Verus (senator)

Verus († 219) was a Roman politician who became the usurper in 219.

Life

Verus was an ambitious upstart who used his position as the centurion as a springboard into the Roman Senate. Later, he was appointed commander of the Legio III Gallica and assumed a unit whose soldiers were increasingly dissatisfied with the reign of the current emperor Elagabalus.

219 rebelled open the Legionaries. Verus placed himself at the forefront of this movement and declared himself emperor ( Cassius Dio 80.7 ). He had, however, significantly underestimated the power of the reigning emperor. The Legion was trounced and Verus himself captured and executed. Finally, the Legion of Elagabalus was also dissolved and its former location Tyre was removed from the prestigious status of a metropolis.