Marcia Otacilia Severa
Marcia Otacilia Severa was the wife of the Roman emperor Philip Arabs .
Otacilia was probably the sister of a governor of Macedonia and both Moesia named Severianus . She married Philip when he was still an officer in the cavalry troops under Emperor Gordian III. was. In 237 their son Marcus Iulius Severus was born, who was raised to Caesar in 244 and Augustus (nominally equal co-emperor) in 247 ( Philip II ). Otacilia had a daughter named Severina, who may be identical to Ulpia Severina , the wife of the future Emperor Aurelian (270-275).
Immediately after Philip Arab's elevation to emperor in early 244, Otacilia received the title Augusta , which is attested for her in Rome from July 244. In the same year she was given the honorary title mater castrorum . From 245 at the latest, it also bore the honorary names mater senatus and mater patriae .
According to reports from late antique church writers, the Christian scholar Origen addressed letters to Philip Arabs and his wife (whom the church father Jerome confused with the emperor's mother). However, the legend that Philip was a Christian is completely unbelievable. For Otacilia, because of the religious references on their coins and medallions, a belief in Christianity is excluded.
At Verona in 249 Philip Arab suffered a decisive defeat against the troops of the future emperor Traianus Decius , in which he was killed. Then Philip II was murdered. Nothing is known about the fate of Otacilia; since she fell victim to the Damnatio memoriae like the whole family , it can be assumed that she was also killed in 249.
literature
- Brigitte Klein: Tranquillina, Otacilia, Etruscilla, Salonina: four empresses of the 3rd century AD . Dissertation, Saarbrücken 1998, pp. 69–141
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Otacilia Severa, Marcia |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Severa, Marcia Otacilia |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Wife of the Roman Emperor Philip Arab |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 3rd century |
| DATE OF DEATH | 3rd century |