[5] "Severin" was originally linked by historians with the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus, during whose reign the name of the city was Drobeta Septimia Severiana.

[6] Another possibility is that Severin's name was taken in memory of Severinus of Noricum, who was the patron saint of the medieval colony Turnu, initially a suffragane of the Diocese of Kalocsa.

Drobeta grew as a strategic point at the crossing of water and land routes which led to the north and south of the Danube.

In 193 during the reign of Septimius Severus (193–211), the city was raised to the rank of a colony which gave its residents equal rights with citizens of Rome.

As a colony, Drobeta was a thriving city with temples, a basilica, a theatre, a forum, a port and guilds of craftsmen.

[9] Along with the forming of the Vallachian Voivodeships (Voievodatele Valahe), the Severin fortress was a reason for a war over a period of several generations between Oltenian Voievodes (Litovoi, Bărbat, then Basarab I) and Hungarians.

Severin's name was taken in memory of Severinus of Noricum, who was the patron saint of the medieval colony Turnu, initially a suffragane of the Diocese of Kalocsa.

The knights withdrew in 1259, while the fortress remained in the range of the cannons of Turks, Bulgarians and Tatars who wanted to cross the Danube.

After the death of Mircea, Sigismund freed the Severin Fortress occupied by the Turks, and even made some concessions to the monasteries of Vodița and Tismana.

After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, attacks on the Danubian fortresses were made, moving the Banate residence to Strehaia, the Severin population migrating to the Cerneți village, 6 km north, which became the capital of the Mehedinți district.

In 1936, Prof. Dr. Al. Bărăcilă executed excavations at the fortress, where he managed to reconstruct the layout of the castle and recovered rich archaeological materials (rails, iron, copper, stone cannonballs, pipe of a bronze cannon etc.).

After gaining freedom from Ottoman control as a consequence of the Treaty of Adrianople in 1829, it was decided to rebuild the present city.

By 1900 the national road, rail, the Carol and Elisabeta boulevards, Navigația Fluvială Românească (River Navigation of Romania), the railway workshops, the shipyard (which in 1914 was the largest in the country), the Roman Hall, the Municipal Palace, three churches and two hospitals were built.

As a major port on the Danube, the freedom of trade facilitated the entry of goods by boat from Vienna and the exchange of material necessary for economic development.

The central neighborhoods were spared from the countrywide campaign of demolitions unleashed by the Ceauşescu regime, allowing the historic architecture of the city to survive.