Julius Alexander
Iulius Alexander († 190 or 191) was a Roman rebel who rose up in Emesa against Emperor Commodus .
Alexander came from a respected family in the Syrian city of Emesa, possibly related to the house of Iulius Bassianus and Iulia Domna , from which the later emperors Elagabal and Severus Alexander emerged . In his hometown he made a career as a venator in animal baiting in the amphitheater .
According to the report of the Roman historian Cassius Dio , Alexander aroused the suspicion of Commodus by taking a lion from his horse with a spear in the arena. The emperor, who himself practiced this exclusive form of animal hunt in Rome and who put on a lion's skin when performing in Hercules style, may have interpreted this “heroic deed” as an attack on his authority. A firing squad was sent to Emesa, but Alexander had the soldiers killed as well as his other opponents in the city; the Historia Augusta expressly states that Alexander instigated a rebellion and thus possibly intended a usurpation of the imperial dignity. His subsequent attempt to escape on horseback, however, was foiled: When Alexander was caught, he took the life of himself and his young lover who had accompanied him.
swell
- Cassius Dio 73, 14 , 1-3
- Historia Augusta , Commodus 8 , 3
literature
- Anthony R. Birley : Septimius Severus. The African Emperor . 2nd Edition. Batsford, London 1988, ISBN 0-7134-5694-9 .
- Prosopographia Imperii Romani (PIR )² I 135.
- Gary K. Young: Emesa in Roman Syria: Resistance, Rebellion and Regionalism in the Third Century AD. In: Prudentia. Volume 36, 2004, pp. 31–48, here: pp. 33–34 ( PDF; 3.3 MB ).
- Martin Zimmermann : Emperor and Event. Studies on the historical work of Herodian (= Vestigia . Volume 52). CH Beck, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-406-45162-4 , pp. 124, 130, 143.
Remarks
- ↑ See Young, Emesa , p. 33 f.
- ↑ See Birley, Septimius Severus , p. 223; Emesa was the scene of further usurpations in the period that followed: Elagabal against Macrinus (218), Iotapianus against Philip Arabs (248/49), Uranius Antoninus against Valerian (253) and Quietus against Gallienus (260/61).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Julius Alexander |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Alexander of Emesa |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Roman rebel in Emesa |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 2nd century |
| DATE OF DEATH | 190 or 191 |
| Place of death | at Emesa |