Decent Biography
Septimius Severus is one of the less famous Roman emperors, so I read this mainly out of idle curiosity.
One weakness of the book is that there's sometimes a little too much biographical detail for comfortable reading. On the other hand, since this is one of few books on Septimius in English, it makes sense to cram in as much as possible since readers might not have access to any other source of information.
Another potential problem is the limited amount of analysis. What did Septimius' rule mean for the Roman Empire? A few years after his death, the Empire almost collapsed during the "Crisis of the Third Century"; were his policies partly responsible for that? The book mentions these issues in the last few paragraphs but doesn't try to answer them.
As long you understand those limitations, this is probably the best biography of Septimius in English.
