Julia Soaemias

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Denarius of Julia Soaemias

Julia Soaemias Bassiana (also written Sohaemias , Greek Ἰουλία Σοαιμιάς; † March 11, 222 in Rome ) was the mother of the Roman emperor Elagabal . Born into an influential Syrian family closely linked to the local religious cult of the god Elagabal , she helped her son gain rule on behalf of the Severan family . During his four-year reign (218–222), Julia Soaemias played a key role because of his young age, but she was unable to fill it. When he made himself hateful for his oriental customs and arbitrary religious policy, she was drawn into his downfall and eventually murdered with him.

Origin, youth and marriage

Julia Soaemias came from a very rich and respected family in the Syrian city of Emesa (now Homs ) on her mother's side . In this family the office of high priest of the god Elagabal was hereditary, whose cult played a central role in the religious life of the Emesen people. Julius Bassianus, the grandfather of Julia Soaemias, held this office. Perhaps he was a descendant of the Arab dynasty who ruled the city in the 1st century before Emesa was incorporated into the Roman province of Syria . The name Soaemias is Arabic; his masculine form is Suhaim , Latinized Sohaemus . This was the name of the last Prince of Emesa known by name, Gaius Julius Sohaemus , who ruled at the time of the emperors Nero and Vespasian and who participated in the conquest and destruction of Jerusalem in 70. The meaning of the name is "little arrow"; there is possibly a connection with a Syrian-Mesopotamian deity, whose name is rendered in Greek with Semia or Semea .

Julius Bassianus had two daughters, Julia Domna and Julia Maesa . Julia Domna married the then governor of the province of Gallia Lugdunensis , Septimius Severus , in 187 . As a result, their clan gained world-historical importance, because Severus was promoted to emperor in the " second year of the four emperors" in 193. He founded the dynasty of the Severi . His sister-in-law Julia Maesa was married to the Syrian Gaius Julius Avitus Alexianus, who was admitted to the Senate under Severus and made a career. With him Maesa had two daughters; the older one was Julia Soaemias, the younger Julia Mamaea . Thus the Empress Julia Domna was the aunt of the Julia Soaemias.

Julia Soaemias married the Syrian Sextus Varius Marcellus, who came from Apamea on the Orontes . At the time of Emperor Septimius Severus (193-211) and his son and successor Caracalla (211-217), who was Soaemias' cousin, she lived for a long time - possibly permanently - in Rome. With her father's admission to the Senate, she had also received senatorial rank. Her husband originally belonged to the knighthood and was a reliable supporter of Caracalla. The latter appreciated his services; he raised him to the rank of senator and finally made him governor of the province of Numidia in North Africa. In the year 217 Sextus Varius Marcellus died. Julia Soemias had at least two children with him - as can be seen from his sarcophagus inscription - only one of whom is known by name, Varius Avitus Bassianus (Emperor Elagabal), born in 204. At least one other child, probably a daughter, must have been alive in 217. Julia Mamaea, the younger sister of Julia Soaemias, was also married to a Syrian. She had a son named Bassianus Alexianus, who later succeeded Elagabal as Emperor Severus Alexander .

 
 
 
 
 
 
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Bassianus
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Julius
Avitus
Alexianus
 
 Julia
Maesa
 
 Julia
Domna
 
 Septimius Severus
193-211
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Julia
Soaemias
 
 Julia
Mamaea
 
 Geta
211
 
 Caracalla
211-217
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Elagabal
218-222
 
 Severus Alexander
222-235
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Forced residence in Syria

On April 8, 217, Emperor Caracalla was murdered. With him, the descendants of Septimius Severus and Julia Domna died out. The army was devoted to the Severan dynasty, but since Caracalla had left no heir, the soldiers raised the Praetorian prefect Macrinus , who had no family ties to the Severians, as the new emperor. The Severian dynasty seemed to have come to an end in the second generation. Julia Domna took her own life. Julia Maesa had to withdraw to her Syrian homeland on the orders of the suspicious Emperor Macrinus. Her two daughters joined her. So Julia Soaemias came with her thirteen-year-old son, the future emperor Elagabal, from Rome to her hometown Emesa. There Elagabal took over the high priesthood, which was due to him, despite his youthful age, since he was the oldest surviving male descendant of Julius Bassianus.

For the Syrian clan, this development meant the loss of all of their influence at the imperial level. The ambitious Julia Maesa did not accept that. Although she was not related by blood to the founder of the dynasty, Septimius Severus, but only by marriage, she made the plan to raise a claim to power in the name of the Severer family. With reference to the Severan tradition and dynastic notions of legitimacy, she wanted to give her descendants the imperial dignity. Elagabal, the older of her two grandchildren, was primarily considered for this.

Elagabal
Capitoline Museums , Rome

Soon Maesa's circle began to agitate against Macrinus. Elagabal was issued as the illegitimate son of Caracallas, which made him appear as a legitimate contender for imperial dignity. Caracalla had been very popular with the soldiers, but Macrinus was not valued because of his unmilitary nature and austerity. Therefore, the agitators succeeded in convincing a legion stationed near Emesa, the Legio III Gallica , to rebellion. A central role played a certain Gannys, who was in a marriage-like relationship with the recently widowed Julia Soaemias. Gannys, whose origins are unknown, grew up in Julia Maesa's house and took on the upbringing of Elagabal after his father died. According to the presentation of the contemporary historian Cassius Dio , who also called Gannys "Eutychianos", Gannys gave the signal for the uprising on his own initiative by taking Elagabal to the legionary camp without informing Maesa and Soaemias. Herodian , who was also a contemporary, offers a different description ; According to his report, Maesa was always in control.

On May 16, 218, Elagabal was proclaimed emperor by the soldiers. Although Macrinus was in Syria with his troops, he could not prevent the rapid spread of the rebellion. On June 8, 218, a decisive battle broke out near Antioch . Gannys commanded Elagabal's army, although he had no military experience; Julia Maesa and Julia Soaemias were present on the battlefield. Cassius Dio reports that Macrinus's troops initially had the upper hand, but Julia Maesa and Julia Soaemias were able to persuade the already fleeing soldiers of Elagabal to hold out and thus enable victory. Since both armies lacked competent leadership, the battle was chaotic. Therefore, Cassius Dio's account that the intervention of the two women was crucial is entirely credible. Macrinus tried to escape but was captured and killed.

Life in Rome as Augusta and Fall

According to Cassius Dios, it was planned that Gannys would marry Julia Soaemias and receive the title Caesar . However, this project failed on the journey of the imperial family from Syria to Rome. Elagabal killed Gannys in Nicomedeia , probably because he saw him as an undesirable guardian. This process reveals the powerlessness of Julia Soaemias towards their teenage son. In the summer of 219 the new ruler arrived in Rome.

The young emperor was far more interested in religion than in politics and administration. Julia Maesa took care of government affairs; she carried the title Augusta , which Julia Soaemias also received. Elagabal made himself increasingly hated. The Romans' disgust for his oriental customs made the continuation of his rule appear doubtful; a violent overthrow was to be expected. In view of the looming catastrophe, Julia Maesa and her younger daughter Julia Mamaea began to build up their young son Severus Alexander as the future successor of Elagabal in order to ensure the continued existence of the dynasty. This had to appear to them to be essential for survival, because in the event of a successful uprising in the capital it was to be feared that the new ruler would not let any relatives of his predecessor live.

Elagabal initially found himself ready to adopt his cousin Alexander and thus designate him as his future successor. But he soon realized that this was the beginning of his disempowerment and responded with assassinations against his cousin. This led to a struggle for existence between the two rivals and their mothers. Julia Soaemias and her son were isolated and therefore had no chance. They were murdered on March 11, 222 by mutinous soldiers. Their bodies were beheaded, stripped and dragged through Rome. According to Cassius Dios, the body of Julia Soaemias was left lying in an unknown place, according to Herodian's report it was thrown into the sewers that flowed into the Tiber . This was the only case of such public desecration of the corpse of a woman belonging to the imperial family in all of Roman history; in other cases female corpses were at most beheaded, but otherwise left intact.

iconography

The appearance of Julia Soaemias can only be deduced from their coinage, which, however, offer a mixed picture. Therefore, all attempts to assign certain plastic representations to it are speculative.

reception

Julia Soaemias. Illumination in a manuscript by Boccaccios De claris mulieribus in French translation, 15./16. century

After Elagabal's fall, Julia Soaemias also fell into the damnatio memoriae (erasure of memory) with him . Your name was therefore deleted from inscriptions.

In the historical works of the contemporaries Cassius Dio and Herodian, there are only incidental mentions of Julia Soaemias. Cassius Dio's account is considered the best source. More detailed, but hardly credible information is provided by the late antique Historia Augusta . She is the only source that describes Julia as a prostitute, accuses her - without further details - of "all" outrageous acts and ascribes a significant influence on her son to her. Among other things, the Historia Augusta reports on a women's senate that met at the Quirinal under Julia's chairmanship and dealt with questions of the hierarchy of distinguished women. This is the popular literary motif of the grotesque and ridiculous "upside-down world", here specifically related to the female rule, which the author deeply disapproved of. Julia's alleged sexual relationship with Caracalla was considered a fact by some late ancient historians.

When the early humanists came across this lore, it became common to refer to Julia as a whore, which was consistent with popular Elagabal clichés. This assessment was already offered by Benvenuto da Imola and Giovanni Boccaccio in the 14th century , who devoted a separate chapter to Julia in his work De claris mulieribus . There he described her as a shameless, unrestrained prostitute who came from the brothel to the imperial palace and was the only woman accepted into the Senate.

The image shaped by the Historia Augusta remained predominant until the 20th century and also left strong traces in specialist literature. In older research, Julia's role was placed in the context of a serious and fateful orientalization which, according to the historians of the time, began on a massive scale with Elagabal's takeover. From the more sober perspective of today's historians, however, a different picture emerges. The Syrian women of the Severer dynasty are no longer considered driving forces and symbols of orientalization, and it is taken into account that Julia's contemporaries did not have anything concrete to say against them, even if they detested Elagabal and were determined opponents of women's rule. From today's perspective, Julia Soaemias appears to be a rather apolitical person in contrast to her skilfully acting mother. The alleged sexual instability is to be classified as gossip, the starting point of which was the descent of her son from Caracalla, invented for political reasons. She was apparently overwhelmed by her very difficult and dangerous task as the mother of a youthful ruler who was resistant to advice.

literature

Web links

Commons : Iulia Soaemias  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ On Sohaemus, see Richard D. Sullivan: The Dynasty of Emesa . In: Rise and Decline of the Roman World , Vol. II 8, Berlin 1977, pp. 198–219, here: 216–219.
  2. ↑ Carlos Chad: Les dynastes d'Émèse , Beirut 1972, pp. 141-143; Martin Frey: Studies on religion and the religious policy of the emperor Elagabal , Stuttgart 1989, pp. 59–60. See Martijn Icks: The crimes of Elagabalus . London 2011, p. 53.
  3. ↑ See also Helmut Halfmann: Two Syrian relatives of the Severan imperial family . In: Chiron 12, 1982, pp. 217-235, here: 217-225.
  4. ↑ For this marriage see Marie-Thérèse Raepsaet-Charlier: A propos de Julia Soaemias, Aelia Gemellina et Vedia Phaedrina . In: Revue internationale des droits de l'antiquité , 3rd series, vol. 30, 1983, pp. 185–192, here: pp. 186f. and note 9–11.
  5. ↑ Leonardo de Arrizabalaga y Prado: The Emperor Elagabalus: Fact or Fiction? , Cambridge 2010, pp. 196f., 217-219, 221f.
  6. ↑ See also Helmut Halfmann: Two Syrian relatives of the Severan imperial family . In: Chiron 12, 1982, pp. 217-235, here: 226-234; Robert L. Cleve: Some Male Relatives of the Severan Women . In: Historia 37, 1988, pp. 196-206, here: 200-202; Leonardo de Arrizabalaga y Prado: The Emperor Elagabalus: Fact or Fiction? , Cambridge 2010, pp. 191-198, 217-219.
  7. ↑ Helmut Halfmann: Two Syrian relatives of the Severan imperial family . In: Chiron 12, 1982, pp. 217-235, here: 226.
  8. ↑ Herodian 5: 3, 2–3.
  9. ↑ Herodian 5: 3, 3–6.
  10. ↑ Cassius Dio 79 (78), 31.3; 79 (78), 32.2-4; 79 (78), 33.2; Herodian 5,3,10f. When specifying some of the books of Cassius Dio's historical work, different counts are used; a different book count is given here and below in brackets.
  11. ↑ Cassius Dio 80 (79), 6.2.
  12. ↑ Cassius Dio 80 (79), 6: 1-2.
  13. ↑ Cassius Dio 79 (78), 31.
  14. ↑ Herodian 5: 3, 9-12.
  15. ↑ Cassius Dio 79 (78), 38.4.
  16. ↑ Cassius Dio 80 (79), 6.3.
  17. ↑ Cassius Dio 80 (79), 6. See Bruno Bleckmann: The Severan Family and the Soldier Emperors . In: Hildegard Temporini-Gräfin Vitzthum (ed.): Die Kaiserinnen Roms , Munich 2002, pp. 265–339, here: 288.
  18. ↑ On the Augusta title of Julia Soaemias see Erich Kettenhofen: Die syrischen Augustae in der historical tradition , Bonn 1979, p. 151f.
  19. ↑ Cassius Dio 80 (79), 20.2; Herodian 5,8,8f.
  20. ↑ Eric R. Varner: Mutilation and Transformation. Damnatio Memoriae and Roman Imperial Portraiture , Leiden 2004, p. 195.
  21. ↑ Max Wegner : Iulia Soaemias . In: Heinz Bernhard Wiggers , Max Wegner: Caracalla, Geta, Plautilla. Macrinus to Balbinus (= Max Wegner (Ed.): The Roman Emperor Image , Section 3 Volume 1), Berlin 1971, pp. 161–166, here: 162f .; Eric R. Varner: Mutilation and Transformation. Damnatio Memoriae and Roman Imperial Portraiture , Leiden 2004, p. 195 and note 339.
  22. ↑ Erich Kettenhofen: The Syrian Augustae in the historical tradition , Bonn 1979, p. 151; Eric R. Varner: Mutilation and Transformation. Damnatio Memoriae and Roman Imperial Portraiture , Leiden 2004, p. 195.
  23. ↑ Historia Augusta , Vita Heliogabali 2.1–2 and 18.2.
  24. ↑ Historia Augusta , Vita Heliogabali 4,3f.
  25. ↑ Bruno Bleckmann: The Severan family and the soldier emperors . In: Hildegard Temporini-Gräfin Vitzthum (ed.): Die Kaiserinnen Roms , Munich 2002, pp. 265–339, here: 285–287; Erich Kettenhofen: The Syrian Augustae in the historical tradition , Bonn 1979, p. 68f .; Elisabeth Wallinger: The women in the Historia Augusta , Vienna 1990, pp. 97-105.
  26. ↑ Historia Augusta , Vita Heliogabali 2.1 (cf. Vita Caracallae 9.2); Epitome de Caesaribus 23.1; Aurelius Victor 23.1.
  27. ↑ Benvenuto da Imola: Liber Augustalis . In: Francisci Petrarchae (...) opera quae extant omnia , Volume 1, Basel 1554, pp. 575-590, here: 578: Heliogabalus (...) ex Semirama vulgatissima meretrice .
  28. ^ Giovanni Boccaccio: De claris mulieribus 99.
  29. ↑ Erich Kettenhofen: The Syrian Augustae in the historical tradition , Bonn 1979, p. 63f., 173-176; Martin Frey: Studies on religion and the religious policy of the emperor Elagabal , Stuttgart 1989, p. 23f.
  30. ^ Robert Lee Cleve: Severus Alexander and the Severan Women , Los Angeles 1982, pp. 54, 106, 128.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on December 16, 2012 .
personal data
SURNAME Julia Soaemias
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Julia Soaemias Bassiana; Julia Sohaemias
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mother of the Roman Emperor Elagabal
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd century
DATE OF DEATH March 11, 222
Place of death Rome