What were Alexander severus accomplishments?

Answer 1

Severus was able to reverse many of the destabilizing trends that were set in motion by Commodus. He filled the treasury where Commodus had depleted it. Severus also gave Rome stability after a very wild and unstable year of five emperors (193 AD) and gave Rome one of those rare things, a dynasty. Unfortunately that dynasty was largely a bad one.

Severus was mostly a victorious general too, adding the last new provinces to the Roman Empire after his expedition into Persia in 197. He also increased the size of the army by three legions and increased the size and quality of the cavalry arm. Furthermore, he gave the army a pay raise for the first time since the reign of Domitian (80-97AD). However this came with a severe price, the enlarged army became a serious drag on the Roman economy, one that only got to be worse as time progressed and Severus put increasing power into the army in order to decrease the power of the senate.

Severus also built up the Imperial Palace on the Palatine, including a very "baroque" structuret called the Septimizodium on the southeast side of that hill. He also greatly enhanced his hometown, Lepcis Magnum, formerly a sleepy port town on the Libyan coast and increased the role of Northwest Africa in Roman trade by making Lepcis a major center in exporting African grain to Rome herself.

Overall, the accomplishments of Septimius Severus were a mixed bag. He reintroduced stability in the capital, but at the cost of making the Roman Empire a strictly military Dictatorship. His dynasty consisted of his sons Caracalla who murdered his own brother so as not to share the vestments of power. Caracalla's nephew Elagabalus succeeded him after an interim and is regarded as the worst, most decadent and least prepared to rule. Elagabalus was succeeded by his able but young cousin Alexander Severus who tried to be a model emperor and got assassinated by the army for his troubles.

Severus's larger military saw his enhancement of their power as a sign that the military was to be the arbiter of all future problems and when Alexander Severus was killed it kicked off 50 years of military anarchy. Severus was the last emperor to die peacefully until Diocletion (284-311 AD)

For further details, please read Birley's Severus, the African Emperor; Brauer's The Young Emperors, and my upcoming graphic novel: Age of Iron and Rust

~Doug Welch

Answer 2

Emperor Alexander Severus was murdered in 235 AD. He was Roman Emperor from 222 until the time of his death. He was born in 208.