Roman aristocratic women influenced politics, but they could not serve as magistrates, senators, or military commanders. During the empire, the wives of emperors began to wield more power than women had ever held before.

Livia, the wife of Augustus, advised her husband for 51 years of marriage before living her last 15 years under the rule of her son, Tiberius. She was deeply devoted to her husband and family and only appeared in public to display the virtues of a Roman matron, which included chastity, modesty, frugality, loyalty, and dignity.

Behind the scenes, Livia and Augustus were extremely close, and she played a part in his important decisions, although some sources unfairly portray her as the evil, manipulative power behind the throne. Roman society accepted senatorial advisors, but invariably regarded women close to power as grasping and devious.

Only archaeology provides much material about the lives of lower-class Roman women. Stone carvings and funeral inscriptions show that women worked as nurses, waitresses, midwives, weavers, and food sellers. Women performed other jobs such as jewelry making, leather working, and ceramics alongside their husbands in family businesses, but this type of work was rarely recorded. The brief texts and crude images of working women do not provide much detail about their lives, although there is a similar lack of information about lower-class men.

Romans traditionally depicted the ideal woman as a virtuous daughter, brave wife, or devoted mother. Some women were cast into heroic roles in reaction to political persecution; they hid their families, or even followed banished husbands or children into exile. Like men, upper-class women also won praise through public generosity; they built public monuments and temples, subsidized games, and became patrons of their home cities. As a sign of their rank, aristocratic women were given seats with the senators at public games, where they could display fine clothing and jewelry.

Women had long played an important role in Roman religion. Vestal virgins, who were priestesses of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth, kept the sacred fire burning at Vesta's temple in the Roman Forum. They lived in an elaborate house near the temple and occupied a place of honor at public ceremonies. Some festivals and rites were reserved for women, but these ceremonies were usually private.

It is more difficult to assess how women were involved in cultural and intellectual life. Upper-class girls went to elementary school and often learned to read and write. Generally they were not permitted to pursue higher study with men of learning, although Stoic philosophers were sympathetic to women's education. Even without higher education, Nero's mother, known as Agrippina the Younger, wrote a biography of her mother. The empress Julia Domna, wife of emperor Lucius Septimius Severus (193-211), was a patron of learning and served as the primary advisor of her son, Caracalla (211-217), throughout much of his reign as emperor.

Roman society had long valued boys above girls. Poor families sometimes abandoned infant daughters in the countryside to avoid paying dowries, the gifts traditionally given by a girl's parents to her husband's family. The practice of allowing baby girls to die, called female infanticide, continued down to the Christian era and had an impact on the size of the female population. Childbearing was dangerous. Tombstones show that the life expectancy of women was 34 years as contrasted with 46 years for men because women often died in childbirth.

Some male writers attacked imperial women's education, political power, and sexuality. Roman women did have one kind of real power - the wealth that came from their right to own and inherit property.

Despite this wealth and prestige, no Roman woman actually ruled the empire in her own name, although some other countries did have women rulers: Egyptian queen Cleopatra, Queen Boudicca of the Britons, and Zenobia, who reigned over Palmyra in Syria. In Rome, men held political power and women could only exercise indirect power.

Livia Drusilla was originally married to Tiberius Claudius Nero until the emperor Augustus forced him to divorce her and become his own wife. Political marriages of this type were common during the Republic and early empire. Livia was a member of the powerful Claudian family and the new emperor needed her wealth and influence to establish his position. Livia had two children from her previous marriage, Nero Claudius Drusus and Tiberius Claudius Nero, who later became the emperor Tiberius. Drusus was a popular military figure but was killed by a fall from his horse while on maneuvers in the Summer of A. D. 9.

Livia was an intelligent and efficient administrative helper to her new husband who had his hands full consolidating his power while maintaining the appearance of not doing so at all costs. In spite of the political nature of their marriage, Augustus and Livia loved each other deeply. With his dying words, the emperor asked his wife of fifty-two years to remember their life together. The imperial couple had had no children together and Tiberius was the one to inherit the throne after the death of Augustus.

Livia continued to exert her influence over her son Tiberius until her death in A. D. 29 at the age of 85 years. It was probably because of her political acumen and ability to watch out for her son that the problems with the praetorian prefect Sejanus did not occur until two years before her death.

Cleopatra is one of those legendary and romantic figures of history who have captured the imaginations of every generation since her own time. She was the subject of one of Hollywood’s most popular movies, and her character in this movie was portrayed by an actress whose powerful intellect and personality, as well as whose human weaknesses, were similar to Cleopatra's own.

Cleopatra was an ambitious woman, determined to rule her kingdom and keep it out of the hands of the ever more powerful and expansionist Romans in Italy to the West. She was considered to be one of the most intelligent and canny female rulers of all times and was not afraid to utilize her feminine charms to advance her political ambitions. She was the lover of one powerful Roman leader and married to another.

Cleopatra was born in about 69 B. C., the daughter of Ptolemy XII and Cleopatra VI. When her father died, she and her brother Ptolemy XIII were to rule Egypt jointly. It was the custom amongst Ptolemaic rulers that brother should marry sister and rule jointly. This was to ensure that none of the powerful families would gain enough influence to control the throne of Egypt. Instead of marrying her, Ptolemy exiled her and took over the throne himself. Cleopatra gathered an army and tried to take back what was rightfully hers, but was having no success.

In 48 B. C., Julius Caesar landed in Egypt, searching for Pompey, whom he had defeated at the battle of Pharsalus earlier that year. Some Egyptians thought they could gain Caesar's favor by murdering Pompey and presenting his head to Caesar, but Caesar instead mourned the death of a friend, even though Pompey had been his rival. Cleopatra, with her talent for seduction and a flair for the dramatic, used a much more subtle way to gain the attention and affection of Julius Caesar. She had herself rolled up in a carpet, and, disguised as a gift to the famous Roman, she was delivered by one of her slaves to Caesar's camp. Immediately captivated by her charm and wit, Caesar fell madly in love with the Egyptian queen.

Over the course of the next three years, the two royal lovers joined forces to defeat and kill her treacherous brother, took a trip up the Nile, and planned to carve out an empire for themselves. After Ptolemy XIII's death, she was compelled by custom to marry her other brother, Ptolemy XIV.

Caesar then took Cleopatra to Rome and set her up in a household of her own. Cleopatra had a son by Caesar whom she named Caesarion. Cleopatra was not very popular with the Romans, who resented this foreign queen who had seduced their popular leader. When Caesar was murdered in 44 B. C., Cleopatra decided that the wise thing to do would be to return to Egypt and try to make the best of things. After Caesar's death she got her second brother out of the way by poisoning him. She then ruled jointly with her infant son.

By this time, the rivalry between Marc Antony and Octavian had heated up to the point of becoming open civil war. Antony summoned Cleopatra to his camp to have her declare her loyalty to his cause or face the consequences. Instead, she came to him with her court, her royal barge all decked out in splendor. Of course, Cleopatra was the center of everyone’s attention, a rich and powerful Eastern queen surrounded by luxury.

Antony could no more resist the Egyptian queen than Caesar could before him. With Antony eating from the palm of her hand, she believed that she could use Roman military might to further her plans to build an Egyptian empire. Antony fell in love with and eventually married Cleopatra. In the meantime, Octavian was denouncing Antony and his Egyptian queen, saying that he wanted only to make Rome part of an Oriental empire ruled by a despot.

As time went on, Antony lost more and more support from Roman soldiers and citizens alike. The forces of Octavian were becoming stronger day by day. The showdown between the two was not long incoming. At Actium, in 31 B. C., Octavian's naval forces defeated Antony's fleet after Antony himself deserted them. It seems that Cleopatra, who had joined her ships with Antony's fleet, decided to cut and run in the midst of the battle. In fact, the battle was nowhere near a lost cause until after she had fled. Antony chose to take a boat himself and join his lover in flight instead of remaining with his men. The battle was soon over with most of Antony's men deserting or surrendering after he had gone.

Antony and Cleopatra had only a few short months left. After Actium, Octavian's army inexorably pushed onward, conquering Egypt after some spirited but wholly inadequate resistance. With troops entering Alexandria, Cleopatra retired to her own tomb to await the end. Antony had fallen on his sword in despair, but survived his suicide attempt long enough to be taken to Cleopatra, where he died in her arms. Cleopatra herself, rather than be taken alive, preferred suicide. She could not face the prospect of having to march in shame and degradation in Octavian's triumph, having once been a proud queen of an independent Egypt. As Roman soldiers searched noisily in the streets of Alexandria for Cleopatra, she accepted a final gift from one of her faithful serving girls. Hidden within a basket of fruit was a deadly poisonous asp. The bite from the snake was painless, and Cleopatra held the serpent to her breast. The poison worked swiftly, and her two servant girls followed her in death. When the soldiers finally broke into the tomb and roughly demanded where Cleopatra was, only one girl had enough life remaining to tell them that in death, Cleopatra had escaped her captors.

During the early days of the Roman Empire, people of patrician or senatorial rank were married for political reasons. Often, a marriage was broken up because a man was ordered to divorce his wife and marry a woman who would provide a more useful alliance between powerful families. It was for this reason that Octavian, later to become Rome’s first emperor Augustus, was told to divorce his wife Scribonia and marry Livia Drusilla. There appeared to be no hard feelings between the old and the new husbands at this arrangement. In fact, T. Claudius Nero gave his ex - wife a large dowry and enjoyed himself thoroughly at her wedding to Octavian, behaving more like a father than a former husband! The making and breaking up of marriages for political reasons made for some complicated family trees during this period.

It turns out that Octavian, now the Emperor Augustus, had a daughter named Julia by his first wife. She was wedded in a political marriage to Augustus' faithful friend and loyal general, Agrippa. Their daughter was Agrippina the Elder.

Agrippina was married to Germanicus, who was descended from the Claudians, Livia's side of the family. He was a popular military commander and well - loved by the people in Rome. A goodly amount of his popularity was because he made successful raids into German territory. Though he was taking a chance with Roman legions and some said that the military adventures were foolhardy, the fact that they succeeded brought enormous glory to Germanicus, who actually earned the name "Germanicus" because of these raids.

It was probably because of this popularity that both he and Agrippina became entangled in a political web partly of their own creation. The old emperor Augustus had decided to Adopt Tiberius, the son of Livia and T. Claudius Nero. One of the conditions of this adoption was that Tiberius adopt Germanicus as his own son.

In A. D. 19, Germanicus died in the Eastern city of Antioch. Historians have been debating ever since whether it was due to natural causes or murder. In any case, Agrippina was firmly convinced that Tiberius, who had become emperor in A. D. 14, was jealous of Germanicus' popularity and had had him poisoned. Agrippina was herself a very highly respected member of Roman high society and her opinions, if voiced publicly, could be dangerous. Certainly, the reclusive and somewhat sullen Tiberius was nowhere near the popular figure the dead Germanicus had been.

Agrippina scandalized all Rome when she refused to eat or drink at a banquet given by the emperor. From that time on, Tiberius sought an excuse to be rid of her. Finally, in A. D. 29, Agrippina and her two teenage sons were accused of plotting to overthrow Tiberius. They were tried and condemned to exile.

Agrippina's son Nero committed suicide soon after the trial. Her son Drusus died of starvation while imprisoned in Rome a few years later. Agrippina was exiled to the island of Pandateria where she too died of starvation in A. D. 33. Though the official story was that she committed suicide, she was probably starved to death on the orders of the aging emperor Tiberius.

Agrippina the younger was one of three daughters of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder. She was thirty - four years old when the Roman emperor Claudius married her in A. D. 49.

By this time, Claudius had had three wives and his marriages to them had not been very good ones. His previous wife, Messalina, had been not only unfaithful to him but had actually married another man in full public view while Claudius was away visiting the new port of Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber. Claudius was so affectionately disposed towards her that he was not moved to action until his private secretary gave the order for her execution. Messalina had been married to Claudius for seven years and had lived a full and very debauched life by the time of her death at the age of twenty - three.

By this time, Claudius was nearing the end of his life. Agrippina, being an ambitious and intelligent woman married to an emperor considered a weakling and somewhat of a dunce by those around him, naturally took the reins of power into her own hands. During the last five years of Claudius’ reign, she grew more and more powerful. At the time of their marriage, Agrippina had a teenage son named Nero who was to become the future Roman emperor of that name. She immediately secured his future by having Claudius adopt him. Claudius also had a son by Messalina named Brittanicus.

In A.D. 54, Claudius died after eating a dish of poison mushrooms. The early historians perpetuate the rumor that Agrippina had murdered him, but she really didn’t have a motive. She already controlled much of imperial policy and had seen to it that her son would be heir to the throne. Even today, people die after gathering and eating poison mushrooms gathered in Italy as they are easily mistaken for the edible kind.

When Nero ascended the throne, he was only seventeen and could not legally rule in his own name. Agrippina acted as his regent and was a powerful controlling influence on him even after he had reached the age of eighteen and could govern in his own right. For the first time in Roman history, a woman was given the title of AVGVSTA, meaning "empress", and her portrait appeared on coins with that of her son. Up until that time, women of the imperial household had only been portrayed on coins after they had died.

Nero grew to resent his mother’s strong hand in controlling his life. Agrippina had been raised in an upright and conservative Roman home, and was not tolerant of Nero’s frivolous behavior. After about a year, Nero moved her out of the imperial palace and into a residence of her own. With the help of his two closest advisors, Seneca and Burrus, Nero began to undermine her power until she could do little more than complain. She began to denounce her son more and more in public, and soon made a nuisance of herself. After the tension between mother and son grew to a critical level, Nero determined to be rid of her. He was aided in making this decision by the counsel given him by Seneca and Burrus.

Tacitus tells us the story how Nero sent his mother out on the Bay of Naples in a ship. An accident was to be staged in which part of the ship would collapse and pitch her into the sea. The accident was bungled and she escaped with only a hurt shoulder. A woman friend who had been with her was also thrown into the water. The woman began crying out that she was the emperor’s mother, hoping that she would be rescued. When Agrippina saw some of the ship’s crew clubbing her to death in the water instead, the tough old mother of Nero swam to safety in spite of her wounded shoulder. She returned home, believing that Nero would not dare to murder her now that so many people knew about the plot. Agrippina played it cool until the very end. Nero sent an ex-slave and a group of naval officers whom he could trust to complete the foul deed to finish her off with clubs and swords in her bed, to which she had retired to recuperate from her injury.

Agrippina the Younger was hated and feared by many of the Roman nobility amongst whom she lived and, no doubt, many of them were secretly glad to have her out of the way. But the crime of matricide was perhaps the most despicable one in the eyes of the ancient Romans. Today, our society looks upon child molestation as one of the most horrible crimes imaginable and holds the innocence of childhood to be inviolable. The Romans believed the home, hearth, and motherhood to be the very foundation of their society and honoring and protecting his mother were a Roman man’s most sacred duties. The Romans would tolerate Nero’s drunken revels and the wide range of his perversions and sexual appetites. They would even tolerate his brutality in dealing with his enemies, but they would never forgive a man who murdered his mother. Our society remembers Nero as a persecutor of Christians and a degenerate ruler, but it was the crime of murdering his mother that made it inevitable that he should one day be brought down. In A. D. 68, the Romans had finally had enough of him and the Senate declared him a public enemy. Nero finally paid the ultimate price for his crimes by taking his own life while hiding in an ex-slave’s house as soldiers were at the point of arresting him.

Boudicca has been the subject of myth and legend for centuries. Revered as a symbol of British freedom, stories of her heroism have been told to English schoolchildren for the past two hundred years. In fact, she was the wife of King Prasutagus of the Iceni, a British tribe that lived near the modern town of Colchester during the time of the Roman Emperor Nero. When Prasutagus, an ally of the Romans died, the local Roman government officials decided that they would seize her wealth and lands for themselves. When Boudicca protested, saying that she was a Roman ally who was being treated no better than a slave, the Roman soldiers flogged her and raped her daughters.

This was an atrocity that Boudicca was not about to bear without a fight. She called her tribe to arms and rebellion against the Romans. The first town to suffer her furious vengeance was Colchester, known to the Romans as Camulodunum. She burned the town and slaughtered the inhabitants. Suetonius Paulinus, the Roman governor of Britain, was away in the North destroying the Druids on the island of Anglesey when news of Boudicca's attack reached him. His army proceeded south in an orderly fashion, marching twenty-four miles each day and setting camp. Meanwhile, Boudicca was headed toward Verulamium (St. Albans). She would avoid any fortified place but attack regions where the plunder was great and the defenses were weak The Second Augusta Legion, under Petillius Cerialis, met Boudicca's eighty to one-hundred thousand rebels with two thousand Roman troops. They were almost totally wiped out, with only the cavalry escaping. After Verulamium was put to the torch, Suetonius entered Londinium (London). He advised the citizens to leave, and offered to take them with him. He didn't have enough troops with him to defend the town, and the garrison there was much too small to deal effectively with Boudicca. The main part of Suetonius’army would not arrive for many days. In the words of Tacitus, he sacrificed a town to save a province.

Word of Boudicca's barbaric deeds paralyzed the British countryside with fear. Again, we have Tacitus to tell us what happened. The British did not take or sell prisoners. They could not wait to cut throats, burn, hang, and crucify. Even today, when foundations are being dug for a new building in the three towns destroyed by Boudiccas's rebels, a thick layer of ash gives mute testimony to the completeness of the devastation. There is an unexpected benefit for the historians, though. By digging to discover what parts of the modern city have this buried layer of ash, they can map the extent of the ancient towns as they existed in the time of Boudicca when they had been in existence only fourteen years

Suetonius' careful planning and patience finally paid off. Instead of rushing into battle against a much larger force, he chose a place to meet Boudicca where his 10,000 legionaries would have the advantage against her rather disorganized 100,000 rebels. With dense woods at his back to protect him from ambush, he waited in a narrow defile for her to attack. The British were so confident of victory that they brought their families out to watch them slaughter the Romans. All day long, the British sent wave after wave of attackers against Suetonius’well-disciplined troops. Towards evening, the Romans got the upper hand and attacked, trapping the British against their own wagons and pack animals. The Romans slaughtered about 80,000 Britons, including women, children, and old men, repaying atrocities in kind. Boudicca and her two daughters poisoned themselves rather than be captured and made to walk in a triumphal procession in Rome as prisoners of war. Though both of them were responsible for much brutality in this, the Boudiccan Revolt, they are celebrated as heroes in English history and legend today.

The marriage between Sabina and Hadrian does not seem to have been a particularly happy one. She had been married to him at the age of twelve in A. D. 100. Hadrian was openly homosexual, and Sabina did not seem to possess the ability to overlook her husband's sexual practices, as most of the imperial women of the period found it expedient to do. She played the part of the dutiful wife, though, even accompanying Hadrian and his lover boy Antinous on their famous tour of Egypt.

As it is well known that the Romans were quite as fond of scandal as we are today, rumors began to circulate that Hadrian had poisoned Sabina because she was resentful of his ongoing homosexual relationships. These accusations do not make sense, however, because Hadrian was a sick old man at the time of Sabina's death and it is hardly probable that he would murder her at this late date after thirty - six years of marriage. Sabina died in A. D. 137, about a year before the death of Hadrian. Hadrian had her consecrated after her death.

Not much is known about the lives of the emperors and empresses of the Second Century. Our best primary sources, Tacitus and Suetonius are dead. The Historia Augusta is not known for its accuracy, being a collection of gossip and fanciful tales. Pliny the Younger sheds some light on this period, and Dio Cassius does not appear until the reign of Commodus. What we know about the two Faustinas, Elder and Younger, must be pieced together from monumental inscriptions, legends on coins, and the few cases in which writers actually describe events of their lives.

Faustina the Elder was loved very much by her husband, the emperor Antoninus Pius. They lived happily together during one of the most peaceful and prosperous periods of Roman history. The empire had reached its greatest extent under Trajan in the early Second Century but Hadrian found it more expedient to give up all territory across the Danube for the sake of a strong, defensible frontier. During the next sixty years the empire enjoyed the economic prosperity that is one of the benefits of a powerful and stable government.

Evidence on coins suggests that Faustina the Elder concerned herself with charitable work and the betterment of poor people's lives in Rome. One coin reverse commemorates the PVELLAE FAVSTINIANAE (Faustina's Girls). This refers to a fund Faustina had established to pay for the education of girls from poor Roman families.

Faustina the Elder died in A. D. 141 and was deeply mourned by her husband. Antoninus Pius had his wife consecrated (declared a goddess) and had millions of coins struck bearing her portrait. These coins are some of the most easily obtained Roman coins and the multitude of types and reverse legends contribute greatly to the archaeological evidence for known history of the period.

The author's first Roman coin was a worn denarius of DIVA FAVSTINA. This was a commemorative coin issued after her death. Though it is quite worn, the elaborate hair style, piled high on her head with the hair interwoven with strings of pearls is still evident. The coin displayed with this article is in far better condition and much more of the hair detail can be seen. Most coins of Faustina the Elder can be identified by this distinctive feature not found on the coins of any other empress.

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 brother¹s 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.

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

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.

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 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.

The story of Saint Helena is one of the most famous classic Cinderella tales of all time in many countries and cultures. She is one of the most honored of the saints in the Eastern or Greek Orthodox Church. Strangely, her story is not a very well known one outside the Orthodox Church in the United States, even amongst the Roman Catholic community to which she is also a symbol of goodness and piety. It is one of those strange paradoxes of literature that the fairy tale is passed along by parents to their children from generation to generation while some of the stories of real people are all but forgotten.

Helena was born and grew up in the Roman province of Illyricum (modern Bosnia, Serbia, and Herzegovina) in the mid Third Century. Not much is known about her family, but they were probably quite poor because she found it necessary to work in a tavern as a servant girl, an occupation no daughter of a wealthy man would choose. In fact the status of STABVLARIA, or tavern girls were little better than prostitutes in the Roman world.

In her line of work, Helena was bound to gain the attention of men. These were often soldiers in the Roman army serving on the frontiers far from their homes. These soldiers who spent their lives guarding Rome's frontiers often took a local wife or mistress to ease the loneliness and discomfort of an army camp far from the civilized world they knew. Such was the case with Helena. A handsome but pale skinned Roman general had soon fallen deeply in love with the young Helena and took her as his mistress. This was Constantius Chlorus. who was later to become the emperor Constantius I. Our pale soldier might have married his local girl, but there was always the chance that he might be stationed back in the civilized world someday and be married into a family with influence and power. During ancient times, love was not considered an important reason to marry. Allying oneself with the proper family and making the right political connections were much more important reasons.

Like many frontier army families had done in the past, Constantius and Helena settled down to a life together on the edge of the empire. Before too long, their union produced a son, who was named Constantine. We might never have heard of this little family except for an event which now came to pass that brought sadness into the couple's life but ensured a prominent place in the history books for all three members.

The Roman emperor at that time was Diocletian, who had come to the throne in A. D. 284 after a fifty year period during which the man who was emperor seemed to receive the kiss of death as soon as he ascended the throne. Wars against external enemies, rebels at home, and the disconcerting tendency for the Praetorian Guard to choose a favorite, put him on the throne, and then murder him after a short reign had made it clear that some changes were needed in the government.

Diocletian came up with an idea that made the job of emperor a much safer one and greatly strengthened the Roman Empire during this period of crisis. He would share the government of the Roman Empire with another man, an imperial colleague.

The colleague would set up his court in a distant city, which made it hard to murder both emperors at the same time. Furthermore, the colleague would be bound to the senior augustus by family, friendship, and political ties that would hopefully ensure that he would not turn and become a rebel.

For the post of imperial colleague in the West, Diocletian now chose Maximianus, who became the Roman emperor in the West in April, A. D. 286. Diocletian would continue to rule in the East. In 293, Diocletian chose a Caesar who would succeed him on the throne. Maximianus was told to do the same and chose the successful and loyal general Constantius Chlorus to be his caesar.

As part of the process of building an unbreakable bond between the two augusti, and their two caesars, Maximian ordered Constantius to forsake Helena and take his own step - daughter Theodora as his wife. The boy Constantine was sent away to be raised in the household of Galerius, who was Diocletian's caesar.

Diocletian's plan was for the two augusti to rule for twenty years and then abdicate. The two caesars would then be promoted to augusti and would presumably have the experience to govern well. In this way the succession was not left up to chance and the new emperors would be prepared to rule. In A. D. 305, Diocletian willingly and Maximianus reluctantly gave up their thrones and passed along the leadership of empire in front of their troops.

Meanwhile, the seeds of jealousy which would tear this very sensible system apart had been sown. Constantine had become a popular general in his own right and Constantius immediately invited his son to join him in Britain. Galerius really did not want the young man to leave, considering hi almost a hostage to ensure that his father did not make any moves against Galerius. He grudgingly gave permission for Constantine to leave. Constantine left in the middle of the night before he was expected to and made a wild ride towards the coast of Gaul where his father was about to set sail for Britain. Constantine arrived just in time to catch the fleet before it left. Father and son were now joyously reunited after thirteen years. It appears that no one remembered the woman, Constantine's mother, that Constantius had loved so deeply twenty years ago.

The happy reunion of father and son was to be a very brief one. In 306, Constantius became sick and died at York, probably within shouting distance of the place where another emperor, Septimius Severus, had died almost two hundred years before. By one of those amazing coincidences of history, both emperors had died after having returned from a military campaign against the Picts in the north of Britain, a land that would later be called Scotland.

It was now after all these years that her son could now elevate Helena to the position of respect and honor that her husband was unable or unwilling to do. In an age when royal titles were multiplying and becoming ever more grandiose sounding, Constantine reverently bestowed upon his mother the title of NOBILISSIMA FEMINA, meaning "Most Honored and Noble Lady." Evidence of being accorded this title is symbolized on coins of the period by the adding of the letters NF in the obverse legend after the noblewoman's name.

This title is also the one chosen for the introduction to the section on Roman women in this author's present work. As time went on, the Role of Helena grew to where she held a position of power and influence in Constantine's government. By providing her son with wise counsel, she became as much the powerful woman behind the throne that Livia, Julia Domna, and Julia Maesa had been in previous ages.

The events of Helena's later life contain the elements of legend which have given her such a prominent place in Roman Catholic Church tradition. In A. D. 326, work was officially begun on the transformation of the small and ancient Greek town of Byzantium into the New Rome of Constantine's ambitious dreams. This city was to be named Constantinople and was a capital of Christianity and the Roman East until A. D. 1453. Helena was by now an old woman of eighty but she found the energy to embark on a lengthy pilgrimage to the holy places of Christianity. All along the path of her journey, the people venerated and expressed their love for their empress. Helena performed acts of charity, endowed churches, and collected holy relics in her travels. When she passed through a place, prisoners were granted a pardon.

The climax of Helena's storybook life was her discovery of the True Cross, which she duly brought back to be given a place of reverence in Constantine's new city. With a true flair for the dramatic, the bishop at Jerusalem unearthed a three - hundred year old cross from the earth of Calvary that had mysteriously never seen the ravages of time, soil, and wood - boring insects. While this relic may have been planted in an ingenious plot by the bishop to create an ancient artifact, a holy relic, and a miracle before the eyes of the eighty - year old empress, let us not allow the intrusion of archaeological facts ruin the impact of a good story. Regardless of the genuineness of the cross that had been discovered, these events helped to create a popular Church legend and secure a permanent place in history for this remarkable woman.

Not much is known about the empress Aelia Flaccilla. It is believed that she was a devout Christian and exerted considerable influence in the religious affairs of her husband. Theodosius I was the last really powerful Roman emperor and the last time both East and West were united was during his reign. He kept his court at Constantinople and it is within the Eastern society of this city that Flaccilla functioned as empress.

The one piece of historical evidence we have concerning the life of Aelia Flaccilla is related by Gibbon. During the late Fourth Century, there was a major religious controversy over Arianism, which was the kind of Christianity popular amongst the Goths and other Germanic nations. Theodosius and Flaccilla were devoutly Catholic, and it came about that Theodosius had the opportunity to discuss theology with Bunomius, a prominent Arian scholar. As Theodosius was not an educated man, having a soldier’s background, those close to him felt it would be unwise for Theodosius to converse with a learned leader of the heretics. It was feared that some well - thought out argument put forth by the scholar might actually undermine the faith of the emperor. The empress Flaccilla prayed fervently against such a meeting, and Theodosius subsequently dropped the idea.

Aelia Flaccilla had two sons, Arcadius and Honorius, who both became Roman emperors upon the final division of the Roman Empire. Arcadius began to rule in the East and Honorius in the West after Theodosius’ death in A. D. 395.

Eudoxia was the wife of the Roman emperor Arcadius and wielded a powerful influence over him. Arcadius didn’t seem to have either the intelligence or the will to rule the vast Late Roman Byzantine Empire and was heavily influenced by the officers and ministers of his consistory.

Eudoxia, like many of the women in the house of Theodosius I had a strong personality. She easily dominated her husband when it came to affairs of state. She had two very powerful enemies with which she had to deal, and she eventually brought about the ruin of both of them. The troubles with John of Cappadocia were simply struggles over power and turf. John of Cappadocia was Arcadius’ praetorian prefect who extorted every last penny in taxes out of the citizens of Constantinople. John Chrysostom (in Greek, Chrysostom is a name meaning The Golden Mouthed) was another individual who had incurred her wrath because his sermons about immorality seemed to be aimed directly at her. Eudoxia was able to get both men banished to inhospitable towns on the frontiers of the empire.

Eudoxia was the wife of the Roman emperor Arcadius and wielded a powerful influence over him. Arcadius didn’t seem to have either the intelligence or the will to rule the vast Late Roman Byzantine Empire and was heavily influenced by the officers and ministers of his consistory.

Eudoxia, like many of the women in the house of Theodosius I had a strong personality. She easily dominated her husband when it came to affairs of state. She had two very powerful enemies with which she had to deal, and she eventually brought about the ruin of both of them. The troubles with John of Cappadocia were simply struggles over power and turf. John of Cappadocia was Arcadius’ praetorian prefect who extorted every last penny in taxes out of the citizens of Constantinople. John Chrysostom (in Greek, Chrysostom is a name meaning The Golden Mouthed) was another individual who had incurred her wrath because his sermons about immorality seemed to be aimed directly at her. Eudoxia was able to get both men banished to inhospitable towns on the frontiers of the empire.

Eudocia was the wife of the Late Roman or Early Byzantine emperor Theodosius II. Her original name was Athenais, a pagan name honoring the goddess Athena. She had to give this name up and adopt the good Christian name of Eudocia before she could marry a Roman emperor. She married Theodosius II in A. D. 421.

Eudocia did not get along well with Theodosius' powerful sister Pulcheria and it is possible that Pulcheria turned Theodosius against his wife. At any rate, the marriage broke up in 442 or 443 and Eudocia moved to Jerusalem. She still retained her imperial title of Augusta, though.

Eudocia spent her later years in the performing of good works, giving alms to the poor, constructing buildings, and supporting the Monophysite Church. She returned to the orthodox Christian Faith before her death in 460.

Aelia Pulcheria was the sister of the Eastern Roman emperor Theodosius II. Theodosius was a weak ruler who did not take much of an active part in the government of the empire, but his sister Pulcheria was quite a gifted administrator. She was the one who held the actual ruling power during the long reign of Theodosius II.

Pulcheria and her brother Theodosius were children of the Eastern Roman emperor Arcadius and his wife Eudoxia. Eudoxia died in A. D. 404 and Arcadius in 408, leaving as orphans the seven year old Theodosius and his three sisters. Though she was only nine years old at the time, Pulcheria was already showing the strong personality and leadership abilities that were a common trait of the Theodosian women.

During Theodosius’ minority, the Eastern Roman Empire was fortunate to have the competent and faithful praetorian prefect Anthemius to act as regent for the young emperor. The education of the imperial children was left in the hands of a powerful group of priests. During their early years, the emperor and his sisters were taught that they held power only in the name of God and that service to the Church was a higher calling than imperial office. This education had such a great influence that the long reign of Theodosius II would be very different from the emphasis on imperial power and magnificence displayed during the reign of Arcadius.

In 414, Theodosius II bestowed the title of Augusta on the fifteen - year old Pulcheria. From that time on, the weak Theodosius was governed by his sister’s powerful personality. At an early age, Pulcheria took a vow of celibacy and assumed somewhat the character of a very powerful and holy nun watching over the government of the empire. This was, in fact, the image she strove to create in the minds of the people and it was largely the support of the church and people that insured that she would remain influential and powerful for decades to come. She also persuaded both of her sisters to take vows of celibacy as a precaution against their marrying a powerful individual who might prove a threat to Theodosius and his sister’s reign. Pulcheria was very powerful in Church politics as well. To a great degree, she was responsible for organizing the Council of Chalcedon in A. D. 451 and setting the agenda of issues to be decided.

In 421 Theodosius married the beautiful Eudocia, who had recently accepted Christianity and had discarded the pagan name of Athenais in favor of a new Christian one. Some historians believe that Pulcheria considered Eudocia a threat to her own power, and gradually turned Theodosius against her. In any case, Theodosius repudiated his wife and exiled her to Jerusalem. The natural consequence to this was that Pulcheria was once again in total control of her brother without anyone interfering with her.

After the death of Theodosius II in A. D. 450, Pulcheria married the strong and capable Marcian, an elderly senator who was known for his competence in governmental and military affairs. Pulcheria was fifty - one years old at the time. This was not a marriage for love, but existed simply to ensure a smooth succession and that the empire would be in good hands. The historians of the period are quite clear that Marcian respected her vow of celibacy and there was none of the affection that normally exists between married couples.

Pulcheria died in A. D. 453, having willed all her possessions to the poor. She is still respected as a saintly woman and an example of one who lived a holy life by the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Galla Placidia was the daughter of an emperor, half sister of two emperors, the wife of another emperor and the mother of yet another emperor. She was married first to a king of the Visigoths who carried her away as a captive, just another item of stolen plunder from the sack of Rome. She fell deeply in love with her barbarian king and only condescended to marry her second husband, a Roman emperor whom she merely tolerated after her one and only true love had died. She ruled as a regent, as a queen mother in fact if not in name and held the reins of empire in her strong hand, fulfilling the responsibilities of her throne better than any man alive at the time. She had the body of her infant son brought back home from far-off barbarian Spain in a little silver casket to be buried next to her in her mausoleum.

Galla Placidia even betrayed her own flesh and blood, joining in and encouraging the clamor of the citizens of Rome for the death of Serena, widow of the loyal and faithful Roman master general Stilicho. This kind and gentle woman was her aunt who had opened her home to the young princess while she was yet a very young girl, raising her as one of her own children. In her later years, Galla Placidia was held in high esteem and affection by the people of the Italian city of Ravenna. The Roman Empire was in a state of sad decline by then and Placidia had used her great wealth to build many churches in Ravenna and perform many charitable works to benefit the poor.

Placidia was born in the year A. D. 388, the only daughter of Emperor Theodosius I and the Empress Galla. Her mother died when she was a young girl and she was sent to the court of the emperor Honorius in the West to be raised after the death of Theodosius in 395. It was there that she was taken in and raised by Serena, the woman whose murder Placidia would so heartily encourage fifteen years later.

Placidia was in Rome at the time of its sack by Alaric and the Visigoths. She was carried off as part of the plunder but later married Alaric’s brother Athaulf in 414 after Alaric had died and Athaulf had become King of the Visigothic nation. The Roman princess and the barbarian king soon had a family.

Galla Placidia gave birth to baby boy whom she named Theodosius after her father. The infant died after a few weeks and was buried in Barcelona, Spain where Athaulf had settled his people after much wandering about Europe. After Athaulf was murdered in 416, Galla Placidia was treated shamefully by Singeric, the new Visigothic king. Instead of treating the widow of his predecessor with tenderness and compassion, Singeric forced her to walk twelve miles on foot ahead of his horse in the company of common prisoners.

Placidia did not have long to wait for justice, though. Singeric was not well liked by the Visigothic warrior elite and was mordered after a reign of only seven days by Wallia, a Visigothic warrior who won popularity by announcing his intention of making war on the Roman Empire. Wallia ended up selling Placidia back to her brother Honorius for 600,000 measures of grain. Placidia returned home in 416 to marry Constantius, a general of Honorius’a short time later. Constantius was made co-augustus in the West in A. D. 421 and became the Roman emperor Constantius III.

He died of pleurisy after a reign of only seven months. From this marriage, Galla Placidia had two children, Valentinian, who later became Emperor Valentinian III and Justa Grata Honoria, who is only remembered in history from a few coins bearing her portrait and a strange tale of forbidden love and treachery.

Honorius and Placidia soon quarreled and Placidia fled to Constantinople. The story is told that Honorius was very fond of his sister, often kissing her on the mouth in public. Tongues began wagging at court, telling tales of incest but in fact Honorius was probably only displaying immature and inappropriate brotherly affection. Soon, the affection turned into hatred as the result of stories told by two palace servants. The supporters of Placidia and those of Honorius even took the quarrel to the streets of Ravenna where they did battle with each other over the honor of their patrons. At this point, Galla Placidia decided that the wise course of action would be to flee to Constantinople and seek asylum at the court of Theodosius II.

In 423, Honorius died and Galla Placidia was made Augusta, or empress in the West. She was to rule in the name of her six - year old son Valentinian III.. Placidia soon proved to be a hard-nosed ruler who knew how to manage a declining economy and rebellious subjects. After the death of Honorius, Johannes, who had been Honorius’imperial secretary led a rebellion in Northern Italy. Johannes was soon captured and Placidia had him mounted backwards on a mule and paraded in front of the citizens of the city of Ravenna, where the Western capital had been established since A. D. 402. Johannes had his hand cut off before being led into the arena and executed before the six - year old emperor and the people of the city.

Later, Galla Placidia became the most powerful figures in the government of the West. She clashed with Aetius, the military genius who defended the West from barbarian invasions throughout the first half of the Fifth Century. She even went so far as to have Count Boniface of Africa elevated to the post of Master General and then sent him out after Aetius to arrest him. Aetius was not captured or killed and spent many years fighting for Galla Placidia’s cause once she decided to put her trust in him.

The art of holding onto political power has always been a very delicate one, mastered only by by those few individuals who posessed the particular kind of genius that allows them to see connections that are hidden from most normal minds and to assess the importance or potential threat of people and situations.

Galla Placidia had such a mind and ran the Roman government in the West for twenty years during one of the most perilous periods of its existence. She was able to make the most of Aetius’ military abilities and yet keep him from seizing the throne. It is unlikely that any man during this period could have done any better than she did, and it is certain that the two men who were on the throne in the East and the West could hot have remained on the throne if they hadn’t each had the help of an exceptional wom

an. Pulcheria, sister of Theodosius II in the East played much the same role there that Galla Placidia played in the West. The role of women was bedginning to change, though. Throughout the period of the Roman Empire, women of senatorial rank were expected to learn the skills of administering large estates and were often responsible for governing hundreds of slaves and dealing with supply merchants, contractors, and gov

ernment officials. They were thus often ready to step into the role of governing the empire for a weak husband or son who was the nominal emperor. The mid Fifth Century saw the beginnings of medieval society in Europe,. a period during which women lost much of their status in society and became almost as property. Historians of a later age often showed their strong disapproval of women in positions of power.

In the East, a trend of just the opposite nature was unfolding. The palace at Constantinople was to see strong women of the imperial family taking the reins of power in their hands starting with the Empress Eudoxia and continuing throughout the Fifth and first half of the Sixth Century.

Empresses Ariadne and Theodora held enormous power in the government of the early Byzantine Empire and Pulcheria was the capable regent for her brother Theodosius II during his minority. Indeed, the precedent set by Julia Domna and Julia Maesa, the powerful women of the Severan period who kept court at the Syrian city of Antioch seems to have been a feature of the Eastern empire through the reign of Irene in the Eleventh Century.

The later years of Galla Placidia’s life were uneventful, or at least did not capture the attention of an ancient chronicler and thus get written down. She mellowed somewhat in her old age and spent her fortune putting up public buildings and performing charitable works. She died in the year A. D. 450, fondly loved and missed by the citizens of Ravenna where she had spent the later years of her life.

Hypatia was an ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician who lived in the city of Alexandria in Egypt during the late Fourth and early Fifth Centuries A.D. She is generally thought to have been the first woman mathematician, but this is only because there are no surviving records of any earlier women who made contributions in the field. Hypatia received much of her education from her father Theon, who was also a mathematician of considerable ability. She taught and lectured at the fine Ptolemaic Library of Alexandria as well as the University of Alexandria and is known to have done work in math, science, philosophy, and astronomy. In the classical world, the role of a philosopher was a much broader one than we usually think of today. The ancient Greeks believed that all knowledge was somehow related and a philosopher could equally well discuss science, mechanics, mathematics, human values, and theories of government.

Alexandria, the city where Hypatia was born and lived was an amazing place and these were amazing times. Named after Alexander the Great and founded by his general Ptolemy after he had conquered Egypt, it had been one of the most important cities in the ancient world for almost 700 years. It was truly a crossroads of learning and commerce, being the capital of the greatest province in the Roman Empire at the time.

The culture was a mixture of that of ancient Greece and ancient Egypt, and Alexandria was located at a crossroads through which most of the trade between East and West must pass.

During the early 400's A.D., Alexandria shared the distinction of being a great metropolis with only two other cities, Constantinople and Antioch. All three were located in the region of the world that encompasses Turkey, the Middle East, and Egypt today. Even mighty Rome could not match these cities in size, importance, and splendor, for Rome’s greatness had been on the wane ever since the days of Marcus Aurelius. Alexandria was also the home of the world's greatest library.

Copies of almost every important manuscript in the ancient world were kept there. During this period, the Christian Church had become very powerful. A large part of the population of the Roman world looked to them for guidance and it seemed that the bishops of the large cities had as much or more power than even the emperor in Constantinople. Only a hundred years before the Christians were fleeing the persecutions of the emperor Diocletian. After Constantine's Edict of Milan gave them the freedom to worship God as they please, their political power and influence grew rapidly. By the middle of the fourth century, many important posts in the Roman government were occupied by Christians.

It was a combination of all of these things that set the stage for the tragedy that now took place. Cyril was bishop of Alexandria in 415 and it was his ambition to be the most powerful man in Alexandria, second only to the emperor himself. Cyril even defied Orestes, the prefect appointed by the emperor to govern Egypt. He even went so far as to incite a riot of monks in which one of them threw a stone, seriously injuring Orestes. Cyril also tried to have all Jews banished from the city so he could confiscate their property.

Hypatia was a very popular lecturer. Having been appointed to the chair of Philosophy at the University of Alexandria, her lectures attracted many rich and influential people. She would discuss the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle as well as methods for measuring the density of liquids or the properties of conic sections. Though she was a pagan herself, she had many influential friends, both pagan and Christian. She was even asked by a bishop in a distant city to build a hydrometer so that he could test his wines. One of her closest friends was the prefect Orestes, and it is probably this friendship that inflamed Cyril's hatred against her.

One day in March, A.D. 415, Hypatia was leaving one of her lectures and on her way home. She was attacked by a group of Church laymen and dragged from her chariot. These men supposedly had the job of visiting and aiding the poor and sick of the city who were under Cyril's care. In reality, many were criminals and thugs whom Cyril used to intimidate those who might oppose him. They dragged Hypatia into a church, humiliating her in the process. One Peter the Reader clubbed her to death, and her body was dismembered by the frenzied rabble and her remains were burned.

Christian leaders in Alexandria and elsewhere were shocked. Many wondered how a group who had endured such horrible persecutions could themselves turn around and subject others to the same kinds of atrocities. Empress Pulcheria immediately sent a special commissioner to investigate the feud between Cyril and Orestes.

There is no record, however, that anyone was ever punished for the murder of Hypatia. It was not common at all for a woman to fill the role of intellectual in the ancient world. Though women of the upper classes often were responsible for managing vast estates and there were quite a few powerful female rulers in antiquity, their role did not extend to academics and higher learning.

Hypatia lived almost two hundred years after the court of the Roman Empress Julia Domna played host to the brilliant literary and artistic personalities of the day. It would be almost six hundred years before Lady Murasaki and Anna Comnena wrote their detailed accounts of Heian Japan and Byzantine Constantinople. Unless research uncovers new information, the world would have to wait until the nineteenth century to see yet another famous woman mathematician, Lady Ada Lovelace, who programmed Charles Babbage's mechanical computer.

After the death of Hypatia there were very few mathematical developments in the Western world. For the next twelve hundred years, most mathematical progress would be made by the Arabs and the Chinese.

There are no likenesses of Hypatia in existence. The image displayed on the top of this page is an artists rendition of what a typical young Greek woman of the period might look like.

The middle of the Fifth Century was a time of great crisis for the dwindling remnant of the Western Roman Empire. What used to be the most powerful empire on Earth was just a small European state by A. D. 437, when Valentinian married Licinia Eudoxia, a distant relative. The Eastern Roman Empire was still a large and powerful one, ruling the lands from Illyricum (Modern day Serbia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina) to Mesopotamia and Egypt. The Western Empire claimed only Italy and a small part of Gaul (Modern France) by this time.

Licinia Eudoxia was the great granddaughter of Theodosius I, the last emperor to rule over both eastern and western halves of the Roman Empire. Valentinian was the grandson of Theodosius I. Marriage between distant relatives of the imperial family had by this time become commonplace.

After Valentinian III was murdered in 455, Petronius Maximus was elevated to the imperial throne. It was widely believed that he had had something to do with Valentinian's murder, but he was a very wealthy and powerful senator. He forced Valentinian's widow to marry him, and her daughter to marry his son. It is believed that she appealed to Gaiseric, the Vandal ruler of Africa for help. At any rate, that is the excuse Gaiseric offered for the foul deed he now set out to do.

Gaiseric turned his eyes toward the great wealth that remained in the city of Rome. Lacking an adequate army to protect herself, the Eternal City was a tempting target for a raiding warlord or pirate with only modest means. Gambling that Theodosius II in the East had had not the will nor the ability to defend the Western lands, Gaiseric launched his navy led largely by pirate captains and attacked Rome. The citizens of the city panicked when news reached them of the impending invasion. The people and their emperor Petronius Maximus fled. The cowardly emperor was killed by his own frightened and dismayed subjects while attempting to escape the doomed city. Gaiseric found little organized resistance and easily entered the city. He plundered the helpless city and its remaining inhabitants for two weeks, his often drunken troops burning, raping and pillaging at will.

Three of the most valuable prizes captured from the devastated city were Licinia Eudoxia and her two daughters. The eldest daughter, Eudocia (not the empress of the same name), was forced to marry Gaiseric's son Huneric. The three imperial ladies remained captives in Gaiseric's household until the Eastern emperor Leo was able to get Gaiseric to give the ladies up to him sometime in the 460's.

Licinia Eudoxia made her home in the Eastern capital of Constantinople after her release and the events of the rest of her life are lost to history. It is believed that she died sometime in 493.

Amalasuntha was the daughter of Theoderic, perhaps the most famous of the Ostrogothic kings in Italy. This was a strange period in the history of Europe. The official date for the fall of the Roman Empire in the West was A. D. 476, but from 493 until 526 Italy enjoyed the reign of an Ostrogothic king who ruled more like a Roman emperor. Theoderic was, in fact, on friendly terms with two of the three Eastern emperors who reigned in Constantinople during Theoderic’s reign in Italy. Theoderic had no sons, but he did have in Amalasuntha an intelligent and capable daughter who had received a good Roman education.

Amalasuntha had been married to Eutharic, an obscure Gothic nobleman. She gave birth to Athalaric in 518. Eutharic later died, leaving Amalasuntha a widow to raise their young son.

It was the custom amongst the Ostrogoths that a king should name someone to succeed him, subject to the approval of the Gothic nobility. During the final months of his life, Theoderic indicated that he wished Athalaric to succeed him as king and that Amalasuntha his mother should act as regent, managing the affairs of the kingdom while Athalaric was still a child.

It was over the education of the young prince that trouble began between Amalasuntha and the majority of the Gothic noblemen. Amalasuntha had appointed three learned and civilized Gothic tutors to ensure that Athalaric received a classical Roman education in law, rhetoric, and the humanities. The Goths placed a value on a man’s strength and ferocity in warfare. How could a son who feared the tutor’s whip grow up to face the sword and spear? Besides, Theoderic had been a good king and had not needed to know how to read. Soon, Amalasuntha discovered a plot by some of the noblemen to do away with her and she had the men executed. She did, however, relent and allow young Athalaric to have some rough young Gothic companions his own age with which to spend time. This did not work out, though. They succeeded not in instructing him in the arts of war but taught him to spend his time drinking and womanizing instead.

In 534, Athalaric died. Amalasuntha’s position was now critical. The Goths would not have a woman rule them in her own name; they had barely tolerated a woman as regent. She decided to offer the kingship to her cousin Theodahad if he would consent to sharing the ruling power with her.

It seems that Theodohad was nursing a grudge against her. Theodohad owned most of the land in the province of Tuscany. He had used extortion and strong-arm tactics to seize property belonging to his neighbors. The people of Tuscany had objected and petitioned Amalasuntha to do something and she made Theodohad give back some of the property he had extorted. Now that she had invited him to be king, it appeared that all was forgiven and they would rule together in harmony. Theodohad even wrote letters to the Senate praising her wisdom and promising to imitate her when he became king.

As soon as Theodohad became king, he did an incredibly stupid thing. He imprisoned Amalasuntha on an island in the middle of Lake Bolsena. What this ignorant and vengeful man did not know is that during the period when the Gothic nobles had threatened to depose her, Amalasuntha had secretly written to the Eastern emperor Justinian asking his protection if the discontented nobles had made a move against her.

Soon. Justinian got wind of the situation despite Theodohad’s clumsy attempt to conceal the facts. Justinian sent a fast messenger to Ravenna informing Theodohad that he would soon be there with an army if Amalasuntha was harmed.

These promises of aid to a lady in distress were to no avail. It was probably in April, 535 that Amalasuntha was murdered. The story that has come down to us is that she was strangled in her bath by relatives of the three traitors she has had executed. In spite of her great popularity and immaculate reputation amongst both Roman and Gothic subjects, Theodohad could not restrain himself from gratifying his hunger for revenge. The population of all Italy was shocked by this foul deed.

What Theodohad had bought for himself and Italy was a period of destructive war that lasted for most of the next fifteen years. Justinian did not need much of an excuse to invade Italy to reclaim the lost province and deal a death blow to the hated Aryan heresy at the same time. It was this intermittent warfare carried on first by Justinian’s general Belisarius, then later by Narses that finally finished off what was left of the ancient Roman Empire. Cities taken first by one side, then by the other, were burned and their buildings were thrown down. Atrocities were committed on the Italian population first by the gothic troops, then by the Byzantine. It was the beginning of a long period if oppression for the Italian people during which they were ruled by one petty ruler or city state after another. Nothing was to change for the peasantry for 1200 years except the name and nationality of their tormentors. It was a tragic state of affairs that was to last until the Italian liberator Garibaldi founded a new nation of Italy during the Nineteenth Century.

The coin at the top right hand corner of the page bears the monogram of the Gothic prince Athalaric. As far as we know, Amalasuntha did not strike any coins in her own name. She probably looked and dressed like most Sixth Century Roman noblewomen, when large, ornate earrings and wearing several strings of pearls both in the hair and about the neck was in fashion. The coin is a typical example of the tiny, crudely struck bronze coins of later Roman and Gothic kingdoms in the West. The coin is only about 12mm in diameter, and the image is an 8X magnification. Most of these coins are found in extremely worn or corroded condition and cannot be identified at all. This little coin is in extremely nice condition for a small bronze of a Western kingdom during this period.

One needs not be an historian to note that the very name "Messalina" has become synonymous with all the faults, vices and machinations of womankind. While it is true that many of the lusty and criminal infamies that are attributed to Claudius' Empress are evidently fables, not all are. Though Tacitus and Suetonius have made us think the worst at the mention of her name, she was more than a schemer and a senseless wanton. Surely, she was a captivating, capricious, unscrupulous wife who never minded using the weaknesses of her husband for gain. She came by her lust for power quite naturally it seems.

Her ancestry was every bit as illustrious as was her husbands. A direct relative of the Caesars, and a member of Caligula's Court as a young girl, by the time she married Claudius, he being 50+, she in her teens, she was a viper.

When her husband became emperor, she took more advantage of her husband's weaknesses. Early on, Claudius recalled from exile Agrippina and Julia Livilla, who had been banished by Caligula. Messalina found them a threat, as they were favorites of their emperor uncle. It was not long before the jealous empress found a way to have Julia Livilla exiled with Seneca, under the "Lex de Adulteriis". Agrippina, like her mother was rather virtuous, and was not easily maligned, even by Messalina. She managed to stay in Rome, but under the Empress' eye.

In a lust for wealth, Messalina began selling her influence to sovereign allies and the upper classes who wished imperial favors. She controlled the contractors of public works, and interfered with the financial affairs of the empire any time a way to make money for herself could be found. Though certainly a few of Claudius freedmen/administrators were loyal to him, namely Pallas and Narcissus, Messalina controlled the majority. She kept the Emperor Claudius hedged about with her minions, and in so doing, cut him off from much of the truth of her reign of terror.

Where Livia Augusta had, at least publicly, advocated traditional values of morality, decency, and family values, Messalina put forth the more Asiatic corruption and pomp she most likely learned at Caligulaís court. Livia, a puritanical proponent of Roman conservatism and patrician tradition was Messalina's opposite.

It was because the general populace did not scorn the traditions, and wished to see a virtuous woman at the side of the emperor, that Messalina became hated. Adored and supported by those who gained wealth and position due to her schemes, she was considered a dissipated Baccante by the man on the street. His opinion was that she should be condemned to exile with the many other unfaithful Roman wives. He considered her an affront to all things Roman. The middle classes considered the emperor a semi-sacred magistrate, and an example to be followed. Claudius became a scorned leader because if he didnít know of Messalinaís corruptionís, he was weak. If he did know he was worse than she, to the minds of patrician and lower class alike.

The situation gradually became grave and dangerous. The state was being weakened by the power struggles. The power and extortions of the freedmen were breeding discontent. Both by what she actually did, and the gossip. Messalina was made a monster in the minds of the people. But she seemed invulnerable, and could wield great power to her own wicked ends, and only the emperor himself, could stop her.

The people finally turned their anger upon poor Claudius, declaring his weakness was responsible for her conduct. For seven years Messalina remained the great weakness of the otherwise accomplished reign of her husband. The situation came to a head and ultimately resolved itself through Messalinaís growing lust for power...and a man.

Caius Silius, the consul-designate, and known as the handsomest man in Rome at the time, was Messalinaís love interest. Such was her passion for him, that she determined to marry him. According to historians, she wanted to shock the city with the sacrilege of a bigamous marriage played out publicly. It was done boldly with a large religious ceremony while Claudius was in Ostia.

Many question this reasoning. That she was cruel, dissolute and avaricious all agree, but mad, the lady was not. To do such a thing, she must have had a reason compelling enough to engage and employ the conspiratorial assistance of the many who aided her in this venture.

It is conjectured that by some feminine wile, Messalina convinced Claudius to divorce her for a short time. One explanation was that her astrologer predicted that her ìhusbandî would be harmed on a certain day, and he ìdivorcedî her, knowing she would take a temporary ìhusbandî to protect him from said harm. She then took the opportunity to repudiate him publicly with a religious ceremony.

But, the larger question is...why? After seven years of a free hand, would she risk it all? For love? Hardly.

One plausible theory is predicated upon the idea that Siliusí aristocratic family was well known to be devoted to the faction of Germanicus and Agrippina. And Messalinaís choice of husband had more to do with political survival than feminine emotion.

She must have long wondered what would become of her if a plot upon Claudiusí life succeeded. Surely the assassins would kill her as they had Caesonia after the murder of Caligula. There was no other member of the Imperial family of age enough to reign, no one to protect her even if she lived. Seeing Claudius as weak, she needed to consolidate her position. She chose her next husband from a powerful and popular family, hoping to win over the Praetorian Guard and the legions to her cause. Ingenious.

This plot, so well organized and opportune, even gave Claudiusí most loyal freedmen cause to vacillate. So powerful and secure was her plot, that she was able to secure the assistance of Roman society, the prefect of the guard and more to get the divorce, marry in public and feast with abandon.

Had it not been for Claudiusí loyal freedman Narcissus, the emperor might have lost the day, and his life.

Messalina was beheaded by the guard at the order of her husband, thus ending her seven year reign of terror.

Reference - Encyclopedia Britannica Online

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