Julia Domna

See also: Julia

Julia Domna (v. 170 - 217), girl of the Syrian Julius Bassianus, notable of Émèse (Homs), was the second wife of Septime Sévère, and the mother of Caracalla and Geta.

Born towards 170, Julia Domna came from a noble family of the city of Émèse (Homs) in Syria. His/her father, Roman citizen, named Julius Bassianus. It had an older sister, Julia Maesa.

She married in 187 Septime Sévère, a senator of Libyan origin, then governor de Gaulle Lyonnaise and widower recently. It is not known if she knew her husband-to-be: Septime Sévère had undoubtedly already exerted a military command in Syria, but the Histoire Auguste claims that it would have chosen his wife according to her horoscope, that of Julia Domna predicting that she would marry a king.

In Lyon, it gave the day in a son, Bassianus (the future Caracalla), in 188, then in 189 with a second wire, Geta.

In 193, her husband Septime Sévère seized the power at the conclusion of a civil war. Julia Domna became Augusta. In 195 she was proclaimed MATER castrorum (“Mother of the camps”) like the late empress Faustine the Young person, wife of Marc-Aurèle and mother of Commode. She always accompanied her husband in her military campaigns in Asia Mineure, then in Syria, then, after a return to Rome, in Mésopotamie and Egypt.

Of return to Rome it was marginalized by its large rival Plautien, the best friend of Septime Sévère, named prefect of the court then anobli and made consul. In 202 the influence of Plautien was such as it made marry his/her daughter Plautille with Caracalla. To eliminate Julia Domna, Plautien showed it of adultery, but Septime Sévère did not want to pay attention to it. Using of its ascending on her son Caracalla, she persuaded it to assassinate Plautien and to repudiate Plautille, which was made.

After the elimination of Plautien, Julia Domna took a dominating place in the imperial family. She could place her friends of Syrian origin at the key positions.

When Septime Sévère died in 211, it was found with the capacity with its two sons Caracalla and Geta, Augustes one and the other, but which were hated and sought to be eliminated mutually. She was opposed to a division empire between them, but could not prevent the assassination of Geta by his/her brother in 212.

From this date, the empire was controlled by the couple Julia Domna and its son Caracalla. As it had done with Septime Sévère, Julia Domna accompanied his/her son in all his forwardings, into Germanic, in Asia, in Egypt and Syria. This couple mother-wire made jaser, the chansonniers of Alexandria represented it in Jocaste (the mother-wife of Oedipus).

When Caracalla was assassinated close to Carrhes (Harran, Turkey) in 217, the capacity was allocated to the prefect of the court Macrin (an African, old friendly of Plautien). Julia Domna tried to raise with Antioche the Praetorian guard, without success. Macrin let it be withdrawn with Émèse by preserving its fortune. She died very quickly, of a cancer which corroded it since one moment, or at the conclusion of an hunger strike.

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