The Foundation of the Second Parthian Legion

The government of Septimius Severus assumed great importance in the history of the Roman empire, in as much that it represented the last stage of political evolution of the Antonines, translated into a completely restructured political model of an eastern type. Basing his power on the army, he quickly transformed the authority of the state into a military dictatorship that in the end, sweeping away any remnant of the Antonine tradition, removed all power f rom the Roman Senate. The soldiers gave him this facility, supporting him throughout his reign. Having the Senate and a large part of the provincial aristocracy against him, the emperor was forced to make ever greater concessions to the military, that very soon descended into a very relaxed disciplinary state. With the taking of Lyon, Septimius Severus lost no time in returning to Rome in possession of secret corrispondence between Albino and certain senators. In June 197 A.D. the terrified senators assembled to hear the emperor who, completely in control of the situation, announced that he wanted to punish all the friends and supporters of his unfortunate adversaries. Fortyone senators (Dione Cassio LXXXV, p. 1264) were condemned and killed along with their families, servants and friends. The goods and property of those killed were confiscated. The inherited treasure from Commodus was added to the private estate of the ruler and he proclaimed himself the adopted son of Marcus Aurelius. Similarly, in Asia, Africa, Spain and Gaul, the concentration of capital in the hands of the emperor became enormous. The different economic policy operated by Severus set off an impressive movement of state takeovers to the detriment of the aristocracy, bringing about a real imperial monopoly.

Economic Reforms

After the civil war, the great availability of gold, owing to the confiscations throughout the territory of the empire, gave Severus a healthy treasury from which to make the generous gifts promised to the troops who had served him faithfully. The food reserves for Italy and for the provinces were replenished as well. Before departing on the second Parthian expedition, Rome was provisioned with enough reserves of grain to last 7 years. Meanwhile the land acquired by the imperial state was administered by a veritable army of administrators. Provision was made for the hire of farm labourers with whom contracts were drawn up based on colonial models. The state centralisation or accumulation of wealth caused the change of the state capitalist system into a real body of public law, while capitalism was developing towards goals never reached, thanks to the push from the biggest capitalist of the empire: the emperor himself. The food supply board was administered by the army giving a military character to the harvesting of grain, ensuring primarily that the soldiers were sufficiently victualled, with the needs of the civil population taking second place. In the years immediately after the civil war (A.D.197), the economy had a brief and intense development: intensive agriculture was encouraged along with the mining industry, but it was the building industry most of all that absorbed the huge investment of private capital that was required by the building industry recovery and the huge public building works that were being undertaken in Rome and in all the provinces of the empire. The prosperity and peace that resulted in this period were such as to make the contemporaries of Severus forget the cruelty with which he had imposed himself at the pinacle of power.

Reforms in the Army: Aministration, recruitment and deployment

During the reign of Septimius Severus, the two orders, that of senator and the knights, underwent an important transformation, that showed the deep change taking place in the imperial aristocracy. The policy of Severus increased the power of the equestrian order, while at the same time diminishing that exercised by the senatorial order. The praefectura urbis (Civil Prefect), a very important new institution, was a post created in direct dependence on the emperor and assigned to an eques (knight). Even the control of the richest annd powerful provinces of the empire, Egypt and Mesopotamia, were put under the control of a knight under the direct orders of the emperor, just as were the newly instituted Parthian Legions. The break between the senatorial aristocracy and the army became the weapon with which to ensure continuing power on the throne; military despotism was the result, with the most destabilizing and disunifying consequences that the empire had ever known. The restlessness of the troops and their generals forced Severus to show favour to the soldiers in every way he could, shortening the period of obligatory service and increasing bounties and pay. A new system of recruiting for the Praetorian Guard was started whereby soldiers from all the provincial legions could be selected. Previously the Praetorian Guard had been composed of Roman citizen volunteers only, carefully selected and coming from either Italian territory or from the more romanised provinces, as in the time of Augustus. The diminution of the 'Roman' ethos of the Praetorian Guard provoked no small amount of diffidence from the population of Rome, used to as it was, to contact with the best of Italian youth at arms. Cassio Dione thus paints the following picture: a gaily coloured rabble of wild looking soldiers, with uncouth language and boorish behaviour.' These ex legionaries coming in the main from the Danube area, often exhibited characteristics somewhat different to what had been the norm, spoke latin with a strange accent and behaved in a manner rather at odds with the splendid clothes they wore.

Second Expedition against the Parthians: Foundation of the I, II, III Parthian Legions

After a few months stay in Rome, Septimius Severus once again directed his military attentions to the Parthians in the East. War had broken out again in this region due to the actions of king Vologese IV who, in command of a powerful army, was besieging the Roman fortress of Nisibi. At the approach of the imperial army which had rapidly moved towards the Euphrates, the siege was broken off and the Parthians rapidly retreated towards Ctesiphon, the capital of their kingdom. Having crossed the Euphrates in a rapid movement, Severus swept away the Parthian resistence up to the Tigris, where Seleucia and Babylon gave him free access without any blows being struck. Ctesifon was taken immediately after this in Novermber 197 A.D., only six months from the date of their departure from Brindisi. The sack of the city yielded 100,000 prisoners and a huge amount of loot with which he bestowed rewards on his victorious troops. Huge maps were sent to Rome which were displayed in the Forum, in the sight of the Senate and the Roman people, showing the progress of the successful campaign. The title Particus Maximus was conferred on the emperor by the Senate, while the title of Augustus and Caesar were conferred on his sons Caracalla and Geta. The action of the Roman army didn't finish with the taking of Ctesifon. The superb fortress of Atra, just to the west of the Tigris, that had given refuge to the survivors of Niger and some of his more able officers, remained to be taught a lesson. Severus did not manage to gain his retribution however. The fortress resisted the numerous Roman attacks inflicting heavy losses on the attackers who only managed to scratch the powerful defensive fortifications. At the second attempt at siege there was a certain resistence to the imperial orders on the part of the exhausted troops; the Europeans refused to return to the attack on the walls while, the Syrians, obediently, were massacred by the Parthian archers and artillery. One Roman officer asked Severus for 550 European soldiers to be put at his command, promising to penetrate into the inside to the fortress; but the emperor replied that he would't be able to find such a number of Europeans disposed to follow him. After only twenty days the second siege was lifted and Atra was saved. The defeat at Atra did not overshadow the great Parthian victory, the fame of which became rapidly became widespread throughout the Roman world. It was at this point that the great province of Mesopotamia was formed, governed by a knight and overseen by two legions, the I and III Parthian legions, while the state of Osroene again became a vassal of Rome. In the clash with the Parthian army, Septimius Severus used the army with which he had defeated Albinus, reinforced by the three Parthian legions which had been newly formed, bringing the total number of legions to thirtythree (an army of two hundred thousand men that with the auxiliaries effectively exceeded three hundred thousand). While two of these legions stayed in the east, the II Parthian legion followed the emperor throughout his long stay in the eastern provinces, through Syria, Egypt, Palestine and Arabia. During this stay in the east great public building works were wrought and new laws brought out, with a more humane taxation system for the imperial exchequer. The emperor was diligent in making his presence felt among the detachments of his army. During his tour of the area the emperor accompanied the various units in their usual operating areas, after an absence of five years (always escorted by the II Parthian Legion and some cohorts of the Praetorian Guard). The II Parthian Legion was also utilised in renovating and repairing the roads that the emperor had to cover in the direction of Rome; these would ensure, in future, a rapid military response in the huge military sector of the imperial territory. Returning triumphantly to Rome in April 202 A.D., Septimius Severus, Fundator pacis and restitutor urbis, lost no time in celebrating the ten years of his reign.