Alexander, Severus

Alexander, Severus, a Roman emperor, was born at Acre in Phoenicia, in 205. He was carefully educated by his mother, and was adopted and made Caesar by his cousin Heliogabalus, at whose death Alexander was raised to the throne in his seventeenth year. The young emperor followed the noble example of Trajan and the Antonines; and, on the whole, governed ably both in peace and in war. He was murdered in 235, in an insurrection of his Gallic troops headed by the barbarian Maximin. Alexander was favorable to Christianity. following the predilections of his mother Mammmea; and he is said to have placed the statue of Jesus Christ in his private temple, in company with those of Orpheus and Apollonius Tyaneus. For a glowing account of his reign, as well as his studies in poetry, philosophy, and literature, see Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. 3.