No sooner Marc Aurel had breathed his last his son Commodus ascendet the throne. He was just 19 years young and the good education he had enjoyed from his father was soon past. Similary like Caligula Commodus was very selfseeking and believed himself as divine. He prefered making gladiator-games and races instead of attend to the state´s destiny. The management of the empire he handed over his minions. These faddish, ruthless and megalomaniac fool´s time of government took over 12 years. While this time Rome was controlled of chaos and it was low tide. Though there were essays to kill the despot but unfortunately misscarried all and this made the mistrusting caesar being more suspicious. Meanwhile Commodus addict to the mystik and the belief in his goods made him believing that he wouldt be a god, too. He proclaimed himself to the ultimative dynast of the empire and all inhabitants of which he could demand now everything. This was too much. With the fear too loose his life Commodus was strangled in the year 192 by his lover and his valet after a poison attempt had flatten.
Lucius Septimius Severus
After Commodus´ dead began a tangle for his succession. In
the course of the year 193 had no less than four emperors the
authority until finally Lucius Septimus Severus ascendet the
throne. The from Africa deriving princep´s first office was
the banishing of the Nigrians from the easterly part of the empire.
The Nigrians, which were even ventured to Thrakia, were pushed back
first to Minor Asia, than to Syria . There was the final battle in
which the Nigrians were massacred by the Romans. After the waves
had stroken on the east front Severus had to leave to Gallien to
brave there a man from the own assortment. A long time the war in
Gallien was drawn as the severin cavalry could finally bring a
conclusion behalf for Severus.
There was no end to the militarish confrontations and
so in the year 197 Severus went to the east again to stop the
invading Parther. Fast he had turned out the Parther and robed with
the honorary title Parthicus maximus. At the same time Severus
posted his son Caracalla to his co-sovereign. Because the following
years got calmer for Severus he could more engage in home policy
problems.
Severus strove very hard for the wellbeing of the
empire but not everything succeeded as desired. The many wars
convulsed Rome ever and again and showed their consequences. The
community didn´t own enough money to pay off th legionaries.
Therefore he revert to the taxes of natural produces. This brought
to the rest of the population partly aching disadvantages. Later
people criticized hard over Severus, they gave him the fault for
the fall of the Roman empire. Certainly wrongly. But even though
the statesman was able to clannish the empire he disturbed the
balance between caesar and population as enormous as it was lost
forever. Severus died on February 4th 211 before his son Caracalla
could him empoison.
Caracalla
All historian describe Caracalla in gloomy colours. Violent,
perfidious, dissolute and ugly. For example he ordered to murder
his rival for the emperor-post, his brother, without hesitation.
Even in the year 212 Caracalla published the famous degree, the
constitutio Antoniana, what gave all the habitants of the Roman
empire the civic rights. The historian Cassius Dio believed that
Caracalla passes this low more for financial reasons and not for
pilanthropy. To settle the finances of the state in another way a
new coin got launched. The Antonianini consisted of one and a half
times more silver as a denar and were worth two denars. This
manipulation of currency affected excellent to the public
treasury.
Caracalla, prefering staying with his soldiers on the
front rather entrusted his mother with the leadership of the state.
In the year 213 the caesar attacked the Germans by the Upper Rhine
and by the Upper Danube. He was very successful. In 214 he left for
a battle to Moesia and Trakia where he beat the Gothes, the Quads
and the Jazyges. He felt like once Alexander the Great and marched
like his idol to all towns which Alexander had visited. For a while
it seemed like that a war against the Parther would come. But the
Parther met all demands and the war could be advert. Caracalla
continued the campaign and arrived finally Alexandria. There the
people poked fun at his imitation of Alexander. Hurt on his sorest
spot the emperor revenged with a massacre in the theatre. Also he
built a wall through the city so that the population of the two
halfs were apart.
Meanwhile a great enemy of the Romans got head-king of
the Parther. A war began but it already ended in the winter. In the
spring Caracalla would start again but it should not be. Leaving
the camp to relieve nature he got stabbed from a pretorian officer.
Caracalla´s most important measure during his time of reign
was the bestowal the the Roman civic to all the population, maybe
the strongest blow he could land on Rome.
Macrinus, Elagabal and Severus Alexander
After Caracalla´s death Marcus Oppelius Macrinus was
proclaimed to the new caesar. He didn´t continue the outwards
politics but he made an unfavourable peace with the Parther. In the
region of Danube he kept only in defence.
In the domestic politics he tried to get in an
agreement with the senate and he wanted to finish the undiscipline
in the army and in the administration. The pay of the legionaries
were cut down and the knights got ordered to give back they had
gotten in Caracalla´s time of regent.
Macrinus was competent and a sober official but he
missed the dignity and the size of an emperor. When he heard that
his son was killed by soldiers and made suicide.
In the place of Macrinus the only 14 years old Elagabal
ascended the throne. He was worshiped as the sun-god of the
Baal-cult and his only target was to force the the belief of the
Roman population. This mummery took over four years and all follies
of the young caesar costed immense amounts for the empire. On July
10th 221 finally Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander was proclaimed
to the new caesar. The most importan incident of Severus
Alexander´s short time of regent was strenghening the kingdom
of the Parther in the east. Until there the Parther had quarelled
among one another, but now they were united by king Ardascher.
Immediately they attacked the Roman furnishing in the east and the
Romans had to stand the first losses. The getting unsecure borders
directed finally to the fall of Severus. Then began the period of
the soldier emperors