The aim of this article is to demonstrate the connections between political
history and the use of myth for political purposes at Leptis Magna, birthplace
of the African emperor Septimius Severus. The city, capital of the Tripolitanian
Emporia in North Africa, was extensively restructured by the emperor and his
son, Caracalla, after the civil wars of 193–7 AD. The urban renewal
involved the harbour, perhaps very early in 198, and the Eastern area of the
city close to the bank of the wadi Lebdah (see figure 1). The inscriptions on
the buildings clearly refer to the period of their construction: the Forum Novum
Severianum was completed between 202 and 205; the Basilica was built between
209–10 and completed under Caracalla in 215–16; a lead
fistula from the Nympheum gives evidence that it was
finished in 210. The inscription for the dedication of the tetrapylon arch is
missing. This imposing monument on the cross-way between the
cardo and the decumanus maximus of the city
was the first visible to anyone approaching the city from the hinterland.
Scholars now agree in placing its construction around 202–3, during
the imperial family's stay in North Africa.