Alexander Severus - Early Reign

Early Reign

Alexander was born at Arca Caesarea on 1 October, 208, with the name Marcus Julius Gessius Bassianus Alexianus. Alexander's father, Marcus Julius Gessius Marcianus was a Syrian Promagistrate. His mother Julia Avita Mamaea was the second daughter of Julia Maesa and Syrian noble Julius Avitus and maternal aunt of Emperor Elagabalus. He had an elder sister called Theoclia and little is known about her. Alexander's maternal great-aunt was empress Julia Domna (also Maesa's younger sister) and his great-uncle in marriage was emperor Lucius Septimius Severus. Emperors Caracalla and Publius Septimius Geta, were his mother's maternal cousins.

In 221, Alexander's grandmother, Maesa, persuaded the Emperor to adopt his cousin as successor and make him Caesar and Bassianus changed his name to Alexander. In the following year, on 11 March, Elagabalus was murdered, and Alexander was proclaimed emperor by the Praetorians and accepted by the Senate.

When Alexander became emperor, he was young, amiable, well-meaning, and entirely under the dominion of his mother. Julia Mamaea was a woman of many virtues, and she surrounded the young emperor with wise counsellors, under the administration of the jurist and praetorian praefect Ulpian. She watched over the development of her son's character and improved the tone of the administration.

On the other hand, she was inordinately jealous. She arranged for Alexander to marry Sallustia Orbiana, the daughter of a noble Patrician family, but grew so jealous of Sallustia’s influence over her son that she had her banished from court. She also alienated the army by extreme parsimony, and neither she nor her son were strong enough to impose military discipline.

Mutinies became frequent in all parts of the Empire; in Rome, the Praetorian Guard became infuriated by the actions of the praetorian praefect Ulpian. A three day riot broke out in Rome between the people and the Praetorians, and it only ended with the death of Ulpian, who was hunted down and killed at the feet of the Emperor. Another mutiny forced the retirement of Cassius Dio from his command. In the provinces of the Empire, in Illyricum, in Mauritania, in Armenia, in Mesopotamia and in Germania, fresh mutinies perpetually broke out, as his officers were murdered and his authority was disregarded.

Alexander’s reign contained some of the last major building works constructed in Rome before the reign of Diocletian. He built the last aqueduct of ancient Rome, the 22 km long Aqua Alexandrina to supply his enlargement of the Thermae of Nero which have been renamed after the emperor (Thermae Alexandrinae).