Alexander Severus
a Roman emperor, born in 205 A.D.; was the cousin and adopted son of Heliogabalus, whom he succeeded in 222. He sought the society of the learned; Paulus and Ulpianus were his counselors; Plato and Cicero were, next to Horace and Vergil, his favorite authors. Although a pagan, he reverenced the doctrines of Christianity.
Beloved as he was by the citizens on account of his equity, he soon became an object of hatred to the unruly prætorian guards. His first expedition (231-233) against Artaxerxes, King of Persia, was terminated by a speedy overthrow of the enemy; but during one which he undertook in 234 against the Germans on the Rhine an insurrection broke out among his troops, headed by Maximus, in which Alexander was murdered (235).
ALEXANDER THE GREAT