do you understand now that it is the head that is in charge, not the feet?"
As Simon Elliott describes in his biography "The African Emperor," Severus was a mercurial and contradictory character, capable by turns of savagery, cunning, wit and generosity, and always blessed with a sense of the theatrical. A wealth of surviving contemporary evidence gives us an unusual degree of insight into his character. Crucially, we have the history of the Greek-speaking senator Cassius Dio, who knew Severus and his family well and was therefore exceptionally well-placed to write the history of the emperor's reign. He also had literary flair: Dio's description of watching the emperor Commodus, the violent son of the more philosophical Marcus Aurelius, wave the head of an ostrich he had just decapitated at senators is one of the great moments of ancient literature.
Severus was born in 145 at Leptis Magna in modern Libya; he never fully lost his North African accent. The second century was a period of unusual political stability in Roman history. Severus' family was wealthy and aristocratic: They could afford to educate him expensively and expected him to pursue a career in public life.
By 191, Severus was governor of a province on the upper reaches of the Danube. In this position, he commanded one of Rome's largest armies and the only substantial force in easy striking distance of Italy. When Commodus was assassinated in 192 -- strangled by his wrestling coach -- Severus was ready to exploit the subsequent chaos, which was "more outlandish than anything in modern popular fiction," Mr. Elliott writes.
Commodus was replaced by the dour Pertinax, a senior statesman who was soon assassinated by the Praetorian Guard. Next came Didius Julianus, a senatorial aristocrat who achieved the throne by bribing the guardsmen. But Julianus' grip on power was always weak. Severus took advantage of the moment to advance on Rome, where he faced little opposition. Julianus was abandoned by his supporters and condemned to death by the senate before Severus even entered the city. When Severus arrived, he ordered reprisals against other enemies -- not for the last time.
Between 193 and 197, Severus was confronted by two rivals, Clodius Albinus in Gaul and Britain, and Pescennius Niger in the Near East. In the resulting civil war, he showed a characteristic combination of ruthlessness, duplicity and skill. He allied with Albinus so that he could crush Niger. Then he turned on his erstwhile comrade and defeated him in a bloody battle in Gaul. Many of Albinus' supporters were executed, Mr. Elliott writes, in a "post-usurpation 'tidying' . . . on a grand scale, with Severus acting with his usual thoroughness."
Now the unchallenged master of the Roman world, Severus continued to show a restless energy. He led major campaigns against the Parthians, Rome's main rival to the east, sacking their capital city and annexing a huge swath of territory. He also launched campaigns in North Africa, part of a successful and unusual imperial visit to the region. Severus sponsored public building projects throughout the empire: Many of the most impressive surviving Roman remains -- not least the Severan forum and basilica in his home city of Leptis Magna -- date from his reign.
Dio recorded that "even when expiring" on his deathbed, Severus kept asking whether there was anything to do.
Mr. Elliott's narrative brims with enthusiasm for its subject. A prolific author of popular books on the Roman world, including "Romans at War" (2020), Mr. Elliott is at his best when covering Severus' campaigns, and he draws on his visits to relevant archaeological sites. Where the ancient sources are rich or pose few difficulties, Mr. Elliott's account is lively; he is more liable to falter where evidence is in shorter supply or when he ranges beyond the Severan age.
As he lay dying, Severus gave his sons Caracalla and Geta three pieces of advice: Get along; pay the soldiers well; ignore everyone else.
Instead, the brothers immediately turned on each other. Geta would soon die in his mother's arms, stabbed by one of his brother's soldiers. Caracalla, too, would be assassinated, after a short reign. A cycle of ephemeral emperors, military mutinies and civil wars had begun, marring Rome's third century. In the end, it was neither the emperor's feet nor his head that were in charge. It was always the hand of the legionary soldier, wielding the sword.
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Mr. Woudhuysen is an associate professor of Roman history at the University of Nottingham.” [1]
1. A Head For Power. Woudhuysen, George. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 20 Mar 2026: A13.
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