Orbiana

Denarius of the Orbiana

Orbiana († after 227) was Roman empress from 225 to 227 . She was married to the Emperor Severus Alexander during this period . Her full name was Gnaea Seia Herennia Sallustia Barbia Orbiana . After her father lost a power struggle with the emperor's mother, the marriage was dissolved and Orbiana banished to Africa.

Origin and life

Orbiana's full name is recorded in writing. It did not have the additional name Orba , which is only attested on coins from Asia Minor ; it is evidently a mistake made by die cutters in Asia Minor.

All that is known about Orbiana's origins is that she came from a distinguished, presumably senatorial family, which, however, was apparently not politically influential. So far it has not been possible to assign her father Seius Sallustius to one of the known senatorial families. Presumably it was precisely the connection between distinguished origins and political insignificance that predestined Sallustius for the role of the emperor's father-in-law. Orbiana's name suggests a relationship to the senator Herennius Orbianus, who lived at the time of the emperor Antoninus Pius .

Orbiana's marriage to the seventeen-year-old Emperor Alexander was arranged by his mother, Julia Mamaea . At that time, Mamaea practically continued to exercise power despite her son's majority. Orbiana received the title Augusta .

The marriage entered into in 225 remained childless and did not last long, because a power struggle broke out between Mamaea and Sallustius, which Mamaea won. In 227 she forced her son's marriage to be dissolved. Sallustius tried to mobilize support from the Praetorian Guard, known to be unreliable , in order to eliminate Mamaea and, as father-in-law, to take control of the dependent emperor himself. The attempted coup failed, Sallustius was arrested and executed. Orbiana was exiled to Africa. This could indicate that it came from there. Nothing is known about their further fate.

After this failure, Mamaea did not dare to marry her son again. Apparently she thought the risk was too high. She preferred to accept that the succession to the throne remained unregulated.

iconography

A silver medallion shows Mamaea on one side and the imperial couple on the other. The emperor and his wife are depicted on coins minted on the occasion of the wedding. Orbiana is difficult to distinguish from Julia Mamaea on the coins. Whether criteria can be obtained according to which one can clearly assign round sculptural images to her is controversial in research. The archaeologist Max Wegner denies this question, other researchers are more optimistic. A statue of a ruler as Venus Felix in the Vatican has presumably been interpreted as a portrait of the Orbiana, but there are considerable doubts about this identification. The assumption that a head in the Louvre represents Orbiana is also doubtful .

reception

Antiquity

On some inscriptions, Orbiana's name was deleted after their marriage was dissolved.

The main source is the account of the contemporary historian Herodian . However, he does not name the names of Alexander's wife and father-in-law. His description is adorned with literature, and his interpretation is not shared by current research. He claims that the emperor loved his wife and did not want his marriage to be dissolved, but did not dare to contradict his mother. The conflict was due to Mamaea's outrageous arrogance. She behaved so presumptuously towards her daughter-in-law and her father out of jealousy that the provoked father-in-law of the emperor could no longer endure it and complained to the Praetorians. She then ordered his execution. She chased her daughter-in-law from the imperial palace and banished to Africa.

The late antique Historia Augusta , with reference to the Athenian historian Dexippos, presents the conflict differently. Its unknown author writes that Alexander's father-in-law intended to insidiously murder the emperor. After his overturning plan was exposed, he was executed and the marriage divorced. This version is certainly wrong. It was invented to cover up the passive and therefore inglorious role of the emperor idealized in this tradition. The claim that the source is Dexippus is also implausible.

Early modern age

Orbiana's fate was repeatedly set to music as an opera in the 18th century. The opera Alessandro Severo by Antonio Lotti , who designed the conflict between Mamaea and Orbiana dramatic, was premiered in 1716 or 1717th The libretto is by Apostolo Zeno . The first opera that Giovanni Battista Pergolesi wrote, La Salustia , also stages the power struggle between Mamaea and Orbiana. The world premiere took place in Venice in 1732. The libretto is a revision of Zeno's text. Here Salustia is the heroically loving heroine, Alessandro is the weak husband who submits to his domineering mother Giulia .

literature

• Robert Lee Cleve: Severus Alexander and the Severan Women . University of California, Los Angeles 1982, pp. 246-252 (dissertation)
• Matthäus Heil : Severus Alexander and Orbiana. An imperial marriage . In: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik , Vol. 135, 2001, pp. 233–248
• Matthäus Heil: Gnaea Seia Herennia Sallustia Barbia Orbiana Augusta . In: Prosopographia Imperii Romani , 2nd edition, part 7, fascicle 2, de Gruyter, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-11-019316-9 , pp. 32–33 (S 101)

Remarks

1. ↑ Matthäus Heil: Severus Alexander and Orbiana. An imperial marriage . In: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 135, 2001, pp. 233–248, here: 235–237.
2. ^ Robert Lee Cleve: Severus Alexander and the Severan Women , Los Angeles 1982, p. 248, pp. 282-283, note 243; Matthäus Heil: Severus Alexander and Orbiana. Eine Kaiserehehe , in: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 135, 2001, pp. 233–248, here: 245–246.
3. ↑ On Mamaea's presumed motivation, see Robert Lee Cleve: Severus Alexander and the Severan Women , Los Angeles 1982, pp. 246–248; Matthäus Heil: Severus Alexander and Orbiana. An imperial marriage , in: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 135, 2001, pp. 233–248, here: 246.
4. ↑ Matthäus Heil: Severus Alexander and Orbiana. Eine Kaiserehehe , in: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 135, 2001, pp. 233–248, here: 245–246.
5. ↑ Robert Lee Cleve: Severus Alexander and the Severan Women , Los Angeles 1982, pp. 251-252; Matthäus Heil: Severus Alexander and Orbiana. Eine Kaiserehehe , in: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 135, 2001, pp. 233–248, here: 234, 246–247.
6. ^ Robert Lee Cleve: Severus Alexander and the Severan Women , Los Angeles 1982, p. 252.
7. ↑ Max Wegner: Orbiana . In: Heinz Bernhard Wiggers , Max Wegner: Caracalla, Geta, Plautilla. Macrinus to Balbinus (= The Roman Emperor , Section 3 Volume 1), Berlin 1971, pp. 218–222, here: 218–219.
8. ^ Gustavo Traversari: Nuovo ritratto di Orbiana un tempo nella Collezione Philip Webb . In: Rivista di Archeologia 20, 1996, pp. 79-82; Bianca Maria Felletti Maj: Iconografia romana imperiale da Severo Alessandro a M. Aurelio Carino (222–285 d. C.) , Rome 1958, p. 104.
9. ↑ Musei Vaticani, Cortile Ottagono, Inv. 936. On the question of whether it is an Orbiana, see Max Wegner: Orbiana . In: Heinz Bernhard Wiggers, Max Wegner: Caracalla, Geta, Plautilla. Macrinus to Balbinus (= The Roman Emperor , Section 3 Volume 1), Berlin 1971, pp. 218–222, here: 221; Bianca Maria Felletti Maj: Iconografia romana imperiale da Severo Alessandro a M. Aurelio Carino (222–285 d. C.) , Rome 1958, p. 105.
10. ^ Paris, Louvre, inv. MA 1054. Max Wegner: Orbiana is skeptical about the identification of this head . In: Heinz Bernhard Wiggers, Max Wegner: Caracalla, Geta, Plautilla. Macrinus to Balbinus (= The Roman Emperor , Section 3 Volume 1), Berlin 1971, pp. 218–222, here: 220–221. Gustavo Traversari disagrees: Nuovo ritratto di Orbiana un tempo nella Collezione Philip Webb . In: Rivista di Archeologia 20, 1996, p. 79–82, here: 80 and Bianca Maria Felletti Maj: Iconografia romana imperiale da Severo Alessandro a M. Aurelio Carino (222–285 d. C.) , Rome 1958, p. 104; they assume it is Orbiana for sure.
11. ↑ Herodian 6: 1, 9-10.
12. ↑ Historia Augusta , Severus Alexander 49: 3-4. Cf. on the representation in the Historia Augusta Elisabeth Wallinger: The women in the Historia Augusta , Vienna 1990, pp. 110–113 and especially on their incredibility François Paschoud : L'Histoire Auguste et Dexippe . In: Giorgio Bonamente, Noël Duval (ed.): Historiae Augustae Colloquium Parisinum , Macerata 1991, pp. 217–269, here: 233–237.