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“Let no-one escape sheer destruction, no-one our hands, not even the babe in the womb of the mother, if it be male; let it nevertheless not escape sheer destruction.”
Severus’ intent to rule as a military dictator was clear from his early military reforms. He discharged the Praetorian Guard, stripping them of armour and rank, and exiling them to not return within a hundred miles of Rome. They were then replaced with ten new cohorts of veterans from his Danube legions – the Praetorians were no longer the pampered nobility of Rome looking to avoid true conflict. He increased the number of legions from 30 to 33, with one garrisoned just 12 miles from Rome, making Severus the first emperor to station legions within Italia, aware of the need for a force that could respond quickly to events. He gave each legionary a donative of almost a year’s salary, and increased their wages by a quarter.
The new emperor’s first goal was retribution against Parthia, and looking to emulate Trajan’s Persian conquests. In 197 AD he crossed the Euphrates, accepting hostages from the client Osroene King Abgar IX and Armenian King Khosrov, who both provided troops too. His general Laetus had prevented the city of Nisbis from being captured, and Severus thus withdrew to Syria to plan a more thorough campaign. His legions then marched deep into Parthia, ostensibly for the empire’s support of Niger, sacked the royal capital of Ctesiphon and annexed northern Mesopotamia. As with Trajan, however, Severus was also unable to take the fortress city of Hatra, despite two sieges. Severus built new fortifications deep into the Arabian desert.
The Senate never showed much support for Severus, and he reviled them in turn, with assassinations and executions of the aristocrats being commonplace. The Praetorian Prefect Plautianus became increasingly influential when Severus returned, with a war of wills developing betwixt he and Severus’ wife, Julia Domna, for control of the emperor. In such a patriarchy as Rome, women had few opportunities to grasp power, and often asserted themselves through control of their men. Just as Agrippina had controlled Claudius, but then failed to control her son Nero, Julia sought to exercise her authority through Severus. She accused Plautianus, whose daughter was married to the imperial heir Caracalla, of plotting to kill the emperor, and he was hacked down while defending himself. Severus’ reign also included numerous persecution against Christians, although he seems to have merely continued Trajan’s policy of punishing those who refuse to worship the emperors, though not actively seeking them out.
In 202 Severus returned to campaign in his homeland of Africa. He captured numerous settlements deep into the Sahara, marching his legions up to 400 miles south, into the desert. His campaigns ensured that the entire southern frontier of Rome was expanded and fortified, and that desert nomads could no longer raid Roman settlements and then retreat to the interior.
With his eastern and southern frontiers expanded and secured, Severus headed to Britannia to complete what no other emperor had managed – the full annexation of Caledonia. Agricola had come close during the time of Comitian, though the recall of his legions to fight in Dacia had prevented his conquest from being completed. With around 40,000 legionaries behind him, Severus strengthened Hadrian’s Wall and then recaptured the Southern Uplands for Rome, up to the Antonine Wall. With a strong naval support, he established a base just south of the Antonine Wall, before he pushed north into Caledonia, rebuilding and garrisoning many of the abandoned older forts. When his wife Julia criticised the sexual morals of the Caledonian women, the chieftain’s wife replied: “We fulfil the demands of nature in a much better way than do you Roman women; for we consort openly with the best men, whereas you let yourselves be debauched in secret by the vilest.”
The Roman advance became bogged down by thick forests, mountainous terrain, swamps and rivers. Severus found no enemy army to battle, an instead were lured on as cattle and sheep placed ahead of them by the enemy. As his legions became scattered, they were attacked in skirmishes. Thousands died, though he pushed on to the northern coast, experiencing the shorter days and bitter winters. Understanding the difficulty in occupying such hostile territory with the troops he had, Severus forced the Caledonians to cede much land to him, before returning south.
Despite heavy casualties and Caledonian guerrilla warfare, Severus’ campaigning had made significant gains by 210. The Central Lowlands were confirmed as Roman, though the Caledonians, short on supplies, soon revolted against Rome. Severus prepared for a further expedition to the north, determined to carry out a war of genocide against the Caledonians, declaring: “Let no-one escape sheer destruction, no-one our hands, not even the babe in the womb of the mother, if it be male; let it nevertheless not escape sheer destruction.” Though Severus’ plans to complete the conquest of Britannia, and fully annexe Caledonia, would never be fulfilled.
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