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 from Macquarie University.

This is episode, wait for it, LXX-X-V-I-I-I. Severin stories I-I. Today we present you with three different events in the

reign of Septimia Severus. Act I, if you build it, they will come.

Septimia Severus was establishing a dynasty and one of the best ways to do that is through building.

Not only do you get to beautify the empire, but it gives you the opportunity to list

your name and accomplishments for all to see.

Here's Kalin Davenport. Around this time period there was a lot of building going on in Rome, which is good for an emperor trying to establish his own dynasty,

but it's also something that Rome needed because at the end of the reign of Commodus there was a big fire that meant that a lot of rebuilding and restoration was needed.

So what was Septimius Severus doing? How active was he in the rebuilding of Rome and what can we see his name on?

Yes, Timmyus Severus was a very active builder in Rome. So as you mentioned the fire provided a great opportunity for rebuilding

so the temple of peace which had been built by Vespasian that's right yeah

yeah that was adjacent to the former Manum that was rebuilt and in one corner of the temple of peace a magnificent marble plan of the city of Rome was installed on one wall.

There's still fragments of that.

They still find them every now and then, don't they?

Yeah.

Stanford has a great Severan Marble Plan project

when they catalog all the fragments.

So you can see the wall it was on outside the church

of Cosmos and Damien today.

So you can see the holes where it would have been affixed the wall.

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