Paradise Lost Episode 2 - The Calm Before The Storm

<p>"Be harmonious, enrich the soldiers, scorn everybody else." - Septimus Severus to his two sons Caracalla and Geta while on his deathbed</p> <p>When Marcus Aurelius died in March, 180, most in the Roman Empire thought it would be business as usual when he was succeeded by his son, Commodus. But his son would prove to be a tyrant, straining the empire's institutions and weakening it from within. When he died at the hands of an assassin in 192 the empire was plunged into civil war. When the dust settled a new dynasty held the throne, one from North Africa, led by Septimus Severus. But, in just a few short decades the Severan dynasty would crash and burn and the empire would soon follow.</p> <p>Image: Arch of Septimius Severus in the Forum Romanum by Luigi Bazzani - Luigi Bazzani, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commonshttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arch_of_Septimius_Severus_in_the_Forum_Romanum_by_Luigi_Bazzani.jpg </p>