Septimius Severus Personal Policy Towards Senators in the Light of Prosopographic
Research (193–211 A.D.)




This monograph aims a presenting the personal policy of Septimius Severus towards senators. His rule (193–211 A.D.) therefore demarcates the chronological frames of this work yet, in justified cases, I also use the data referring to the situation of some persons significant for the period of the reign of Septimius Severus’ predecessors as well as his descendants.

The scope of this book does not concern the entire senatorial state, by definition comprising senators and their families, because it is obvious that personal policy manifesting itself via promotions and nominations for various posts concerned directly only senate members (influencing their close relatives and friends but indirectly).The research concentrates precisely on this latter, homogenous and close, group, for such a focus facilitates the demarcation of the scope of the research analyses.

The monograph has been divided into 6 chapters. Chapter One characterizes political events which significantly influenced the Emperor’s decisions concerning his personnel and the formation of a group of his cooperators. Chapter Two presents the victimized senators who were eliminated in the course of power struggles and stabilization pursuits. The next chapters demonstrate a different (than victimization-oriented) pole of the Emperor’s personnel policy, namely, groups of promoted senators: provincial representatives, young senatorial protégées, and consuls.