The life of Julia Domna within the history of the Roman Empire tends to describe the empress as a dominant woman in a Roman patriarchal society and that her philosophical connections were among the most elite people of the Severan period. Frequently, the discussion expressed in or near her circle was not completely thought out, but were a way to impress upon the reader that Julia was indeed a powerful woman. The history of Julia Domna requires a more accurate illustration of her powers by examining the way that authors portrayed her and what really may have happened in her life from her birth to the death of her youngest son, Geta.

Though there is often an impression that she was "the most masterful empress that Rome had yet experienced"¹ with her numerous titles and her face placed on every coin, there tends to be a quiet woman whose opinion is only shown in rare cases. For everything that has been said about her, the only voice that may possibly be claimed as her own was her interaction with a Caledonian woman, and another when she stopped her sons from dividing the empire. For being so much in the scholarly light, she tended to stay much in the historical shadows.

When the close friends of Septimius Severus came one possible Spring day in 187 to the small desert city of Emesa, they had seen a young woman that probably hadn't reached her twentieth birthday yet.² Julia Domna's dark curly hair and Roman look had a Syrian edge to it as she patiently waited for the negotiating of her equestrian father, Julius Bassianus, to finish. In a well-furnished house of a high priest of the god Elagabalus, she was used to the day-to-day religious activities her father had to deal with and the foreigners that would sometimes visit the Syrian caravan town.³ But, on this visit, the foreigners were not interested in her father's work or the temple of El-Gabal, they were interested with her.

The governor of the Gallic province of Lugdunensis had somehow heard about her or remembered her Semitic face that gave her the name Domna- an archaic form of Dimna meaning "black" for reasons unclear.⁴ If Septimius Severus had seen her before, it would have been because he once was a legate for the IVth Scythica a few years before- a legion quartered back on the river Massyas deep in the fertile upper Orontes valley of the Coele Syria.⁵ It wasn't a close trip but short enough for the governor to have once seen her. As for the reason he was looking for a wife, the African had recently lost his first wife in some unknown fashion. Domna could only hope this wouldn't happen to her.⁶

The negotiation between her father and her suitor's friends went well. Preparation led her to the nearest coastal port and eventually to Gaul. In the summer of 187 she was happily married to her Tripolitanian husband with the "short, slightly turned-up nose" and "naturally curly" hair.⁷ Later on, Septimius would write in his autobiography that it was because of her horoscope that he married her. He had studied all the women in the empire and it was the horoscope that her father had created that made her stand out. "She would wed a king," it said.⁸ Of course, if this horoscope had been made public, it would have been dangerous for the young emperor Commodus was determined to kill any future candidates likely or not. ⁹ Bassianus wouldn't have dared to place his own family in danger, even in a far away city such as Emesa. It was a good thing too, for a Julius of Emesa would be hunted down and killed for trivial issues a couple years later because of Commodus' jealousy.¹⁰ His negotiation skills were fair if not better. He had managed to get his oldest daughter, Julia Maesa a husband to a local equestrian called Julius Avitus Alexianus.¹¹

"When he was about to marry Julia", Dio wrote from Septimius' notes about a dream, "Faustina, the wife of Marcus [Aurelius], prepared their nuptial chamber in the temple of Venus near the palace."¹² This was a temple that many young couples could symbolically claim thanks with special offerings about to be married.¹³ The propaganda stunt was a ploy to both legitimize his future reign as emperor but just as importantly legitimize the Syrian blood that Julia Domna carried. She wasn't just born from a Syrian Roman, she was given away by the Empress Faustina. It would be harder to challenge her role and more importantly the role of her half-Syrian children no matter how noble they claimed their blood.

In the following spring, during the Megalesia celebration of Cybele the Great Mother, their first child Septimius Bassianus was born on April 4th. In a few months, they left Lugdunensis so the African governor could become governor of Sicily. In the meantime, Julia Domna became pregnant again and gave birth early in 189 at Rome to her second son, Septimius Geta- a name he shared with Julia Domna's brother-in-law.¹⁴ Though a century later a historian misspoke, the couple never had any daughters and their trying for children ceased.¹⁵ It would be hard enough to keep these two children away from each other's throats.

Two summers later, the Septimii family found themselves in Carnuntum with Julia Domna's husband as the governor of Pannonia Superior and three legions. Situated at the crossroads of two major commercial thoroughfares (the amber road to the Baltic, and a route along the Danube), Carnuntum kept Julia Domna active as a legate's wife.¹⁶ Finally, the news about Commodus' death appeared, and a few months after that the death of Septimius' old colleague, the short-reigned emperor Pertinax. Hearing the circumstance of senatorial patricians bidding to the Roman praetorian guards for the imperial throne, Septimius was proclaimed emperor by his legions and immediately went to Italy. It wasn't too long before he was recognized as emperor by the Roman senate and Julia Domna as the empress.

1 Balsdon, 151.

2 Scriptores Historia Augusta, Severus 3.9. "et accepit interventu amicorum."

3 Birley 1972, 117.

4 ibid. 1988, 72.

5 ibid., 68. Birley explains the Scriptores Historia Augusta's spelling Massilia as an error for the Massyas which would make more sense considering Massilia is on the other side of the empire.

6 Scriptores Historia Augusta, Severus 3.9. ...cum amissa uxore aliam vellet ducere...

7 Birley 1988, 36 and 76.

8 Scriptores Historia Augusta, Severus 3.9. ...et cum audisset esse in Syria quandam quae id geniturae haberet ut regi iungeretur, eandem uxorem petiit, Iuliam scilicit...

9 Rubin, 179. Rubin does admit that there was a possibility her horoscope was a lucky omen that did help improve Septimius' own.

10 Birley 1988, 223.

11 ibid., 76.

12 Cassius Dio, 75.3.2 Rubin explains this subject clearly as a propaganda ploy by Septimius Severus on p. 73.

13 ibid., 72.31.1

14 Birley 1988, 76. Of course, Septimius Bassianus eventually was given the name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus as emperor. It wasn't until his own reign that he received the nickname of Caracalla because of his Gallic cloak.

15 Scriptores Historia Augusta, Severus 8.1 "Filias suas dotatas maritis Probo et Aetio dedit."

16 Grant, 151.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Balsdon, J.P.V.D. Roman Women: Their History and Habits. NY: John Day Co., 1963.

Birley, Anthony R. Septimius Severus: The African Emperor. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1972.
-The African Emperor: Septimius Severus. London: B.T. Batsford, LTD, 1988.

Cassius Dio. Roman History, trans. Earnest Cary. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard U P, 1955.

Grant, Michael. A Guide to the Ancient World. NY: Michael Grant Publications Ltd., 1986.

Rubin, Z. Civil-War Propaganda and Historiography. Latomus: Revue d'Etudes Latines, vol. 173. Bruxelles: Imprimerie Universa, 1980.

Scriptores Historiae Augustae, Volume 1, trans. David Magie. NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1922.