Editing Severus Alexander (section)

== Assassination ==
[[File:(Toulouse) Portrait de Sévère Alexandre – Musée-Saint-Raymond Ra 69.jpg|thumb|right|Bust of Severus Alexander, [[Musée Saint-Raymond]], Toulouse]]
Alexander was forced to face his Germanic enemies in the early months of 235. By the time he and his mother arrived, the situation had settled, and so his mother convinced him that to avoid violence, trying to bribe the Germanic army to surrender was the more sensible course of action.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Severus Alexander {{!}} Roman emperor|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Severus-Alexander|access-date=2021-06-04|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref> According to historians, it was this tactic combined with insubordination from his own men that destroyed his reputation and popularity.<ref name="Valentine Nind Hopkins 240">{{cite book|last=Valentine Nind Hopkins|first=Sir Richard|title=The Life of Alexander Severus|year=1907|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofalexanders00hopk|publisher=The University Press|location=Princeton University|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lifeofalexanders00hopk/page/240 240]}}</ref> Alexander was thus assassinated together with his mother in early March{{refn|The reign-length given by ancient writers gives a date of 21–23  March.<ref>''[[Historia Augusta]]'', [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Severus_Alexander/3*.html#60 Alexander, 60]: "He ruled for thirteen years and nine days... He did everything in accordance with his mother's advice, and she was killed with him."</ref><ref>[[Filocalus]], ''[[Chronograph of 354]]'', [https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/chronography_of_354_16_chronicle_of_the_city_of_rome.htm Part 16]: "Alexander ruled 13 years, 8 months and 9 days. He was killed at Mainz."</ref><ref>[[Eutropius (historian)|Eutropius]], {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20031222151133/http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/eutropius/trans8.html Book VIII]}}: "He lost his life in Gaul, in a tumult of the soldiery, in the thirteenth year and eighth day of his reign. He testified great affection for his mother Mammaea."</ref> However, these are reckoning to the formal accession of [[Maximinus Thrax]], which almost certainly took place on 23 March. A travel from Mainz to Rome could take almost a whole month, so his exact date of death is not known.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Burgess |first=Richard W. |url=https://www.steiner-verlag.de/en/Roman-Imperial-Chronology-and-Early-Fourth-Century-Historiography/9783515107327 |title=Roman imperial chronology and early-fourth-century historiography |date=2014 |publisher=Steiner |isbn=978-3-515-10732-7 |series=Historia Einzelschriften |location=Stuttgart|pages=67–69}}</ref><ref>See also https://orbis.stanford.edu/, which calculates travel times in ancient Rome.</ref>}} in a mutiny of the [[Legio XXII Primigenia|Legio XXII ''Primigenia'']] at [[Mainz|Moguntiacum (Mainz)]] while at a meeting with his generals.{{sfn|Southern|2001|p=63}} These assassinations secured the throne for Maximinus.{{sfn|Benario|2023}}

The ''[[Historia Augusta]]'' documents two theories that elaborate on Severus's assassination. The first claims that the disaffection of Mamaea was the main motive behind the homicide. However, Lampridius makes it clear that he is more supportive of an alternative theory, that Alexander was murdered in Sicilia (located in Britain).<ref>[[Historia Augusta]], ''Life of Severus Alexander'', 59:6</ref>

This theory has it that, in an open tent after his lunch, Alexander was consulting with his insubordinate troops, who compared him to his cousin [[Elagabalus]], the divisive and unpopular Emperor whose own assassination paved the way for Alexander's reign. A Germanic servant entered the tent and initiated the call for Alexander's assassination, at which point many of the troops joined in the attack. Alexander's attendants fought against the other troops but could not hold off the combined might of those seeking the Emperor's assassination. Within minutes, Alexander was dead. His mother, Julia Mamaea, was in the same tent with Alexander and soon fell victim to the same group of assassins.<ref name="Valentine Nind Hopkins 240"/>

Alexander's body is traditionally believed to have been buried together with the body of his mother, Julia Mamaea, in a mausoleum in Rome. The mausoleum, called {{Ill|Monte del Grano|it}}, is the third largest in Rome after those of [[Hadrian]] and [[Augustus]]. A large sarcophagus was found inside the tomb in the 16th century, now in the [[Palazzo dei Conservatori]] Museum in Rome, was traditionally thought to contain the emperor's remains but this has been disputed<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Painter |first1=Kenneth |last2=Whitehouse |first2=David |date=1990 |title=The Discovery of the Vase |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24188033 |journal=Journal of Glass Studies |volume=32 |pages=85–102 |jstor=24188033 |issn=0075-4250}}</ref> and is today considered groundless.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |last2= |first2= |last3= |first3= |date=2016-03-04 |title=Monte del Grano Mausoleum |url=https://www.turismoroma.it/en/places/monte-del-grano-mausoleum |access-date=2025-05-01 |website=Turismo Roma |language=en}}</ref>