Roman Emperor Alexander Severus. From A.D. 222 to 235, the son of Gessius Marcianus and Julia Mammaea, born at Arce in Phoenicia, in the temple of Alexander the Great, during the attendance of his parents there at a religious festival. The date of his birth is uncertain, but most historians ascribe it to the autumn of 205. His original name was Alexia-nus Bassianus. On the elevation of his cousin Elagabalus to the purple, he accompanied his mother to Rome. In 221 he was adopted by the emperor, and created Caesar, pontiff, consul elect, and princeps juventutis. He now assumed the name of Marcus Aurelius Alexander. Elagabalus soon regarded him as a rival whose destruction was essential to his own safety; but Alexander's life was preserved by the watchfulness of his mother and the affection of the soldiers, who ultimately avenged his injuries by sacrificing his enemy. On the death of Elagabalus he was proclaimed emperor by the praetorians, and the choice was confirmed by the senate. He now took the appellation of Severus, as he was ambitious of being thought a descendant of the emperor Septimius Severus. During nine years of peace he reformed abuses, promoted men of merit and capacity, and restored health to the empire.

In 231, however, he assumed command of the eastern legions to defend his Asiatic provinces from a Persian invasion. Crossing the Euphrates, he encountered the hostile hosts in Mesopotamia, and defeated them with great slaughter. Receiving intelligence that the Germans were up in arms and preparing for an irruption into Gaul, he hastened back to place himself at the head of the Rhenish army; but at the very opening of the campaign he was waylaid and slain, along with his mother (to whose care his elevated character, in the midst of corruption, is attributed), by a party of mutineers, who had probably been instigated to the deed by his successor Maximin.