Posted on 05/17/2020 6:28:29 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Edward Gibbon thought that the decline of the Roman Empire began with Severus (b. AD 145). He came from Leptis Magna, a thriving port with a fine natural harbour in what is now Libya, near Tripoli. His mother belonged to an influential Roman family, but his father was Carthaginian. The future emperor grew up speaking Latin with a provincial accent and his biographer Anthony Birley called him Rome's 'first truly provincial emperor'. He went to Rome in his teens and his mother's family helped him on his ambitious way up until in 191 he was made governor of Upper Pannonia, covering parts of today's Hungary, Austria and Bosnia. In 193, at his suggestion and promises of reward, his troops proclaimed him emperor after the murder of the Emperor Pertinax by the Praetorian Guard. Severus led his army swiftly to Italy, took Rome and over the next four years crushed the rival claimants.
He ruled Rome as a military dictator, with his sons Caracalla and Geta as Caesars. At substantial expense he beautified his native city of Leptis Magna, whose ruins are considered the most impressive in Roman Africa and include a triumphal arch in his honour as well as an arena that seats 50,000 spectators. He built a new forum as well as the 'hunting baths' decorated with scenes including a leopard hunt.
After successful campaigns in the Near East and Africa, in 208 he took Caracalla and Geta with him to Britain. Though by this time suffering agonies from gout, or perhaps arthritis, he led an invasion of Caledonia (Scotland), whose inhabitants, according to the contemporary historian Dio Cassius, lived naked in tents and had their women in common. The mythical Celtic hero Fingal was afterwards credited with defeating the Romans in battle, but in fact, naked or not, the Caledonians avoided battles. They excelled in guerrilla warfare and they led the Romans a dance all the way up to the Moray Firth or beyond until a temporary peace was organised in 210.
Exhausted, ill and ready to die, Severus returned to York and ordered himself a cremation urn. When he saw it, he told it: 'You will hold a man that the world could not hold.'
There was a story that Caracalla tried to bribe the doctors to hasten his father's end. When the emperor did expire, aged 65, the troops acclaimed his two sons as joint emperors. The brothers went back to Rome where Caracalla had Geta murdered the following year.Emperor Septimius Severus dies at York February 4th, AD 211 | Richard Cavendish | Published in History Today Volume 61 Issue 2 February 2011
The Scots weren't in Scotland at the time, they were cowering with fear in Ireland, not daring to cross over until the Romans had been gone for generations. Oh, and Septimius Severus was proud of his Carthaginian roots. Perhaps the best-known anecdote is that he told his sons on his deathbed, "Be of one mind, enrich the soldiers, and despise the rest." His dynasty wound up bringing about the Crisis of the Third Century. Never trust a Carthaginian.
“Lived naked in tents and had their women in common”
Ohhhhhh.....like Northwestern University.
He had a deviated septum?
:^)
“Naked or not, the Caledonians avoided battles”
“Run boys! Show them your cheeks!”
He had his aid de camp, Harrius Potterous.
Archie explains it:
ROLLING HOME TO CALEDONIA( LIVE/LYRICS) Archie Fisher & Garnet Rogers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNY0OuAYKGA
“Lived naked in tents and had their women in common”
Ah, the good old days.
L
“And they led the Romans a dance”
I kind of like these guys.
Running from the enemy with no clothes on while doing The Hustle with all the girls in the camp.
I think that’s my family’s Coat-Of-Arms.
I like “Caledonia Dreamin” by the Mamas and Papas.
The larger story arc is purely speculative, but IMHO, the details stoke the atmosphere for what it must have been like on a remote outpost on the outer frontier of civilisation and beyond. The primary plot line, a young centurion redeeming his family name and the honor of his father and father's legion was well written and acted.
...nor their elephants. My favorite historian, Will Cuppy, said that the Carthaginian war elephants were trained to rush forward and trample the enemy; often as not they would rush backward and trample the Carthaginians.
Besides being trained up from "childhood", the elephants underwent simulated battles as training, and (at least as far back as Hannibal) were lit up a little on some kind of alcoholic beverage, and were sometimes a danger to both sides. Alexander the Great innovated how to cope with elephant warfare when he was in India, and his life and work was being taught in antiquity. That may even be the reason the Carthaginians started using them. But the Romans were good at dealing with them, and the last major battle with elephants involved in the Med basin was probably Thapsus, one of the post-Pompey battles of the Pompeian war.
“where Caracalla had Geta murdered the following year.’
I keep seeing that as “Greta”.
I read her series of books, starting with Eagle of the Ninth, when I was early in my high school years. It is of course a work of fiction, and showbiz doesn’t make documentaries. The trouble with Caledonia in Roman times was, that Calendonia wasn’t very much trouble at all. If it had been, the Romans would have just cleaned the whole place out, which is what they did in Jutland.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3058753/posts?page=15#15
Put 'em up against a wall, and...
"Scots" and "Scotland" proper would not emerge as unified ideas until centuries later. In fact, the Roman Empire influenced every part of Scotland during the period: by the time of the End of Roman rule in Britain around 410, the various Iron Age tribes native to the area had united as, or fallen under the control of, the Picts, while the southern half of the country was overrun by tribes of Romanized Britons. The Scoti (Gaelic Irish raiders) who would give Scotland its English name, had begun to settle along the west coast. All three groups may have been involved in the Great Conspiracy that overran Roman Britain in 367. The era saw the emergence of the earliest historical accounts of the natives. The most enduring legacies of Rome, however, were Christianity and literacy, both of which arrived indirectly via Irish missionaries.
thanx again
I have long suspected the Elephants were Roman spies. Hannibal always said, they’re only good for their tusks. Never march behind them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
