Myth: Septimius Severus was the First "Black Emperor"

This is the modern myth that is surprisingly getting more and more traction. Most of the people who have some knowledge about the history of Ancient Rome openly laugh at the idea of Septimius Severus being black, but the idea is still out there. And it started to produce such wild works of fiction like the book “Severus: The Black Caesar”.

The whole thing about the “black emperor” quite probably evolved from the fact that Septimius Severus was from Africa. And, to be precise, he was not only from the continent of Africa, but from the Roman province called Africa.