SEPTIMUS, a son of the emperor Severus, brother to Caracalla. In the eighth year of his age, he was moved with compassion at the fate of some of the partizans of Niger and Albinus who were to be executed, and his father struck with his humanity retracted the sentence. After Severus's death he reigned at Rome conjointly with his brother; but Caracalla, who envied his virtues and was jealous of his popularity, ordered him to be poisoned; and when this could not be effected, he murdered him in the arms of his mother Julia, who in the attempt of defending the fatal blows from his body received a wound in her arm, from the hand of her son, A.D. 212. Geta had not yet reached the 23d year of his age, and the Romans had reason to lament the death of so virtuous a prince, while they groaned under the cruelties and oppression of Caracalla.