The sudden demise of the reviled emperor Commodus sparks a civil war within the Roman Empire. Facing off against several rival claimants, an unassuming senator of North African origin named Septimius Severus emerges victorious from the power struggle.
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Bibliography
Amon, Hermann. The Roman Empire Third Century Crisis. Brill, 2026
Ando, Clifford. Imperial Rome, AD 193 to 284: The Critical Century. Edinburgh University Press, 2012.
Brown, Peter. The World of Late Antiquity. AD 150-750. W.W. Norton & Company, 1989.
Bowman, Alan K., Peter Garnsey, and Averil Cameron. The Cambridge Ancient History. Vol 12, The Crisis of Empire, A.D. 193-337. Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Dio, Cassius. The Roman History. Translated by Earnest Cary and Herbert B. Foster. Vol. 1-9. Loeb Classical Library and Harvard University Press, 1924.
Gibbon, Edward. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 1-3. Alfred A. Knopf, 1993
Harper, Kyle. The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease and the End of an Empire. Princeton University Press, 2017.
Herodian. History of the Roman Empire: From the Death of Marcus Aurelius to the Accession of Gordian III. Translated by Edward C. Echols. University of California Press, 1961.
Lewis, Naphtali and Reinhold, Meyer. Roman Civilization: Selected Readings. Vol. II, Columbia University Press, 1990.
Potter, David S. The Roman Empire at Bay, AD 180-395. Routledge, 2004.
Southern, Pat. The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine. Routledge, 2001.
Cover Image: Detail of the ‘Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus.’ Dated to 250-260 CE, currently on display in the Museo Nazionale Romano.
Opening Theme: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, "From the New World", Op. 95, B. 178 by Antonín Dvořák.
Closing Theme: Movement II of “Pines of Rome.” Composed by Otto Respighi. Recording of 1959 performance by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Fritz Reiner.
