In this, the only biography of Septimius Severus in English, Anthony R. Birley explors how `Roman` or otherwise this man was and examines his remarkable background and career.
Severus was descended from Phoenician settlers in Tripolitania, and his reign, AD 193-211, represents a key point in Roman history. Birley explores what was African and what was Roman in Septimius` background, given that he came from an African city. He asks whether Septimius was a `typical cosmopolitan bureaucrat`, a `new Hannibal on the throne of Caesar` or `principle author of the decline of the Roman Empire`?