After his victory over Macrinus at Immae on 8 June 218, Elagabalus stayed in Antiochia for months. He had to promise his soldiers 2.000 sesterces each to prevent them from sacking the city and it took him some time before his authority in the East had been firmly established. He…
Julia Maesa, Elagabalus’ grandmother, persuaded her grandson to adopt his cousin Alexianus (born 1 October 208), who was just 12 years old at the time. She also convinced him that it would be wise to make him a Caesar, so that Elagabalus could focus on his religious duties, while Alexianus…
Thanks in large part to his capable advisors, Severus Alexander’s reign was exemplary and benevolent. As Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander Augustus, he held his second consulship in 226 and his third in 229, together with the noted historian Cassius Dio. Of his principal advisors, his grandmother Julia Maesa…
In 230, Ardashir (Artaxerxes) felt confident enough to invade Roman Mesopotamia. He laid waste to the country and threatened Syria, though he failed to take Nisibis. The Persian invasion may have been just a probing attack instead of a full-scale assault, but it was serious enough to draw the emperor…
Now that Ardashir had moved away his forces from the Roman border, Alexander returned to Rome to celebrate a triumph for a victory that he had not won. It did not stop him from claiming one and styling himself Persicus Maximus. His triumph in September of 233 was extravagant even…
Maximinus Thrax – also known as Gaius Julius Verus Maximinus – was a military man all his life and is considered the first barracks emperor (or soldier emperor). He spent most of the rest of his career as emperor campaigning along the Rhine and Danube, protecting the northern border of…
Maximinus Thrax was a harsh and unpopular ruler. Sources hostile to him claim he embezzled state funds and even plundered temples just to be able to pay his army, the base of all his power. Hatred against him grew ever greater, not just in Rome, but also in the provinces.…