SEVERUS, JULIUS:

By: Richard Gottheil, Samuel Krauss

Roman general; consul in 127. Later he held a number of offices in the provinces, and was legate of Dacia, Mœsia, and, according to an inscription ("C. I. L." iii., No. 2830), of Britain. This is confirmed by Dion Cassius, who states (lxix. 13) that Severus was sent from Britain to Judea to quell the rebellion of Bar Kokba, being appointed "legatus pro prætore" of the province of Judea and subsequently legate of Syria.

Severus did not attack the Jews in open battle, but hunted them down one by one after tedious struggles in their fastnesses, caverns, and ravines, until, to quote the words of Dion Cassius, "he annihilated, destroyed, and exterminated them." The statement of Dion's epitomizer (ib. 14), that Severus was appointed legate of Bithynia on the conclusion of the war, is due to a confusion with another Severus, who was apparently called "G. J. Severus," while the one under consideration had the prænomen "Sextus." The Senate, according to his inscription, decreed him a triumph "ob res in Iudæa prospere gestas."

G. S. Kr.