The Real Severans V: The Fates of the ‘Severan Women’
- ptcrawford
- Sep 28
- 14 min read
Aside from its eponymous founder, the imperial men of the Severan dynasty all met murderous ends - Geta was butchered in his mother’s arms, Caracalla was stabbed whilst answering the ‘call of nature’, Elagabalus was hacked to death by the Praetorians and Severus Alexander was killed by revolting soldiers, but what about the fates of the so-called ‘Severan Women’? They may not have shared blood with the Severan line, but two of these ‘Severan Women’ shared the grim fates of their imperial sons.
Julia Domna
At the time the murder of Caracalla on 8 April 217, his mother Julia Domna was in Antioch helping deal with the imperial correspondence. The fact that the contents of some of the letters to Caracalla may have sparked Macrinus’ planning of the plot that killed the emperor could intimate that Domna was inadvertently involved in the demise of her eldest son.
Domna’s importance to Caracallan imperial ideology likely influenced Macrinus’ treatment of her upon his elevation to the throne - she was allowed to keep her imperial retinue and guard (Dio 79.23.1-2), and not otherwise threatened. Macrinus may have kept Domna around for any reflected legitimacy from her being the last vestige of the imperial Severan dynasty, but the former does not seem to have been keen to act as any such font of legitimacy nor to return to private life.
Upon hearing of Caracalla’s death, it is suggested by Dio 79.23.1 that Domna tried to kill herself through a “violent blow” and starvation. However, the respect shown to her by Macrinus seems to have stoked a will to live in Domna. But if Macrinus was to think that he was to receive any reflected legitimacy from treating Domna with such respect, he was in for a rude awakening (cf. Langford (2013) 7, 22).
Not only did Domna not loan the new emperor any imperial legitimacy, she proceeded to use her retained position to plot against Macrinus amongst her retinue, guards and soldiers. Might we suggest that the ‘Severan’ plot that saw Macrinus replaced with Elagabalus in mid-218 actually began with these initial moves by Domna? Did she reach out to her sister and nieces to encourage their putting forward of the males from their Emesene dynasty, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus? Although Dio 79.23.3 has it that Domna’s plot was actually aimed at putting herself on the imperial throne.
Whatever the aim of her plot, it came to nothing in the immediate aftermath of Caracalla’s death. Suggesting that she had planned to bank on the popularity of Caracalla, hearing of celebrations over his demise amongst the people of Antioch and Rome seems to have sapped the resolve of Julia Domna. She “hastened her death by refusing food” (Dio 79.23), although another suggestion from Dio seems more accidental. Domna had been suffering from breast cancer for a long time; “it had, however, been quiescent until... she had enflamed it by the blow with which she had smitten her breast on hearing of her son’s death”.
Could we suggest that Domna’s suicide was connected to her plotting against Macrinus, even to the point that it was not completely voluntary? A damaged section of Dio 79.23 suggests that Macrinus planned to deprive Domna of some of her imperial trappings, including her title of Augusta. This could intimate that Macrinus had heard of some of her plotting and may therefore threatened Domna with something worse than depriving her of Augustan rank or forcing her back into private life.
Regardless of the exact circumstances, it seems that Julia Domna died in Antioch in 217 in the weeks or months after Caracalla. However, it must be said that Herodian IV.4.3 gives a very different version of the death of Julia Domna. Rather than survive to play a part in Caracalla’s reign, Herodian has her “dying of grief” soon after the murder of Geta in 211.
Julia Maesa
With the death of Julia Domna, the focus of the ‘Severan’ dynasty fell upon her Emesene sister and nieces. At the time of Caracalla’s murder, it appears that Domna’s eldest sister, Julia Maesa and her family were resident in Rome and seemingly had been for the previous 20 years since Septimius Severus claimed the imperial throne. During that period Maesa and her family had used their pre-existing Syrian wealth and imperial connections to accrue a vast fortune.
Such wealth and their connection to the Severans could well have seen Maesa and her family targeted by the new regime of Macrinus. Instead, likely due to not wanting to further rile the army, which was already angry at Caracalla’s death, by targeting his extended family, Macrinus allowed Maesa to retain her wealth and return to the ancestral home in Emesa unhindered.
Macrinus might have thought his clemency towards the ‘Severan’ remnant would help his reign, but by sending Maesa back to Emesa, the new emperor was increasing the threat she and her Syrian family posed. This was because not only was her grandson, Varius Avitus Bassianus, serving as the hereditary priest of the Emesan sun god Elagabal, there was also a legion, III Gallica, stationed in Emesa. This priestly and military combination formed the basis of the revolt that brought the 14-year-old Bassianus to the imperial throne, known to history as Elagabalus.
As the imperial grandmother, Maesa was prominent in Elagabalus’ reign, but while she and her daughter Julia Soaemias may have had some influence over him, it was not enough to prevent him losing the support of the Praetorians and the Senate. Indeed, his actions led to Maesa making some moves against Elagabalus, who threatened her life. She then encouraged the adoption of Severus Alexander as Caesar and heir, before then supporting Alexander against Elagabalus. Maesa may even have been involved in the assassination of Elagabalus and Soaemias, at least through inaction.
Maesa then continued in the same advisory role under Severus Alexander, quickly becoming important to the decision making of Julia Mamaea, only to die some time between November 224 and 227. That she was deified makes it more likely that she died of natural causes - she was likely in her mid-60s – rather than any falling out with Alexander or Mamaea.
Julia Soaemias
Elder daughter of Julia Maesa and Julius Avitus Alexianus and mother of Elagabalus, Julia Soaemias also influenced her son to some degree. However, unlike Maesa, Soaemias did not desert Elagabalus despite his loss of senatorial and Praetorian support and his outrageous behaviour. This meant that when Elagabalus made moves against Severus Alexander, the imperial family was split in half: Elagabalus/Soaemias vs Severus Alexander/Maesa/Mamaea.
And when the Praetorians took the ultimate step in murdering Elagabalus, Julia Soaemias, in trying to protect her son, shared his fate. She was murdered, her dragged through the streets and then possibly thrown into the Tiber like a common criminal (Herodian V.8.8-9). Dio gives a slightly different account...
“[Elagabalus’] mother, who embraced him and clung tightly to him, perished with him; their heads were cut off and their bodies, after being stripped naked, were first dragged all over the City, and then the mother’s body was cast aside somewhere or other, while he was thrown into the river”
Dio 80.20.2
Like her son, Julia Soaemias suffered damnatio memoriae after her murder.
Julia Mamaea
Younger daughter of Julia Maesa and Julius Avitus Alexianus and mother of Severus Alexander, Julia Mamaea, along with Maesa, had been instrumental in her son’s elevation to emperor. She had distributed bribes to the Praetorians, already disgruntled by Elagabalus’ actions, to garner support for Severus Alexander (Herodian V.8.3).
It may be that Mamaea had relied heavily on the advice and guidance of Maesa when it came to state affairs. And while her regency, supported by Maesa until her death and a senatorial advisory board, had been stable, the loss of Maesa and the majority of Alexander revealed that Mamaea was unwilling or unable to relinquish her influence over the emperor, either due to her want of power or Alexander’s ill-suitedness to rule. Indeed, her influence over Severus Alexander led to his ridiculing as a mama’s boy by the historical sources, but more importantly and disastrously, Mamaea’s unwillingness to expose Alexander to battle or any military danger likely saw Severus Alexander’s reputation with the army nosedive (Herodian VI.5.8).
This came to a head along the Rhine when, after a lacklustre Persian campaign, rather than fight, Mamaea chose to pay off the German invaders. This was a move that not only exacerbated concerns over the lack of martial aptitude of the regime, but also presented its poor and even hypocritical priorities given how Mamaea and Alexander were willing to pay off Germanic tribes but would not address the army’s own concerns over pay.
This combination of passivity and poor priorities ultimately led to revolt amongst the army of the Rhine, which declared Maximinus Thrax as emperor (Herodian VI.8.4, cf. 9.4-5). Indeed, as much of the legionary anger seems to have been focused on the miserly, greedy Augusta as it was on the stingy, mama’s boy Augustus (Herodian Vl.9.4-5).
“6 Trembling with fear, Alexander was scarcely able to retire to his quarters. Clinging to his mother and, as they say, complaining and lamenting that she was to blame for his death, he awaited his executioner. After being saluted as emperor by the entire army, Maximinus sent a tribune and several centurions to kill Alexander and his mother, together with any of his followers who opposed them. 7 When these men came to the emperor’s quarters, they rushed in and killed him with his mother...” (Herodian VI.9.6-7)
While it is always dangerous to accept an historical argument that appears to be leaning into the ‘wicked woman’ trope, corrupting all the men, indeed everything she comes into contact with, Herodian has it that so innocent was he that “it is therefore entirely possible that the reign of Alexander might have won renown for its perfection had not his mother’s petty avarice brought disgrace upon him” (Herodian VI.9.8).
Fates of the Severan Wives
These imperial mothers and grandmothers were not the only ‘Severan’ women. Besides Julia Domna, several others were (un)fortunate enough to be married to one of the four Severan emperors.
Fulvia Plautilla
Due to the lack of Severan blood in the ‘restored Severan’ dynasty, technically, the only other ‘Severan Woman’ apart from Julia Domna, was Fulvia Plautilla. Born and raised in Rome, Plautilla was the daughter of Gaius Fulvius Plautianus, commander of the Praetorian Guard from 197 to 205 under Septimius Severus, who was his maternal cousin.
In April 202, in a lavish ceremony, Fulvia Plautilla married Caracalla, but it did not prove a happy match. Caracalla so despised Plautilla that he threatened to have her killed once he became emperor (Herodian III.10.8). When she reported this to her father, who had also faced Caracallan hostility, Plautianus began plotting against the Severans. When this plot was revealed, Plautianus was executed and Plautilla was exiled to the small Aeolioan Islands off the north coast of Sicily. Initially, this exile was relatively comfortable (Herodian III.11-12), but upon Severus’ death in 211, Caracalla appears to have made her existence increasingly miserable before seemingly fulfilling his promise by having her strangled.
Julia Cornelia Paula
The next ‘Severan’ wife was Julia Cornelia Paula, a Roman woman of noble descent, daughter of Julius Paulus, a leading jurist under the Severans. This pedigree and history of imperial service saw Cornelia Paula become the first wife of Elagabalus in early 219 upon the instigation of his grandmother, Julia Maesa.
Despite the lavish wedding and Paula receiving the title of Augusta, this marriage did not last...
“He married one of the noblest of the Roman ladies and proclaimed her Augusta; but he soon divorced her and, after depriving her of the imperial honours, ordered her to return to private life”.
Herodian V.6.1
This gives no suggestion that Paula was to blame for the separation. Herodian then goes on to intimate that Elagabalus’ eye had been wandering, although Dio 80.9.3 records that Paula was divorced because “she had a blemish on her body”, something that a priest could not abide. Paula had also not given Elagabalus an heir, which was suggested as the only reason he married her (Dio 80.9.1).
After the divorce, Paula’s title of Augusta was removed and she was sent back to private life. Her fate beyond that is unknown, her father was promoted to praetorian prefect under Severus Alexander, so even if the family suffered any punishment under Elagabalus after the divorce, it was overturned upon his death. And if Paula had suffered a more permanent punishment, it is likely that we would heard about it from the sources intent on denigrating Elagabalus.
Julia Aquilia Severa
The woman who caught the eye of Elagabalus to the extent that he divorced his first wife was more of a Severan than her imperial husband. Julia Aquilia Severa was a Severan woman, just not an imperial Severan. Her father was one Gaius Julius Severus, no relation to the line of Septimius Severus.
The most (in)famous thing about Aquilia Severa’s marriage to Elagabalus is that she was a Vestal Virgin. Elagabalus may have sought some symbolic union between his god, Elagabal, and that of Aquilia, Vesta, but that could not override the public outrage at the defiling of of Vestal Virgin.
At the behest of Maesa, Elagabalus divorced Aquilia and took another wife; however, whether through an actual connection with Aquilia or concern with symbolism of their union, the emperor soon divorced his third wife and returned to his Vestal. He claimed that the initial divorce of Aquilia was invalid, and so he was merely returning to his second wife. This means that Elagabalus probably did not remarry Aquilia Severa, even though they seem to have remained together until Elagabalus’ assassination in 222.
While her fate after 222 is unrecorded, Aquilia’s status as a priestess of Vesta (as well as a victim of Elagabalus) may well have shielded her from any retribution from the regime of Severus Alexander or any of the succeeding; however, the contrary could also be true. Given the increasing trouble that overtook the Roman Empire in the aftermath of the Severan dynasty and how the likes of Trajan Decius would try to fix it through re-establishing the religious order of the pax decorum, would it be all that surprising to find that Aquilia Severa, despite being a victim of the coercive power of a Roman emperor, faced the traditional punishment for breaking her 30-year vow of celibacy by being buried alive in the centre of Rome...?
Annia Aurelia Faustina
The woman that Elagabalus initially replaced Aquilia Severa with in 221 was much more palatable for the Romans. Not only was Annia Aurelia Faustina not a Vestal Virgin, unlike all the other ‘Severan’ Women, she actually was a Severan and was of imperial blood... just not imperial Severan blood.
This link came through her father Tiberius Claudius Severus Proculus, who was clearly some form of Severan from his name, with his maternal grandfather being the emperor Marcus Aurelius. This heritage is reflected in Annia’s name, which rather than reflect her father’s Claudian family, it demonstrates their relations to the Aurelian and Annian families and ultimately the Antonine dynasty.
Such a connection, on top of the vast wealth and Anatolian estates she had inherited from her mother and having demonstrated her fertility by providing her first husband ( who Elagabalus seemingly had killed to make Annia available) with two children, made Annia Faustina a good candidate for empress.
However, no sooner had Annia Faustina been given the title of Augusta, indeed before 221 was out, than Elagabalus set her aside and returned to Aquilia. Annia was either divorced or the marriage was declared invalid due to Elagabalus still being married to Aquilia. She then returned to her Anatolian estates with her children (although none with Elagabalus), living out her life between there and Rome.
Sallustia Orbiana
From the marital merry-go-round of Elagabalus to another potential marital merry-go-round with Severus Alexander, although it is not clear how many wives he had during his 13-year reign. His first (and perhaps only) wife was Gnaea Seia Herennia Sallustia Barbia Orbiana, usually known as Sallustia Orbiana. That she had so many names highlights how her family was well-connected in Roman political circles. Her father, Lucius Seius Herennius Sallustius, was a prominent senator and the match seems to have been orchestrated by Julia Mamaea. Despite this orchestration, it seems that Alexander liked his wife and respected his new father-in-law enough to possibly appoint him Caesar, much to the chagrin of Mamaea, “who, in her egotistic desire to be sole empress, envied the girl her title” (Herodian V I.1.9).
This jealousy saw Mamaea treat both Sallustius and Orbiana increasingly poorly, to the extent that he took refuge with the Praetorians, which was construed as an attempt to take power for himself, leading to his execution. Orbiana was not killed for the reputed sins of her father, but she was divorced, stripped of her imperial title and exiled to somewhere in Libya, perhaps one of the small islands off the coast as was somewhat customary for exiles. Nothing more is recorded about her after this (Herodian VI.1.9-10).
Sulpicia Memmia
While it would be surprising for Severus Alexander to not take another wife during the last 8 years of his reign after the divorce and exile of Orbiana, Herodian does not mention one. We are instead relying on the Historia Augusta for the very existence of a second wife, Sulpicia Memmia, and that is not positive historiographical position to be in. Indeed, because of that, it is usually doubted that Sulpicia and/or a marriage to Alexander existed at all.
‘Varia Macrina’
The same can be said for a supposed third wife of Severus Alexander, possibly mentioned by Zosimus I.11. He has a certain Varius Macrinus as a father-in-law of Alexander, but it is possible that this is the same man as Seius Sallustius, father of Orbiana (HA Alex. Sev. 49.3; Nind Hopkins (1907) 56-58 n.2).
Despite the mess the likes of the Historia Augusta make in identifying and quite possibly inventing extra wives for Severus Alexander, we could make some brief suppositions based on what we know from the end of his reign about what might have happened to these women. As Alexander faced damnatio memoriae during the brief reign of Maximinus Thrax and as this new emperor does not appear to have tried to derive much reflected legitimacy from the Severans, it could be that other Severans were targeted by the regime that had sprouted from their rejection by the Rhenan legions. Maximinus Thrax would not want to suddenly be facing another Severan with any of these ex-wives appearing with a supposed child of Caracalla, Elagabalus or Alexander Severus.
Any of the wives of Severus Alexander, if Sulpicia or ‘Macrina’ existed, could have been targeted. The same could be said for Cornelia Paula, Aquilia Severa and Annia Faustina, as former wives of Elagabalus. With so many potential targets, especially with some being of senatorial rank, we would surely have heard of any sort of ‘Severan’ purge by Thrax, even from our admittedly scarce sources. It would seem then that perhaps none of these ex-wives were targeted for their ‘Severan’ connections after the final demise of the dynasty in 235.
However, there was one ‘Severan spouse’ who did suffer the same bloody fate as their imperial partner... and the conspicuous change from ‘wife’ to ‘spouse’ is very much intentional... this is because at the time of his murder, Elagabalus may have been ‘married’ to more than just Annia Faustina and/or Aquilia Severa...
Hierocles
A slave from Caria in Anatolia, the blond Hierocles reputedly came to the attention of Elagabalus when he fell out of his chariot during a race in front of the imperial box (Dio 80.15.1). Not only did Hierocles become an influential favourite of the young emperor, eliminating political and affection rivals, he reputedly also became Elagabalus’ husband...
“[Elagabalus] was bestowed in marriage and was termed wife, mistress, and queen”
Dio 80.14.4
There appears to be what would be called either a coercive control or a sadomasochistic aspect to this relationship, with Hierocles publicly castigated and even beating his ‘wife’ for being unfaithful, only for Elagabalus to love him more, even considering elevating Hierocles Caesar...
As the Praetorians moved to end Elagabalus’ reign, the emperor reputedly became distraught at the idea that Hierocles would join him in death. His pleading stayed the hand of the Praetorians, possibly out of pity more than anything else. But when Elagabalus was assassinated on 13 March 222, Hierocles did indeed quickly follow him into the afterlife in the purge of the imperial court of supporters of the hated emperor. With that, Hierocles appears to be the only ‘Severan spouse’ to definitely share the bloody fate of their other half.
Bibliography
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