Severus Alexander

Severus Alexander (r. 222–235 CE), born in 208 CE at Arca Caesarea in Phoenicia, was the last Severan emperor; his assassination by mutinying soldiers in 235 is conventionally taken as the start of the Crisis of the Third Century. Later tradition — reported chiefly in the unreliable Historia Augusta — remembered him as unusually tolerant toward Jews and Christians, describing a private shrine (lararium) that supposedly held images of figures including Abraham and Christ alongside Orpheus and Apollonius of Tyana, and crediting him with adopting a form of the golden rule; modern scholars treat these reports as largely legendary. A separate Jewish tradition links his name to the "Severus Scroll," a Torah variant said to have been kept at Rome, though its actual connection to this emperor is itself legendary. No specific documented dealings with a named sage, council, or revolt are recorded for his reign.