ANCIENT ROMAN WOMEN - 2

Faustina the Younger

Faustina the Younger was the daughter of the emperor Antoninus Pius and his wife Faustina the Elder. She was married to Marcus Aurelius in A. D. 145 before he became a Roman emperor. We do not have a great deal of primary source material on her life, but the evidence we do have suggests that the couple was very close.

They were blessed with an abundance of children, amongst whom were the future emperor Commodus and the future empress Lucilla. Faustina accompanied her emperor husband during his numerous campaigns in the field, attempting to make a home out of an army camp.

She was loved and revered by the Roman soldiers, who called her Matri Castrorum, or, "Mother of the Camp". The years spent on military campaigns at the side of her husband began to take their toll. Faustina the Younger died at the village of Halala in faraway Cappadocia in A. D. 176.

She was only forty six years old. Some of the most beautiful portraits of contemporary Roman women are those found on the coins of Faustina the Younger. Realistic portraiture on Roman coins probably reached its high point during the Second Century and it is this author's opinion that the most lovely are found on coins beginning with Faustina the Elder through the early issues of Julia Domna.

During the First Century, the female portraits on coins closely resembled the standard, stylized portraits of goddesses in the Roman and Greek pantheon.

After about A. D. 200, the portraits assumed a very regal style, probably symbolic of the lady's exalted position as wife of an emperor and a god. During the early years, the Roman aristocracy frowned upon depiction of actual persons on coinage, deeming it a symbol of royalty. Though they were in fact ruled by an emperor, he was polite enough to refer to himself as "First Citizen" rather than DOMINI or "Lord".

This keeping up of the appearance of having a republic was more pleasing to the Senate than the wielding of naked power that came later. After the civil wars following the death of Commodus, it became more and more obvious that the Senate no longer had even a tiny shred of the power it once held and the emperors openly acknowledged their position of supreme power.

Part of this was the standardization of certain portrait features, especially the hair styles of the women. By the time of the economic reform under Diocletian, the portraits were so standardized that one couldn't tell one emperor from the other by their portraits.

The female portraits had become stiffly symbolic and the style was very monotonous, having lost almost all of its vitality. Exceptions to this trend do exist and there are some exquisitely beautiful portraits from later years, but most are quite rare and bring a huge sum when sold at auction.


Lucilla

Wife of Lucius Verus and sister of Commodus

Lucilla was married to the emperor Lucius Verus in A. D. 164. She was the daughter of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina the Younger. After the death of Verus, she was married to an elderly man by the name of Pompeianus.

Having once been Augusta, wife of an emperor, Lucilla was not satisfied with a quiet, private life with a man of much lower station. Lucilla was later implicated in one of the numerous plots to overthrow Commodus and was banished to the island of Capreae in A. D. 182.

She was soon afterward put to death by the order of her brother. The movie starring Sophia Loren about the lives of Commodus and Lucilla that appeared several years ago is not historically accurate.


Crispina

Crispina was the daughter of one of Marcus Aurelius' loyal generals, whom the Aurelius rewarded by having his daughter marry the emperor's own son Commodus. Evidently Crispina was implicated in one of the senatorial plots to overthrow Commodus in A. D. 182. She was banished to the island of Capreae and later murdered in 183.


Julia Domna

Wife of Septimius Severus

Julia Domna was one of the most powerful people in the Roman Empire during the period from A.D. 193 to 217. While her emperor husband, Septimius Severus, was fighting rivals, pursuing rebels, and subduing revolts in the far corners of the empire, Julia Domna was left to administer the vast Roman Empire. She proved to be an able administrator, playing one powerful general or senator against another, while keeping herself from falling into the many traps set by political enemies at court. Septimius often sought her advice, as did Caracalla when he ascended the throne after his brother's murder.. She was also a patron of the arts and invited the most brilliant philosophers, writers, and other artists in the Roman world to grace her court and keep learning and culture alive in a world that was destined to fall onto chaos within less than a generation.

Julia was a woman who was accustomed to power, but this came to an end after the murder of her son Caracalla in A.D. 217. Hers had also been a life filled with many sorrows. Caracalla had murdered his brother Geta in her private apartments even as the younger son sought protection in Julia's arms. After Macrinus had murdered Caracalla and seized the throne, he sent her away from Antioch after it was reported that Julia was inciting troops to rebel against him. At this time, she was believed to be about fifty years old and was suffering from a painful illness, probably cancer of the breast. Rather than face exile and the humiliation of being reduced to the status of a private citizen, she elected to commit suicide by starving herself.

Julia Domna's sister Julia Maesa, who later took over the role of Matriarch of the Severan household also had a profound influence on the politics of the Roman Empire during the decade following Julia Domna's death.

Even at this later date when the finest of numismatic art belonged to the past, the portraits on her coins accurately depicted her face. On the coins from early in the reign of her husband, we see the face of a strong young woman, but we see a cynical face hardened and lined with age in her later portraits. To see an image of the reverse of the coin image at the top of this page, please view the article on Fortuna in the Roman Coin Allegorical Figures, Gods, and Goddesses section.


Plautilla

Wife of Caracalla

Plautilla was the daughter of Plautian, Septimius Severus' powerful and ambitious praetorian prefect. She was wed to the Roman emperor Caracalla in a marriage arranged by her father in A. D. 202 because he wanted to promote his ambitions even further by having a daughter who would someday be empress.

Plautilla did not love Caracalla and he reciprocated by spurning and neglecting his wife. Plautilla even went so far as to make the mistake of scorning the young emperor - to - be. At first, they barely tolerated each other but later, they would not even be seen in each other's presence.

Plautian, in the meantime, was becoming ever more openly ambitious and careless about hiding it. He arrogantly had statues erected in his honor and had his enemies hunted down and killed. He competed openly with Caracalla for power and influence to the point where Caracalla came to loathe the obnoxious praetorian prefect.

In 205, Plautian was accused of a plot to murder Severus and Caracalla. Caracalla would have slain the hated praetorian prefect with his own hand, but his father forbade him to do so. Instead, Caracalla ordered a guard to run him through, and this time Severus did nothing to stop his son.

Plautilla was exiled to the island of Lipari soon afterward. In 211, Septimius Severus died in the British garrison town of York. With the passing of Severus, any little protection Plautilla might have had against the violence and hatred of her former husband was mow gone. Caracalla was emperor and he shortly sent an assassin to murder Plautilla in A. D. 212.


Julia Maesa

Julia Maesa was the very talented and wealthy sister of Julia Domna. The Severan dynasty produced an abundance of ambitious women who excelled in the arts of politics. Julia Maesa took over leadership of the family after Julia Domna's suicide.

The emperor Macrinus recognized her power and tried to eliminate her influence and the threat she posed to his reign by banishing her from Rome, although she was allowed to keep her fortune. She organized a rebellion amongst the Syrian legions stationed at the city of Emesa.

This coup overthrew Macrinus and placed one of Maesa's grandsons, Elagabalus on the throne. As it became apparent that Elagabalus was unfit to rule and continued to inflame the hatred his subjects by his depraved behavior and general incompetence, Julia Maesa sought to place her other grandson on the throne. On March 6, A. D. 222, Elagabalus was murdered in a coup by the army and Severus Alexander was joyously proclaimed emperor by the soldiers.

Julia Maesa continued to be a very popular and respected figure in Roman politics and society. She was so well loved by the senate and people that she was declared a god after her death.


Julia Soaemias

Mother of Elagabalus

Julia Soaemias was the younger daughter of Julia Maesa and niece of Julia Domna, the two formidable women of the Severan period who played a decisive role in Roman politics of the times. Soaemias was also the mother of the emperor Elagabalus. Just as his grandmother and her sister were two of the most strong willed, ambitious, and powerful women in Roman history, Elagabalus was a weak and irresponsible emperor. He was more interested in pursuit of sexual excesses and pleasure than ruling the huge Roman empire and building a stable government.

Julia Soaemias was at once the tool of her mother’s political ambitions and the victim of the Roman people’s outraged reaction to Elagabalus’ abuses. She did nothing to influence her son to govern well, but joined in the scandalous behavior by shamelessly taking a series of lovers in full public view herself.

Elagabalus became emperor in A. D. 218 after an army raised and paid for by Maesa had defeated Macrinus. The two women and the boy emperor decided to make up a story that Elagabalus was the illegitimate son of Caracalla, who was murdered in 217 but was still very much loved by the Roman troops. Using this as a just cause and after paying the troops generous bonuses, the two women led them on the battlefield to overthrow the forces of Macrinus. In the critical part of the battle, both women jumped out of their litters and personally urged their legions on to victory from the front lines.

Homosexuality was quite common in Roman society at that time, and Elagabalus had a succession of boyfriends. He even went so far as to take a "husband" in a formal wedding ceremony. Elagabalus also took and quickly divorced three wives. One of these ladies was a Vestal Virgin, symbol of the home and motherhood sacred to the Roman people. This act shocked even the jaded Roman upper classes, and helped to bring about the boy emperor’s downfall. Elagabalus considered his role as high priest of the sun god to be more important than his role as Roman emperor.

In A. D. 222, Julia Maesa finally decided to do away with her daughter and grandson before the army raised up a general in one of the provinces to the throne. She had Elagabalus adopt his thirteen year old brother and make him heir to the throne.

The boy , Bassianus, seemed to be the exact opposite of Elagabalus and was well - liked by the soldiers of the Praetorian Guard. Maesa persuaded Elagabalus to give his brother a greater role in governing the empire so that he could devote more time to serving his god. Elagabalus soon grew suspicious of his brother, though.

When it seemed that Elagabalus was going to have Bassianus murdered, the Praetorians invited the boy, his mother Mamaea, and Maesa to the safety of their camp.

The frightened Elagabalus tried to work out a bargain, and the angry soldiers allowed him to remain emperor only if he gave up the worst of his male favorites who occupied important government posts. This he agreed to do, and both boys were elected consul.

This kind of arrangement, when one considers the rest of Roman history and the fate of emperors who fall from favor with the army, would seem a miraculous escape from death.

Elagabalus, not satisfied with the gift of his own life, began to have second thoughts and renewed plans to murder his brother.

When he refused one day to appear in public with Bassianus, the Praetorian Guard lost all patience. They raised the boy Bassianus to the purple and he became the Roman emperor Severus Alexander. They rampaged through the palace searching for Elagabalus and found him and Julia Soaemias in each others’ arms hiding in a palace privy, clinging to one another in fear. The soldiers quickly killed the pair.

They dragged the corpses of the seventeen year old Elagabalus and his still-beautiful but hated mother through the streets of Rome to the shouts and derision of the people. After they unsuccessfully tried to dispose of the bodies in a city sewer, they weighted both of them with stones and cast them into the Tiber.


Julia Mamaea

Julia Mamaea was the eldest daughter of Julia Maesa, that intrepid strong woman of Roman politics during the Severan period. Her son became the emperor Severus Alexander after his brother, the degenerate Elagabalus, was deposed and murdered by the Praetorian Guard. Severus Alexander was the exact opposite of his brother.

He gave all the signs of turning out to be a responsible emperor who would govern wisely and not fall into the depravity that characterized his brother�s reign.

Both he and his mother were under the control of the powerful Maesa until she died in A. D. 226. At this time Mamaea, last of the strong Severan women, took over the role of dominating and directing the man who occupied the throne. Julia Soaemias was murdered by Roman army officers along with her son in A. D. 235.


Otacilia Severa

Wife of Philip I

Very little is known about the wife of Philip I. In A. D. 237, she gave birth to a son who was later to become the emperor Philip II. Even the reverses of the coins struck in her name do not tell us very much about this woman but are simply typical reverses for a female personality of the mid Third Century.

No reliable accounts of the events of this time period have been found. It is generally accepted by scholars that the Historia Augusta is unreliable as history from about A. D. 222 onward. At this point, it assumes the character of a collection of fairy tales and anecdotes of mystical or supernatural happenings. There are short biographical sketches of the Roman rulers and family members in many of the Roman coin reference books, but even these scholarly works are in disagreement as to what happened to Otacilia Severa. On one point, the scholars seem to agree. Philip II was killed in her arms by the Praetorian Guard in A. D. 249 near Rome or Verona. She was then either killed also or allowed to go into retirement.

Since so few reliable accounts of the Third Century exist, this is a field in which a researcher can actually uncover new and unknown information. Perhaps there are original letters or other documents lying in an forgotten corner of the Vatican library or the library of one of the great old universities of Europe. Perhaps someone will find a papyrus preserved in the dry sands of Egypt where most original documents of the period that are still readable have been found. In any case, if possible source materials do come to light, they will need to be translated and compared with other fragmentary evidence of the period. After many long hours of study by a dedicated scholar, perhaps this obscure woman may come alive again in the pages of history so that we can see her as a real, flesh - and - blood - person.


Herennia Etruscilla

Wife of Trajan Decius

Herennia Etruscilla was the wife of the emperor Trajan Decius. She was the mother of Herennius Etruscus and Hostilian, both of who became Roman Emperors during the reign of their father. Little else is known of her life, though coins with her portrait are numerous and easy to obtain.

Either not much was written about this period or very little of what was written survives today. This is especially true in the case of the women of the times.


Severina

Wife of Aurelian

Severina Like most other mid Third Century women, little is known about the emperors of this period and even less is known about the women.


Zenobia

Reigned as Regent for Vabalathus, A. D. 267 - 273

The touching story of brave Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra in Syria and one of the most famous women of history and legend is still popular amongst students of this period. She was wife of Odenathus, king of Palmyra. Palmyra was an important stopping point for caravans carrying trade goods along the Old Silk Road between China, Persia, and the Roman Empire.

Since it also had importance as a strategic military outpost, it had been first a Roman ally and then a client state of Rome.

Later, Palmyra was made part of the Roman province of Syria. Odenathus had been given the responsibility of supreme commander in charge of defense of the eastern frontier by Gallienus but his wife, Zenobia, declared Palmyra's independence after Odenathus’murder.

Gallienus could not properly defend the eastern borders because he had his hands full fighting Persians, Goths, and rebels.

When the rebels and the foreign invaders had been adequately dealt with by Gallienus, Claudius II, and Aurelian, the Roman army was free to turn its attention to wayward Palmyra.

In early attempts to retake the province, these three emperors suffered decisive defeats at the hands of the excellent Palmyrene desert fighters.

Meanwhile Odenathus had been killed in an argument while hunting and left Vabalathus, his son and heir as ruler of Palmyra under the guidance of his mother Zenobia.

When Aurelian attempted to assume control of the province again, Zenobia at first asked Aurelian to declare her son "Duke of the Romans" which he agreed to.

Later, she rebelled completely, setting herself up as queen of an independent Palmyra free from bondage to Roman imperialism. She was an extremely able general, inspiring loyalty in her native troops. She won several battles but could not win against the awesome renewed might of the Roman legions.

She was finally captured while trying to escape across the River Orontes after having been trapped and defeated by Aurelian's army.

She was taken captive back to Rome and walked in golden chains in Aurelian's triumphal parade along with Tetricus and Tetricus II. It is tempting to compare Zenobia to Cleopatra, who chose rather to die by the bite of a poisonous snake than to walk in Octavian's triumph after she had lived as queen of an independent and powerful Egypt.

Unlike other emperors of the period, Aurelian was merciful and allowed Zenobia to retire to a villa in Campania as a respected Matron in Roman high society rather than execute her.


Galeria Valeria

Daughter of Diocletian and wife of Galerius

The story of Galeria Valeria is a tragic and poignant one of an empress whose life and death were totally dictated by the politics of the period. There seems to be little she could have done to influence the events that controlled her life and in the end brought about her untimely death.

The lives of women of the imperial family during the later Roman Empire are very well documented, thanks to the emergence of several sources during this period of renewed prosperity and vigor for the empire. During the late Third and early Fourth Centuries, the political moves of Diocletian and the Tetrarchy determined who the emperors would marry and politics took total control of the lives and futures of the women to whom they were married.

In A. D. 293 Diocletian chose Galerius, another Illyrian general to help him rule the huge Roman empire, for he realized that it had become too large for one man to rule successfully. Diocletian ruled in the West and Galerius became his co-emperor in the East. Galeria Valeria was Diocletian's daughter and, to cement the alliance between Diocletian and Galerius, Valeria was married to Galerius. It appears that this was not a very happy marriage.

Galeria Valeria was sympathetic towards Christians during this time of severe persecution and it is possible that she was actually a Christian herself. The imperial couple were not blessed with any children during their eighteen year marriage. After Galerius died in A. D. 311, Galeria Valeria and her mother went to live at the court of Maximinus Daia, the caesar who became emperor of the East upon the death of Galerius.

Maximinus proposed marriage to Valeria soon afterward. He was probably more interested in her wealth and the prestige he would gain by marrying the widow of one emperor and the daughter of another than he was in Valeria as a person. She refused his hand, and immediately Maximinus reacted with hatred and fury. Diocletian, by now an old man living in a seaside villa on the Dalmatian coast, begged Maximinus to allow the two women to come home to him. Maximinus refused and had Valeria and her mother banished to live in a village in Syria.

During the civil war that erupted between Maximinus and Licinius, Valeria and Prisca disguised themselves and escaped, trying to reach the safety of Diocletian's villa. In the meantime, Diocletian had died, leaving the women without a haven of safety to which to run. For fifteen months the two royal fugitives traveled from one city to another, always living in fear of being discovered and in search of a little peace.

Finally, they were recognized by someone in the Greek city of Salonika. They were hastily taken to a square in the city and beheaded before a crowd of citizens who had once revered them as empresses. The bodies of Valeria and her mother were afterwards thrown into the sea.

Coin portraits of Galeria Valeria depict a strong, almost masculine face with a large jaw and prominent chin. She probably did not look much like her portraits, though. The style used for imperial coin portraits showed all four Tetrarchs and their later caesars and co-emperors with thick necks, large jaws, prominent brows, and an overall :tough guy" appearance. In fact, all the portraits of these men look very much alike except the portraits on special issues or medallions which were occasionally struck as gifts to royalty or as rewards for military achievement. Many scholars believe that this style of portraiture was intended to convey the image of a tough, united, no-nonsense group of men who ruled as imperial brothers who could not be divided and turned against each other. When it came time to strike coins in Valeria's name, it almost seems that they took the standard imperial portrait and did only what little they absolutely had to in order to make it look like a woman's face!


Fausta

Wife of Constantine

Fausta was the second wife of the Roman emperor Constantine. She would probably have been forgotten in history except for the fact that she brought tragedy to the house of Constantine and her own death as well by committing an act of the lowest form of treachery.

Fausta was a young woman, not too many years older than Constantine's first - born son Crispus. Though Crispus' mother was one of Constantine's concubines, he had won the army's abiding affection because he was a popular and successful commander. Fausta evidently fell in love with the young man and tried to have an affair with him. When he refused her advances, she became indignant at his rejection of her and told Constantine that Crispus was the one who was making the improper advances.

Constantine became enraged and did not bother to check out the truth of the matter. He could not very well have Crispus executed in public because he was so popular, so Constantine had his son murdered in secret.

Helena, Constantine's mother suspected that Fausta was lying and had falsely accused Crispus of unfaithfulness. There were also rumors that Fausta was having an illicit affair with a slave. After she used her influence with her son to convince Constantine that he had acted hastily, the old emperor began to see that he had been lied to and had unjustly put his son to death.

Constantine now compounded the tragedy by having Fausta murdered. He instructed his servants to lock her in her bath and heat the water so much that she either boiled to death or was suffocated by the steam.

Fausta had borne three boys, all of whom were much younger than Crispus. Some historians have suggested that she had wanted to get Crispus out of the way so that her own sons would be in line for the throne, but, if this was true, she surely chose a dangerous way to eliminate Crispus' competition.

Fausta's sons Constantius II, Constantine II, and Constans all became emperors of different parts of the empire after Constantine's death. The last emperor of the house of Constantine was Constantius II, who died in A. D. 361.





PART 3

ANCIENT ROME ANCIENT AND LOST CIVILIZATIONS INDEX ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF ALL FILES CRYSTALINKS MAIN PAGE