Alexander decreases the amount of base metal…
230 CE
Alexander decreases the amount of base metal in the denarius in 230, while adding more silver—raising the silver purity and weight again to 50.5% and 1.50 grams.
Also during his reign, taxes are lightened; literature, art and science are encouraged; the lot of the soldiers is improved; and, for the convenience of the people, loan offices are instituted for lending money at a moderate rate of interest.
In religious matters Alexander preserves an open mind.
It is said that he was desirous of erecting a temple to Jesus, but was dissuaded by the pagan priests.
He allows a synagogue to be built in Rome, and he gives as a gift to this synagogue a scroll of the Torah known as the Severus Scroll.
When Urban succeeded Callixtus as Bishop of Rome, it is believed that the schismatic Hippolytus was still leading a rival Christian Congregation in Rome, and that he published the Philosophumena, an attack on Pope Urban's predecessor Callixtus.
Urban is said to have maintained the hostile policy of Callixtus when dealing with the schismatic party.
Due to the relative freedoms the Christian community had had during Severus' reign, the Church in Rome has grows, leading to the belief that Urban was a skilled Converter.
As no contemporary accounts of Urban's pontificate exist there have been many legends and acts attributed to him which are fictitious or difficult to ascertain as fact.
He is succeeded in 230 by Pontian, of whom a little more is known than of his predecessors, apparently from a lost papal chronicle that was available to the compiler of the Liberian Catalogue of bishops of Rome, made in the fourth century.