Synopsis:\xa0 Severus\u2019 close friendship with Plautianus estranges him from his family.\xa0 In his final years, a rebellion in Britannia provides one last opportunity to shape his legacy.\n\u201cThe contemporaries of Severus, in this enjoyment of the peace and glory of his reign, forgave the cruelties by which it had been introduced.\xa0 Posterity, who experienced the fatal effects of his maxims and example, justly considered him as the principal author of the decline of the Roman Empire.\u201d \u2013 Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 1, Chapter 5\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices