The first African emperor of Rome Septimius Severus

Septimius Severus (AD 145-211) was proclaimed Emperor in AD 193 and arrived in Britain in AD 203. Severus was of Libyan and Italian descent, he married Julia Domna, a Syrian and had two sons, one of whom, Caracella, would succeed him.

He took up arms against the Caledonians in AD 208 after they overran Hadrian’s Wall, and was cremated in Eboracum (modern-day York), then the capital of Roman Britain.