Ahve, and welcome to Emperor of Rome, a Roman history podcast from Latrobe University. I'm your host Matt Smith and with me today is Dr.

Cayland Davenport, lecturer in Roman history at Macquarie University.

This is episode LXXVI,

Assent to Greatness, however steep and dangerous.

I'm paraphrasing historian Edward Gibbon here.

Septimia Severus, now ruler of Rome without opposition, had been all things and always of little value.

He is now distracted with the care, not with acquiring, but of preserving an empire.

He is Kalin Davenport. After Septimia Severus has dealt

with the problems within his own empire, he immediately needs to turn and give his attention back to the Parthians.

They've attacked Rome really during his campaign against Clodius albinus.

So what's the situation here? Are they being opportunistic and why is this still a problem after

Marcus Aurelius fought a war against the Parthians?

Yeah I think they're definitely taking advantage of the fact that Septimis has been occupied in the West.

I mean, certainly, Septimius' first path in war against the vassals would not have gone unnoticed and you very often

find that Parthia and Rome are always fighting over intermediate kingdoms.

You might remember with Lucis Verus,

the kingdom of Armenia,

was certainly a bit of a battleground

between the two places. Here it is Mesopotamia and the Parthians under

Volgisis invade the Roman territory there and they lay siege to Nizebus, which doesn't fall because of the success of Julius Litus,

Septimius Serus' general, who proved so successful and saved his bacon at the Battle of Luggen.

But this is a situation which now demands Septimius Severus's presence in person.

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