Volume 1
History of the County Palatine and Duchy of Lancaster / By Edward Baines ... The biographical department by W.R. Whatton.
- Edward Baines
- Date:
- 1836
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: History of the County Palatine and Duchy of Lancaster / By Edward Baines ... The biographical department by W.R. Whatton. Source: Wellcome Collection.
47/672 page 17
![A few years after the return of Severus to York, where he held his court in all the splendour of Roman magnificence, the Caledonians again took up arms, and penetrated beyond the wall which the conqueror had pronounced an insurmountable bulwark. This renewed irruption excited the indignation of the emperor beyond all bounds ; forgetting that he was himself an invader, he commanded his legions to advance once more against the enemy, and to put the whole population, without distinction of age or sex, to the sword, as the poet has expressed it.* Tpdec & ab Erépwbev ava mrddkw amdioyro, Ilavpérepor* pépacay d& & Oc topin payecbat, Xpewt avayKkcuy, mpo Te waldwy & po yuvarKer. No sooner had Severus put down this new insurrection, than the infirmities of age, and the cares of the government, brought.on a mortal disease, of which he died in the Brigantine capital, the city of his adoption. His last words to his sons were—“ I leave you, my Antonines, (a term of affection, ) a firm and steady govern- ment, if you will follow my steps, and prove what you ought to be,—weak and tottering, if otherwise.” —‘“ Do every thing that conduces to each other’s good.”— “‘ Cherish the soldiery, and then you may despise the rest of mankind: a disturbed and every where distracted government, I found; but to you [ leave it firm and quiet—even to the Britons.” ‘I have risen from the lowest to the highest station, and am now no better for it.’ Then calling for the urn which was to contain his ashes, after the ossilegiwm (the burning of his body ), and, looking steadily upon it, he said—“‘ Thou shalt hold what the world was not large enough to contain.” After the dead body of the emperor had been consumed in the flames, his ashes were collected, and sent in a porphyrite urn to Rome, where they were deposited in the capitol, and the honour of apotheosis, or deification, was conferred upon him by the senate and the people. That his memory might not be lost in Britain, his devoted army, with infinite labour, raised three large hills in the place where his funeral rites were performed, in the vicinity of the city of York, which elevations bear the name of Severus’s Hills, and are still very prominent.{ The manner of “ making a god,” as described by Herodian{ in the case of Severus, is extraordinary, and will yield more amusement to the reader than the object of deification could afford benefit to his disciples. ‘“‘ The ceremony,” says the historian, “ has a mixture of festivity and pomp. The corpse is buried, like other emperors, in a sumptuous manner. But they make an effigy [of wax] as like the deceased as possible, and place it in the porch of the palace, upon a large and lofty bed of ivory covered with cloth of gold. This image is of a pale complexion, and * Homer Il. viii. 55. + Drake’s Eboracum, book i. p. 14. t Book iv. c. 3. VOL I. ; nL) orders. His death. His deifi- cation.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33521682_0001_0047.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
