Albia Domnica

Albia Domnica (also Albia Dominica ; * around 337, † after 378) was the wife of the Roman emperor Valens (364–378).

Life

Albia Domnica was the daughter of Patricius Petronius , who before 364 was praepositus of Martenses seniores , a unit of the eastern field army. The date of her wedding to Valens is unknown, but it must have taken place a few years before his emperor's ascension, since at the time of the revolt of Procopius (365-366) her two daughters Anastasia and Carosa were old enough to receive grammar lessons.

Albia Domnica, together with the Patriarch Eudoxius of Antioch , had a great influence on the emperor's pro-Arian policies. When her little son Galates fell seriously ill around 370 (or 372) in Caesarea , the empress is said to have recognized in dream visions a punishment from God for the bad treatment of the Trinitarian metropolitan Basilius by the emperor. The heir to the throne was baptized according to the Arian rite and died shortly afterwards.

After the death of her husband in the Battle of Adrianople on August 9, 378, Albia Domnica temporarily took over the reign in the east. She paid a hastily raised citizen militia from the imperial treasure kept in Adrianople , who managed to hold the city and thus prevent the Goths from advancing against Constantinople . The Western Emperor Gratian , since the death of Valens also nominally ruler of the Eastern Empire, appointed on 19 January 379 Theodosius as his successor. The time and circumstances of Domnica's death are unknown.

swell

• Ammianus Marcellinus 26, 6
• Chronicon Paschale , sub anno 364.
• Socrates Scholastikos , Historia ecclesiastica , 4.26 (English)

literature

• Hanns Christof Brennecke : Studies on the history of the Homöer (= contributions to historical theology . Vol. 73). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1988, ISBN 3-161-45246-1 , pp. 183-186.
• Arnold Hugh Martin Jones , John Robert Martindale, John Morris : Domnica. In: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE). Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1971, ISBN 0-521-07233-6 , p. 265.
• Noel Lenski : Failure of Empire. Valens and the Roman State in the Fourth Century AD University of California Press, Berkeley CA 2002, ISBN 0-520-23332-8 .
• Gerhard May : Basil the Great and the Roman State. In: Bernd Moeller , Gerhard Ruhbach (Hrsg.): Remaining in the change of church history. Church history studies. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1973, ISBN 3-161-35332-3 , pp. 47-70.
• Gregor Weber : Emperor, dreams and visions in principate and late antiquity (= Historia - single writings. Vol. 143). Steiner, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-515-07681-6 .

Web links

• Thomas M. Banchich: Short biography (English) at De Imperatoribus Romanis (with references).