Speaker 1: And now bring my mic back. You're like that.
Speaker 2: You can strike waters from headquarters behind him.
Speaker 3: And if you're just tuning in to CIVI Excite for
Speaker 3: I'm your host Ramsey's.
Speaker 1: Job, he is Rams joh I m q ward. You
Speaker 1: are listening to a year in review WA Civic Excite.
Speaker 3: And Manager. Stick around because we do have a lot
Speaker 3: more to review. We're going to go from June to
Speaker 3: November and revisit some of the topics that we've discussed
Speaker 3: on the show, give some brief thoughts, and of course
Speaker 3: you're welcome to go back and check out any of
Speaker 3: these older episodes because we've done a lot of the
Speaker 3: research for these and they're they're great episodes. We're also
Speaker 3: going to talk about a great African Roman emperor. This
Speaker 3: is something I never knew because when you think of Rome,
Speaker 3: you think of Roman people, Italian people, that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: But first time I ever heard the term Roman African emperor.
Speaker 1: Was you sending me this story? Yeah, exactly, So stick
Speaker 1: around for that and also this today, we're going to
Speaker 1: discuss Baba becoming a better allied Baba. Today's Biba is
Speaker 1: sponsored by Major Threads for quality men'swear, check out major
Speaker 1: threads dot com. Today, you can become a better ally
Speaker 1: by investing in black banking. I told you the episode
Speaker 1: was going to have that as a theme.
Speaker 3: So let's name a few of these institutions because you
Speaker 3: might think black owned bank where you know, I know,
Speaker 3: Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Chase.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 3: Okay, Well, there's plenty of banks, Greenwood Incorporated, one United Bank,
Speaker 3: First Independence Bank, carb State Bank, Citizens Trust Bank, Columbia
Speaker 3: Savings and Loan, Liberty Bank, and Trust, etc.
Speaker 1: That list goes on.
Speaker 3: Okay, this is very googleable, right, and you don't need
Speaker 3: to keep your money in a Bank of America, Wells Fargo,
Speaker 3: et cetera. Now why is this important? Well, traditional banks. No,
Speaker 3: Let's say you take your money, you put your money
Speaker 3: into a bank. They're going to give loans disproportionately to
Speaker 3: non black borrowers, small business owners, etc. They're going to
Speaker 3: fund home ownership in non black for non black families
Speaker 3: at a higher rate.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: What happens is we give loans to these banks, and
Speaker 3: they create wealth for people who are not black. They
Speaker 3: create opportunities for people who are not black based on
Speaker 3: just their mechanisms. They fund gentrification they expand the wealth
Speaker 3: gap between black and white people and families, and they're lending.
Speaker 1: Practice sis.
Speaker 3: Solidify our position on this end of the spectrum as
Speaker 3: black people, and so investing in black banks can actually
Speaker 3: start to make a dent in that. So do the research.
Speaker 3: But that's how you can become a better ally.
Speaker 1: Today's tip.
Speaker 3: All right, back to the lecture at hand, So our
Speaker 3: year in review, June June was a troubling month for us.
Speaker 3: I know, yeah, you're looking at it too. June was tough.
Speaker 3: June is when we discussed the val Day mass shooting.
Speaker 3: I feel like you know what I'm talking about. But
Speaker 3: in short, Vall Day was when a gunman went into
Speaker 3: an elementary school and shot all the kids, and when
Speaker 3: the kids died, and then they had to make like
Speaker 3: Spider Man Coffin and all that stuff. Right by the way,
Speaker 3: this country still hasn't done anything to anything significant to
Speaker 3: change the likelihood of that happening again. And I will
Speaker 3: say that where I see the most friction and the
Speaker 3: most difficulty in creating those changes is with the conservative
Speaker 3: facet of this country, i e. The Republicans. So again
Speaker 3: back to you know, why do black people vote Democrat?
Speaker 3: You know anyway, and they.
Speaker 1: Have no intentions on doing anything either. Yeah, we know
Speaker 1: that governor of the state where this happened went to
Speaker 1: an NRA rally or just like the next day, the
Speaker 1: day after. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So anyway, the question that we asked ourselves when we
Speaker 3: actually did this episode was did the police really just
Speaker 3: stand there while children were shot?
Speaker 1: Unfortunately? Yes, So we asked a question earlier, do please
Speaker 1: make you safer? The evidence would say no, mister John, Right, so,
Speaker 1: counselor John. So anyway, I remember having to have this conversation.
Speaker 1: You know, we we have to be very transparent here.
Speaker 1: You know, we have some longtime listeners of this show
Speaker 1: and we appreciate that support. But after the past couple
Speaker 1: of months, we have a lot of new listeners, particularly
Speaker 1: in the in the podcast space, and starting in January,
Speaker 1: we should have a lot more listeners nationally as well.
Speaker 1: So some of these stories may not have made it
Speaker 1: to you. But one thing that you need to know
Speaker 1: is that I'm a father.
Speaker 3: I have two little boys, and Q is a father
Speaker 3: and he has a little boy and a little girl,
Speaker 3: and they're about as precious as they can be. And
Speaker 3: so the Suvalde thing hit different because because it did.
Speaker 3: Why would I have to even explain that. I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm sure you get what I'm saying. You said it,
Speaker 3: and I thought it almost at the same time. It
Speaker 3: hit different because it did to even if we weren't parents.
Speaker 1: Thank you. You know what I mean. Like, once upon
Speaker 1: a time there were people in this country who felt
Speaker 1: right that the people who vote that way, the people
Speaker 1: who sympathize with nothing changing after these outcomes. It's because
Speaker 1: it doesn't hit home from them. For them, it's not
Speaker 1: their children, or it's not children. And then one of
Speaker 1: these mass shootings hit in Colorado, where was their children,
Speaker 1: where the kids did look like them. Nothing changed still
Speaker 1: because to a capitalist society, it's capital.
Speaker 4: Over everything that's fair, profit over everything, even our babies,
Speaker 4: well even the lives and safety of our babies.
Speaker 3: It's enough to make your stomach turning. I remember we
Speaker 3: had this conversation because neither one of us were really
Speaker 3: hyped to jump on the radio after that. But I
Speaker 3: will say this, it might have been two thousand and
Speaker 3: eleven ish somewhere in there Sandy Hook, another school shooting
Speaker 3: where a bunch of babies got mowed down. They didn't
Speaker 3: get to grow up that was the end of their story.
Speaker 3: They went to school and then they didn't go home
Speaker 3: that day. I went and my firstborn from school, and
Speaker 3: I took him to Toys r us And because that
Speaker 3: hit different, because you know, I grew up around mass shootings.
Speaker 3: This is not new, you know as well as I do.
Speaker 3: But when this aval Day thing happened, I had a
Speaker 3: little boy who was in the second grade, which I
Speaker 3: believe was approximately the age of the students that were
Speaker 3: murdered at Uvalde. And I knew that I was going
Speaker 3: to have to do something because the government wasn't doing anything.
Speaker 3: And I knew I was going to have to talk to
Speaker 3: my son, and so I brought my seven year old
Speaker 3: at the time on the radio, you remember that episode cute,
Speaker 3: and he sat here with.
Speaker 1: Of course I do at a nia's naivete, innocence, ignorance
Speaker 1: to the darkest parts of this story shown right through.
Speaker 3: Man. He is not ready for that, But I'm his father.
Speaker 3: I have to let him know. Hey, listen, if you
Speaker 3: hear some noises at your school, I need you to run.
Speaker 3: I need you to don't help anybody. Do you have
Speaker 3: to survive. You come home to me. Okay, you go
Speaker 3: somewhere and you hide and you stay there. I had
Speaker 3: that conversation on the radio for everyone to hear because
Speaker 3: of the Suvalde shooting, because if anybody was going to
Speaker 3: do anything, it had to be me, because my son
Speaker 3: is going to come home to me, and.
Speaker 1: You feel irresponsible to not teach that lesson. But man,
Speaker 1: you don't want to have to.
Speaker 3: You know what was real kudo because I monitored that
Speaker 3: show afterward, because I knew that there were going to
Speaker 3: be some people that go, hey, man, listen, you can't
Speaker 3: talk to your kid about nobody sent anything. You know
Speaker 3: a lot of times our listeners reach back out and
Speaker 3: they say, hey, you know, I like this. I didn't
Speaker 3: like that nobody said anything about that one. I mean
Speaker 3: because unfortunate everybody, unnecessarily everybody understood that. Like listen, and
Speaker 3: you could hear if you go back and find the episode.
Speaker 3: For those we put all of our shows up as
Speaker 3: a podcast. This is a radio show for those who
Speaker 3: don't know, but we put all of our shows up
Speaker 3: as a podcast. You can go and find this episode.
Speaker 3: This was in June, and you'll hear his little voice
Speaker 3: answer these questions and I'm like, hey, baby, do you
Speaker 3: know that sometimes people go into the school and they
Speaker 3: shoot little kids, and he's like, no.
Speaker 1: Once companies started to market bulletproof school supplies, we were
Speaker 1: too lost in the sauce. It's like, wow, the answer
Speaker 1: is not to make it safer actually, but to give
Speaker 1: the false impression that it is bulletproof book bags.
Speaker 3: So yeah, anyway, we also talked about reparations in June.
Speaker 1: This is something that.
Speaker 3: There's a lot we can talk about, maybe two things
Speaker 3: a week on the show, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: Like at length, there's a lot of things going on,
Speaker 3: and all of them work together, but they're all kind
Speaker 3: of independent as well, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 3: I think that this gives a lot of our listeners
Speaker 3: a glimpse into what it is that black people are
Speaker 3: asking for, because a lot of folks, if you don't know,
Speaker 3: it's like, well, black people always complain, and black people
Speaker 3: always want something for free. Black people want this. Black
Speaker 3: people want that. They want rights. Everybody's got the same rights.
Speaker 3: So I think, what's privilege? I don't have any privilege.
Speaker 3: Nobody gave me anything when I started out, you know.
Speaker 3: So this show we get to explain all of these
Speaker 3: little things to people and kind of give them a
Speaker 3: glimpse into Hey, you know, it's not the same over here.
Speaker 3: Because it's very easy for us to access what a
Speaker 3: white reality would be like, it's often more difficult for
Speaker 3: a person where that's their reality to conceive of what
Speaker 3: a black reality would be like. And so reparations had
Speaker 3: its day in June that year. This year, I should say,
Speaker 3: where we outline some of the less obvious wise in
Speaker 3: terms of how reparations make sense. We also took some
Speaker 3: time to perform another thought experiment that helped our listeners
Speaker 3: understand how by simply acknowledging the harm that slavery had
Speaker 3: on black people, just acknowledging it, that could be beneficial. Now,
Speaker 3: acknowledging harm doesn't have a dollar amount assigned to it, right,
Speaker 3: And the truth is, if you were to try to,
Speaker 3: like really put a number on that, you turn off
Speaker 3: a lot of people who are in a position to
Speaker 3: actually make that happen.
Speaker 1: Right, which is so strange. But the argument would be
Speaker 1: worth his money coming from we don't have it, yah
Speaker 1: YadA YadA, but we send there's always money for us
Speaker 1: that people want of billions of dollars to other countries
Speaker 1: stay in their wars you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 1: it's it's not a lack of funding. People, Yeah, please
Speaker 1: don't convince yourselves of that.
Speaker 3: But in this particular facet, we I remember having this
Speaker 3: conversation where we were saying that, you know, just simply acknowledging, Hey,
Speaker 3: this is meant to address some of the things that
Speaker 3: this country has done, some of the wrongs that we've
Speaker 3: done on a human level. This was wrong, we did wrong.
Speaker 3: This is for our part, and that acknowledgement it validates it.
Speaker 3: Just to you know what I'm saying. When you're born
Speaker 3: black and you look around and you're like, dam I'm black.
Speaker 3: Everybody else is black and is poor, and that's normal.
Speaker 3: That's just the state of black people. Why why can't
Speaker 3: we be happy? Why can't you know, I heard someone
Speaker 3: say on social media post the other days, like why
Speaker 3: is it that black people are always waiting to get
Speaker 3: the reward in heaven? But we have to be miserable
Speaker 3: on Earth and every community, every city coast to coast
Speaker 3: and Africa. You know, Africa has been robbed of all
Speaker 3: of our wealth, of all you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 3: And it's not unlike what happened, you know in the
Speaker 3: United States with Native Americans.
Speaker 1: It's just how did this happen? How? Yeah, man?
Speaker 3: And how is this okay? How's there's this stunning silence
Speaker 3: associated with it. And when you start to address it
Speaker 3: by saying, listen, this was wrong. Here's what we're going
Speaker 3: to do about it right now, that acknowledgment helps you
Speaker 3: to reorient your place in the world.
Speaker 1: Oh, this wasn't supposed to be like this.
Speaker 3: I'm not bad because I'm bad. I'm not poor because
Speaker 3: I'm supposed to be poor. There is something here that
Speaker 3: definitively happened that set us on this course. And I
Speaker 3: just happened to be born at this time. And so
Speaker 3: my reality is not the result of my people me
Speaker 3: just being punished or being you know whatever. It's it's
Speaker 3: a result of some bad people making some bad choices.
Speaker 3: And again we spent that time talking about that my
Speaker 3: bad I felt like I might have cut you off.
Speaker 1: No, I was just going to point out that it's
Speaker 1: having to be born where the world looks at all
Speaker 1: of your shortcomings, your oppression, your marginalization, your losses, you
Speaker 1: being kidnapped, trafficked, sold murdered, raped, It's not just a
Speaker 1: part of your history but a part of your history
Speaker 1: that you know yet it happened, and right because you
Speaker 1: guys can't see me, but I'm a shrug shrugging because
Speaker 1: to say I'm sorry, you'd have to acknowledge what you did.
Speaker 1: So let's not do that, right, because that was so
Speaker 1: long agoing, why are we even making it a big
Speaker 1: deal anymore? And you look at throughout the world, right,
Speaker 1: slavery the way that it happened on this country probably
Speaker 1: singular to this country, definitely, right, but oppression and colonization,
Speaker 1: and you know, words like commonwealth used to make that
Speaker 1: colonization seem like it was for everyone. The words like
Speaker 1: that's being used today, by the way, it's a it's
Speaker 1: it's a troubling reality. Man. You know, I see my
Speaker 1: brothers and sisters talk about you know, I had never
Speaker 1: chosen to be anything but black as a very very
Speaker 1: powerful and proud sentiment to say out loud. It's a
Speaker 1: hard one to mean though, to actually mean, because there's
Speaker 1: no point throughout history we're looking like us was in
Speaker 1: vogue to a point where life was good here anyway
Speaker 1: in this country. Yeah, so.
Speaker 3: Yeah, reparations moving on July. Oh, sorry, this is still
Speaker 3: in June yes and June teenth. We had a conversation
Speaker 3: about how to celebrate June teenth with black people. That
Speaker 3: was a fun one. Okay, all right, let me paint
Speaker 3: this picture. Juneteenth now national holiday federally recognized. I think
Speaker 3: that was one of the things that Biden did that
Speaker 3: many people called performative. Right, And whatever the case is,
Speaker 3: it's not zero. We're used to getting zero, so anything
Speaker 3: that's not zero is something. Progress is slow.
Speaker 1: We know that we, like you, are annoyed that it
Speaker 1: came very much after much grander promises. Right, sure, but
Speaker 1: we take our wins where we can get them, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. And that's something. But we had
Speaker 1: to help this show for those who don't know. We
Speaker 1: create a show that allows us to have black conversations
Speaker 1: in full view of non black people. Our game with
Speaker 1: this show is to help create stronger allies, to empower people,
Speaker 1: to give people knowledge. Just want somebody to teach me
Speaker 1: how to be their brother because I was born to love.
Speaker 3: So if you're like me, then I make this show
Speaker 3: for you. If you're like Q, then Q makes this
Speaker 3: show for you.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: So, when it came time to answer this question, how
Speaker 3: do we celebrate Juneteenth with black people.
Speaker 1: This was felt like it was perfect for us. Okay, listen,
Speaker 1: here's what you do.
Speaker 3: All right, So I remember this conversation. We're basically just saying,
Speaker 3: you know, you celebrate it just like you would celebrate
Speaker 3: any other holiday, right, you'd be mindful of Like if
Speaker 3: you're going to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day, recognize there's a
Speaker 3: commercial element to it. You do things that aren't disrespectful
Speaker 3: to Irish people. If you're go ahead, jump in. I'm
Speaker 3: jumping in like I had a few more examples, but
Speaker 3: go ahead.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So this is my position then and now it's
Speaker 1: really really hard to gate keep. Yeah, the celebration of
Speaker 1: it is now you're saying to hey, everybody, come celebrate this,
Speaker 1: say don't celebrate it like that. Right, I've worn and
Speaker 1: it kissed me. I'm Irish shirt on Saint Patrick's Day.
Speaker 1: I don't know that that's not offensive to anyone Irish. Right.
Speaker 1: So it's like the full commercialization of that holiday is
Speaker 1: why it's so popular, right, So to it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: recognize us, Okay, now as you recognize there's something like that, No, no, no,
Speaker 1: you can't do like that either. So there's a there's
Speaker 1: a kind of hand holding that should happen instead of
Speaker 1: a gatekeeping and like looking at that's like looking to
Speaker 1: shut people down for doing it wrong. And it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: this is everyone's first time and every other holiday in
Speaker 1: this country that's from someone else's culture. Those people have
Speaker 1: allowed the full participation of people that are not from
Speaker 1: their culture in a way that it seemed like we're
Speaker 1: not prepared to do.
Speaker 3: Now, You're absolutely right what I was saying here is
Speaker 3: in far as far as the example of Saint Patrick's Day,
Speaker 3: I have not seen in my lifetime a person who
Speaker 3: dresses like, let's say, a leprechaun and then puts like
Speaker 3: a big fake nose on and uh is you know,
Speaker 3: like there's there's a way to do a caricature of
Speaker 3: someone's cultural identity or culture outright, and I haven't seen
Speaker 3: that happen. I've seen people wear kiss me on Irish shirts.
Speaker 3: I have a grandma who is she was half Irish,
Speaker 3: half Cuban. So I guess I what is that of
Speaker 3: eighth Irish or sixteenth Irish or something like that, sixteenth Cuban,
Speaker 3: whatever that is.
Speaker 1: Whatever that adds up to.
Speaker 3: So I guess I could wear it something like.
Speaker 1: That if I wanted to sure, but then you still
Speaker 1: look like Rams, yeah that's my that's my point.
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, like but but here's the thing or this
Speaker 3: hole day. In this episode, we were making sure that
Speaker 3: folks knew it was okay to celebrate with us. Think
Speaker 3: about it the same way you would think about any
Speaker 3: of the other holidays. Know that there are some sensitivities,
Speaker 3: but be prepared to learn from those sensitivities for your
Speaker 3: social circle, for your community, and then use that and
Speaker 3: use your best judgment. But do not be afraid because
Speaker 3: there's an opportunity here for fellowship. There's an opportunity to learn.
Speaker 3: I learned about Saint Patrick's Day. I learned about Thanksgiving
Speaker 3: and what that was before it became Indigenous People's Day.
Speaker 3: I learned about the history of all these people, where
Speaker 3: these holidays and these traditions come from. So use it
Speaker 3: as an opportunity to learn. If you can learn from
Speaker 3: the people who are responsible for it, learn why it exists.
Speaker 3: White people celebrate it, and if you feel you get
Speaker 3: the day off of work now. So if you feel
Speaker 3: like celebrating that at the park, go celebrate at the park,
Speaker 3: even if you're not black. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: But you know, don't let the moment pass you by
Speaker 3: without taking a second to honor the fact that in
Speaker 3: this instance, there are people who died, you know, during slavery.
Speaker 3: There's a tremendous amount of atrocities during slavery. And the
Speaker 3: freeing of the slaves is why Juneteenth, well, I guess
Speaker 3: the late fet fring of the slaves why Juneteenth really matters.
Speaker 1: So there should be the understanding that they were already free.
Speaker 1: There you go, that's why that's a holiday. And let's
Speaker 1: help people celebrate with us instead of gate keeping. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and in a way that we might be inclined
Speaker 3: to that we can build here. I love the idea
Speaker 3: of building bridges rather than destroying you know, relationships or
Speaker 3: putting up walls. Bridges not walls. That's it, all right. July,
Speaker 3: we talked about the Robi Wade decision. We talked about
Speaker 3: Jalen Walker, he's the man who was shot sixty times
Speaker 3: by the police. We discussed why black on black crime
Speaker 3: it's not a real thing, so fellas, we've had that
Speaker 3: conversation any times. We talked about that Sesame Street parade
Speaker 3: where the little Black girls got ignored. We went to
Speaker 3: August and discussed why midterm elections were important. Of course,
Speaker 3: we had to get ready for the midterms at that point.
Speaker 3: To whom are police accountable? That's an important question.
Speaker 1: As well themselves.
Speaker 3: It seems no one else how stereotypes affect black children
Speaker 3: and growing up, and we shared examples of our childhood
Speaker 3: growing up, the stereotypes that we understood to be true,
Speaker 3: how it kind of closed us. In September, we talked
Speaker 3: about environmental racism, specifically Jackson, Mississippi, with they didn't have
Speaker 3: clean running water in Flint, Michigan and Flint as well,
Speaker 3: very very black communities by the way, exactly, and how
Speaker 3: you wouldn't see that happening in a non black community.
Speaker 3: We also talked about in September. This was when The
Speaker 3: Little Mermaid came out and the actress was black, and
Speaker 3: we talked about black people in fairy tales, not just
Speaker 3: Little Mermaid, but we also talked about it in like
Speaker 3: a Hobbit or Lord of the Rings thing in the
Speaker 3: Game of Thrones, you know stuff. And then in October
Speaker 3: we talked about voter suppression initiatives and what those were.
Speaker 3: We talked about a couple of videos we interviewed with
Speaker 3: Isaac Kay's the third and then that brings us approximately
Speaker 3: to where we are now. So that's our year in review.
Speaker 3: Had a good year, man looking forward to next year.
Speaker 3: But now it's time for the Way Black History Fact.
Speaker 3: Today's Way Black History Fact is sponsored by the Black
Speaker 3: Information Network Daily Podcast and we are discussing the great
Speaker 3: African Roman Emperor. So I will read from my notes here.
Speaker 3: In eighty one ninety three, Lucius Septimius Severus was named
Speaker 3: ruler of the Roman Empire, and doing so, became Rome's
Speaker 3: first African emperor.
Speaker 1: What a name.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of names here, but yeah, that's he got.
Speaker 1: Might I might change my name?
Speaker 3: Say it again, Septimius Severus. Oh sorry, Lucius Septimius Severus.
Speaker 1: Yeah, man was doing it. If you guys, I'll think
Speaker 1: about it, because I might have to go with that
Speaker 1: all right.
Speaker 3: After emerging victorious from a period of civil war, Severus
Speaker 3: expanded the border of the empire to new heights. Ushered
Speaker 3: in a period of imperial transformation and founded a dynasty
Speaker 3: born in eighty one forty five in the prominent Roman
Speaker 3: Libyan city of Leptis Magna in Africa. Severus came from
Speaker 3: a wealthy and prominent local family, and eighty one sixty
Speaker 3: two Severus went to Rome and was granted entry into
Speaker 3: the senatorial ranks after his cousin Guia Septimus Severus, had
Speaker 3: recommended him to Emperor Marcus Arielus.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of essays here.
Speaker 3: Severus rose through the ranks of the Cursus honorum, which
Speaker 3: were public offices held by aspiring Roman politicians, gaining entry
Speaker 3: into the Roman Senate in eighty one seventy and being
Speaker 3: appointed Legatus, a senior position in the Roman army in
Speaker 3: AD one seventy three, after his cousin became proconsul of
Speaker 3: the Province of Africa. Two years later, he married Pasia Marciana,
Speaker 3: a woman from his home city of Leptis Magna. The
Speaker 3: marriage would last a little over ten years before Marciana
Speaker 3: passed away in eighty one eighty six of natural causes.
Speaker 3: A year later, during his time as governor of Gaul
Speaker 3: and living in the city of Lugdanum modern day Lion
Speaker 3: in France or at Leon, Severus married Julia Domna from Syria,
Speaker 3: and the pair would have two sons. Lucia's Septimus Bassanius,
Speaker 3: later nicknamed Caracalla after the Gaelic hooded tunic he always wore,
Speaker 3: and Publius Septimus getta all right? In eighty ninety and sorry.
Speaker 3: In eighty one ninety one, the then Emperor Commodus made
Speaker 3: Severus governor of Hanoia Superior, a province on the Danube frontier.
Speaker 1: I think that's how I'll say that.
Speaker 3: The following year, Commodus was assassinated in an eighty one
Speaker 3: one three, his successor, Publius Helvius Pertinax, was declared Emperor,
Speaker 3: heralding in the year of the Five Emperors, a time
Speaker 3: in which five men claimed the title of the Roman emperor.
Speaker 3: Pertinax's reign would last just eighty six days before a
Speaker 3: disgruntled Praetorian Guard, which were household troops of the Roman emperors,
Speaker 3: unhappy with Pertinax's efforts to enforce stricter discipline within their ranks,
Speaker 3: assassinated him. Wow The Praytorian Guard then did something remarkable
Speaker 3: and auctioned off the emperorship to the highest bidder. The
Speaker 3: wealthy center Didius Julianus offered the most money for their support,
Speaker 3: and subsequently secured the job. How Julianus had bought his
Speaker 3: way to the top made him very unpopular in Rome,
Speaker 3: and as such three candidates emerged as rivals to the
Speaker 3: imperial throne. Clodius Albinus was the governor of Britain, Pasinius Niger,
Speaker 3: governor of Sirius, and Severus, governor of Gaul. By commanding
Speaker 3: the largest army closest to Rome, Severus had the upper hand.
Speaker 3: He secured the support of Albinius by offering him the
Speaker 3: title of Caesar, thus guaranteeing him a place in the
Speaker 3: Imperial secession if Severus were to be successful. Now, I
Speaker 3: know it's a lot of names, but baron mind, Severus
Speaker 3: is the African right. In June one ninety three, Severus
Speaker 3: marched on Rome, declaring himself the avenger of Pertinax, and
Speaker 3: before he'd even entered the city was declared emperor by
Speaker 3: the Senate. Giulianus was executed in the palace after ruling
Speaker 3: for a mere sixty six days. Severus quickly secured his
Speaker 3: power within Rome by dissolving the current Praetorian Guard and
Speaker 3: filling its ranks with soldiers loyal to him, as well
Speaker 3: as raising three new legions in eight one ninety four,
Speaker 3: Severus looked to quell any threat from Niger in Syria
Speaker 3: and defeated him at the Battle of Issus. While in
Speaker 3: the East, Severus turned his forces against those Parthian vassals
Speaker 3: who had backed Niger. His next move saw him come
Speaker 3: into conflict with his short time out Albinius. Hoping to
Speaker 3: secure family dynasty, Severus declared his eldest son Karcala as Caesar, effected,
Speaker 3: effectively severing ties with Albinius and quashing any successional hopes
Speaker 3: the governor of Britain might have had. Albinius subsequently marched
Speaker 3: into Gaul and the forces of the two men clashed
Speaker 3: in eighty one ninety seven at the hard fought Battle
Speaker 3: of Lugbanum, a fight said to be the largest and
Speaker 3: bloodiest of all clashes between Roman forces. Severus emerged victorious
Speaker 3: and secured full control over the Roman Empire. He then
Speaker 3: carried out a purge of the Roman Senate, executing any
Speaker 3: who opposed him or shown favor to Albinius. Severus then
Speaker 3: waged a successful campaign against the Parthian Empire and the East,
Speaker 3: supposedly in retaliation for their support of Niger. As forces
Speaker 3: sacked the Parthian capital city of Testiphon, and added the
Speaker 3: northern half of Mesopotamia to the Empire. For his efforts,
Speaker 3: a triumphal arch was erected in several his honor at
Speaker 3: the Roman Forum. Severus enlarged the Roman Empire further with
Speaker 3: campaigns in Africa and Britain. He made significant gains in
Speaker 3: Caledonia which is modern Scotland how about that, and strengthened
Speaker 3: Harden's Wall, but fell short of his ultimate goal of
Speaker 3: bringing the whole British island under his rule. It was
Speaker 3: in Roman Britain that Severus would see his final days.
Speaker 3: Ill health, most likely caused by gout, took a toll
Speaker 3: on the emperor, who passed away in eighty to eleven
Speaker 3: at the age of sixty five. On his deathbed, he
Speaker 3: was said to give the following advice to his sons,
Speaker 3: be good to one another, enrich the soldiers, and forget
Speaker 3: the rest. It was his treatment of the soldiers that
Speaker 3: did indeed secure Severus's reign. His military reform saw wage
Speaker 3: increases for soldiers, along with the removal of the marriage ban,
Speaker 3: allowing military men to have wives. His treatment of the
Speaker 3: army would become a model that future emperors would emulate.
Speaker 3: And that is the story of not only the africa
Speaker 3: An emperor you never knew about, but really a story
Speaker 3: about the expansion of the Roman Empire that you didn't
Speaker 3: know about. And you know, these little nuggets of history
Speaker 3: that don't make their way to us make us feel
Speaker 3: oftentimes like, well, we were just hanging out in Africa
Speaker 3: with bones in our noses, and there's so much more there.
Speaker 3: And it's it's sad that our history has to run
Speaker 3: alongside what would be considered white history, I guess nowadays,
Speaker 3: or I guess world history, you know, but it's really
Speaker 3: our history, and it's because we kept from us too, right, right.
Speaker 3: But where I was going with this, where I was
Speaker 3: going with this, is that a lot of our history
Speaker 3: in Africa. You know, I learned when I was in
Speaker 3: Egypt that a lot of people thought that was pagan,
Speaker 3: so they just destroyed it, you know, all this sort
Speaker 3: of stuff. But you know, all the Romans and the
Speaker 3: Greeks and all this stuff they learned from Africa. They
Speaker 3: learned science, religion, mathematics, everything from Africa and then pass
Speaker 3: it off as their own. These are facts. These aren't
Speaker 3: conspiracy theories, Trust me. I know, because I wouldn't share
Speaker 3: any of that if it weren't true. All right, that's
Speaker 3: it for us today on Civic Scifer once again, I'm
Speaker 3: your host, Rams's.
Speaker 1: Jah, he is Rams' Jah, I am Q Ward. We
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys tuning in with us again another I
Speaker 1: don't like to call these episodes because these are more
Speaker 1: like family meetings than we have. Yeah, yeah, but.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're right, man. Another episode, another year, you know,
Speaker 3: another year in the books. So we're going to keep doing.
Speaker 1: What we do.
Speaker 3: We appreciate all the support, well especially the recent support,
Speaker 3: because we got a lot of really amazing things in
Speaker 3: the work. I know, we keep teasing it. When the
Speaker 3: time is right, we will share more with you. But
Speaker 3: just know that it's all coming out. And in the
Speaker 3: meantime with the website civiccer dot com, I'm downloaded in
Speaker 3: in previous episodes. Send us your topics naked donation, follow
Speaker 3: us on social media at Civic Cipher. I am Ramsey's Job,
Speaker 3: tw worders, I am Q World and until next week,
Speaker 3: a peace.
Speaker 2: Y'all, yo, we handle it. These brothers are fabulous. Our
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Speaker 1: Saw