Chronologically speaking, the first mention of Julia Domna after her husband seized the throne was by Marius Maximus, and it is from this topic that began a controversial period for Julia Domna. After Septimius' successful fight against Niger in the East, the emperor came back to Italy with his closest adviser, Fulvius Plautianus. Septimius' fear that the lord in Britannia, Clodius Albinus, whom the emperor had appointed as Caesar, was gaining influence within the senate and now proclaimed hostile. It is agreed by Dio and Birley that the emperor proclaimed his son, Septimius Bassianus to become the new Caesar and this insult to Albinus led the lord to head toward Italy. Marius Maximus stated differently according to the HA (Scriptores Historiae Augustae). In his view, Septimius Severus declared war on Albinus instead, and that he not only did this for his sons, but also because of his wife's adductus.¹⁷ It is through this that Albinus was killed and it was easier for authors in the next centuries to believe that Plautianus' hatred toward the empress was legitimized.

Plautianus wasn't really noticed in history until Septimius Severus came back to Rome after his Parthian invasion while the empress was now entitled with the name Mater Castrorum (Mother of the Camps) around 195. Julia Domna watched with her dark brown eyes the prefect of the vigiles, Fulvius Plautianus, eventually become the praetorian prefect by mid 197. With his power, came the trust that the emperor held for him and in five years Plautianus found himself able to even confront Septimius about his wife Julia Domna.¹⁸

"So greatly did Plautianus have the mastery in every way over the emperor," Dio recorded and it was in 202 that the prefect's daughter married the African emperor's son Septimius Bassianus, now known as Marcus Aurelius Antoninus after the Antonine Dynasty. Gone was the boy's Syrian name and the establishment of something relative to his predecessor was needed and with that a stability through marriage. This influence furnished the emperor further trust to Plautianus and the prefect "often treated Julia Augusta in an outrageous manner." The prefect detested the empress and it was common enough for it to be said that he "was always abusing her violently to Severus." Plautianus continually investigated her private life and gathered evidence against her by torturing noble women.¹⁹ Herodian, living at the same time as Dio and Julia Domna, ignored her controversy but focused instead on Plautianus' vices. Labeling him a possible homosexual, and that he "left no act of violence undone," Herodian may have excused the rumors surrounding Julia Domna as a ploy for Plautianus desire for power.²⁰ Other historians did not ignore the situation, though.

Aurelius Victor passionately condemned the empress' conduct stating that Septimius continued to keep her as his wife "in spite of the revelation of her adultery..."²¹ It is well apparent that the HA used Victor as his source for its own quotes are nearly verbatim: "Domi tamen minus cautus, qui uxorem Iuliam famosam adulteriis tenuit"²² The accusation by the HA, though probably false possibly reached the upper levels of Roman aristocracy and have been simply echoed years later to the writers of HA through historians such as Marius Maximus, Eutropius, and Aurelius Victor.

What may be hinted accusingly is the interaction between the wife of Argentocoxus, a Caledonian chieftain, and that of the empress in the time around 209. When Julia Domna joked about the free intercourse of the wife's sex with Britannian men, the wife retorted "we fulfill the demands of nature in a much better way than you Roman women; for we consort openly..." Though she was recorded to have used the plural form "you" toiV instead of the singular tw it is possible that the wife presented her statement in "royal we" fashion when she continued with the remark: "whereas you let yourselves be debauched in secret by the vilest."²³

It was because of these accusations and Plautianus' investigation that "she began to study philosophy and passed her days in company with sophists," Dio wrote.²⁴ From this sentence grew an imaginative interpretation in the late nineteenth century. Scholars accepted the company of sophists and philosophers and each published article from Duruy to Platnauer added further names as a part of the empress' circle. It would seem, according to these historians, that if a philosopher or intellectual lived during Septimius' reign, he was a member of her KukloV, which in itself is a weak concept. Her council, the modern historians said, included women such as "her sister and her two nieces... Julia Maesa, Julia Soaemias, and Mamaea." Later to be included was the woman philosopher, Arria. As for men, it was suggested that the lawyers Papinian, Ulpian, and Paulus were a part of her circle, the doctors Serenus Sammonicus and Galen, the naturalists Aelian, and Oppian. This, too, was evolved and included Gordian I, Diogenes Laertius, Antipater of Hierapolis, plus the historians Cassius Dio and Marius Maximus. Just to make sure everybody was covered, Platnauer added "such famous rhetoricians as Apollonius of Athens, Heraclides, and Hermocrates would not be unwelcome guests on their visits to Rome."²⁵

Galen is probably one of the easiest to rip out immediately for credibility. It was unlikely that the doctor would have partaken in Julia Domna's KukloVa name used for the circle established by Philostatus. Galen died at the age of seventy. Considering he was born in the year 129, this meant he died in 199. Septimius Severus and his family had been in Parthia prior to the tension between Plautanius and Julia Domna. Since it was on January 28th, 198 that Septimius proclaimed that he "conquered Parthia," Julia Domna's KukloV was possibly not created prior to 10 June 203 when the family was in Rome. Even if Galen had lived past seventy, little time would have been spent with Julia Domna's circle at such an age. With the experience that this doctor had with healing emperors and their friends, it was unlikely Galen would have involved himself with her issues during such a controversial period anyway.²⁶

The doctor Serenus Sammonicus is nearly a fabricated character based on the little that is known about him. He is mentioned only by a few authors: the HA and Macrobius in his Saturnius. According to Macrobius²⁷ one of Serenus' works was the Res Reconditae. The HA said he was killed while dining because of his ties with Caracalla's brother, Geta.²⁸< It also claimed he had a poet as a son. This son also known as Serenus Sammonicus, the HA stated, wrote a series of sixty-three medical prescriptions written in hexameter. The problem is, is that the medical prescriptions were written by a Quintus Serenus not a Serenus Sammonicus. First, nowhere in the HA is it written that the son Serenus Sammonicus had the praenomen of Quintus²⁹ and secondly, the only commonality with the medical poet and this supposed son was the name Serenus. It is quite likely that there were numerous Sereni in the empire and the date of his poetry is not established. Though the Prosopography claimed Q. Serenus Sammonicus as a person because of the HA's writing,³⁰ the individual is more likely a fictional character. It is doubtful that just because he was an author within the medical field that Serenus Sammonicus naturally would be within the KukloV.

Arria was the only woman included in the KukloV other than Julia’s kin and her placement is suggested by Platnauer and Munscher.³¹ Arria lived as a lady friend of Galen who was praised sometime between Septimius and Caracalla’s time as a Platonic philosopher.³² Though Galen's dismissal as a member of Julia Domna’s philosophic circle is appropriate, Arria can still be a candidate even though there is no fact to state she was or was not a member. Her ability to speak Greek, handle Platonic philosophy, and her gender gave her an opportunity to be included within the circle safely and without controversy, but the likeliness that she was a member can never be proven. This does not mean she was a member of Julia’s circle, but it does not mean she can be written off completely.

17 Scriptores Historia Augusta, Clodius Albinus 3.5. This has been interpreted by a few scholars as to mean adulteries but is more plausibly meant as persuading Septimius Severus.

18 Birley. 1988, 160 (Mater Castrorum). Septimius' fondness to his Antonine predecessors can be reflected not only in his adopting their name but also by naming Julia Domna as the Mater Castrorum and comparing her with Faustina on coins such as seen in Baharal xxvi and xxix; ibid., 121 (prefect of the vigiles).

19 Cassius Dio, 76.15.6.

20 Herodian, 3.10.7.

21 Rubin, 173-174.

22 Scriptores Historia Augusta, Severus 18.8 For an excellent discussion on this, Rubin chap. IV discusses the issue in detail.

23 Cassius Dio, 76.16.6.

24 ibid., 76.15.6.

25 Platnauer, 144-145. Duruy, 549-553.

26 PIR², G 24. Natus est a. 129. Vixit annos septuaginta Suid. 1.1. Especially since he helped Commodus, Sergius Paulus, and Septimius Severus himself, Galen would have stayed in the shadows; Birley 1988, 154. This is when the Equites singulares Augusti made a dedication on their return from the expeditio felicissima.

27 Macrobius, 3.9.16 and 3.16.6;

28 Scriptores Historia Augusta, Antoninus Caracalla 4.4. Geta 5.4 mentions Geta's involvement with Serenus' works which suspiciously state are still in circulation by the time of Scriptores Historia Augusta's writings. Because the author specifically states "cuius libri plurimi ad doctrinam exstant" it may be simply the author's ploy to place himself in an earlier time frame than the readers who examined his work, especially since no work by Serenus has ever been found.

29 ibid., Alexander Severus 30.2 and Gordiani Tres 18.2 "Sereno Sammonico, qui patris eius amicissimus, sibi autem praeceptor fuit, nimis acceptis et carus usque adeo ut omnes libros Sereni Sammonici patris sui..."

30 PIR, S 123

31 Platnauer, 143-146; Munscher, 477-8.

32 PIR², A 1116. “Arria, Galeni amica, ab imperatoribus quoque (Severo et Antonino) laudata ob philosophia studium imprimis platonicae.”

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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.