Severus II

When did Severus II die?

Severus II is dated d. AD 307 (forced suicide) in the archive, which places Severus II in the Ante-Nicene Church (AD 180–313).

Which early sources mention Severus II?

Severus II is named in 2 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Lactantius and The anonymous chronicler. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Where was Severus II from?

The archive associates Severus II with Milan, Ravenna, Tres Tabernae. The sources record more than one location, so the places are listed in the order the record moves through them.

Who were Severus II’s contemporaries?

The archive links Severus II to 4 other figures, including Emperor Galerius, Emperor Maxentius, Maximian Herculius and Constantine the Great. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.

Severus came, deserted by his own soldiers… surrendering himself, he received the death of a gentler sort he begged: his veins were opened.

[The anonymous chronicler records the elevation of Severus as Caesar, his surrender, and his death.]

The Origo Constantini Imperatoris, also called the Anonymus Valesianus I — a short secular life of Constantine written in Latin, probably in the later fourth century, and preserved with the Excerpta Valesiana. Critical text: Theodor Mommsen, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi IX, Chronica Minora I (1892); also Ingemar König (1987). English translations: John C. Rolfe with the Excerpta Valesiana in Ammianus Marcellinus vol. 3, Loeb Classical Library 331 (1939), and Jane Stevenson in Samuel Lieu and Dominic Montserrat, From Constantine to Julian (1996); neither is in the public domain.