Prisca (Diocletian's wife)

Prisca († probably 315) was the wife of the Roman emperor Diocletian and the mother of his daughter Valeria .

Nothing is known about Prisca's family background, little is known about her life. The ruling system of tetrarchy conceived by her husband Diocletian placed the fictional dynasty formed by the four emperors in the foreground, the real families of the rulers played a subordinate role in the representation. Therefore, unlike many former imperial wives of the imperial population, Prisca was not presented on coins and probably did not bear the honorary title Augusta .

The main source for Prisca is the work About the ways of death of persecutors (meaning persecutors of Christians like Diocletian) of their Christian contemporary Laktanz . According to Laktanz, Prisca and her daughter also had to obey the general commandment of sacrifice issued as part of the beginning of the 303 persecution of Christians . However, this does not necessarily mean that the two were Christians; possibly Diocletian only wanted to emphasize in this way that all inhabitants of the empire actually had to sacrifice to the old gods .

When Diocletian abdicated in 305 and retired to his retirement home in today's Split , Prisca probably lived with her daughter Valeria and her husband Galerius , Diocletian's successor as Augustus (Upper Emperor) of the East. After Galerius's death in 311, Prisca and Valeria were banished by his former Caesar (lower emperor) Maximinus Daia . Licinius , who had defeated Maximinus Daia in 313 and now controlled the east of the empire, finally had both women executed. It is unclear whether Diocletian lived to see the death of his wife and daughter.

In 2002, during excavations in the eastern part of the capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia , Salona , the basis for a statue consecration was found, which bears an honorary inscription, which is dedicated to Prisca. The short wording mentions her gentile name Aurelia and her title nobilissima femina. This is the first time that Prisca's existence has been proven outside of literary information. The title is that of persons just below the full-ranking emperors and empresses, the Augusti or Augustae.

literature

Manfred Clauss : The women of the Diocletian-Constantinian period . In: Hildegard Temporini-Countess Vitzthum (Hrsg.): Die Kaiserinnen Roms. From Livia to Theodora . CH Beck, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-406-49513-3 , p. 340-369, especially 341, 343 .
Alexander Demandt : The late antiquity. Roman history from Diocletian to Justinian 284-565 AD (= Handbook of Classical Studies . 3rd section, 6th part). 2nd Edition. CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-55993-8 , p. 58, 70, 87 .
Jasna Jelicic-Radonic: Diocletian and the Salona Urbs Orientalis . In: Nenad Cambi, Joško Belamarić, Tomislav Marasović (eds.): Dioklecijan, Tetrarhija i Dioklecijanova Palača. O 1700 Obljetnici Postojanja = Diocletian, Tetrarchy and Diocletian's Palace. On the 1700th Anniversary of Existence (= Biblioteka Knjiga mediterana . Volume 54 ). Književni Krug, Split 2009, ISBN 978-953-163-318-5 , p. 307–333 (English and Croatian; files from the Split Colloquium, September 18–22, 2005).
Arnold Hugh Martin Jones , John Robert Martindale, John Morris : Prisca 1. In: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE). Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1971, ISBN 0-521-07233-6 , p. 726.

Remarks

↑ See Arnold Hugh Martin Jones , John Robert Martindale, John Morris : Prisca 1. In: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE). Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1971, ISBN 0-521-07233-6 , p. 726.
↑ Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum 15.1 .
↑ See Alexander Demandt : Die Spätantike . 2nd Edition. Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-55993-8 , pp. 70 with note 120 .
^ Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum 39 .
^ Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum 51 .
↑ 311, 312, 313 and 316 are discussed in research as the years of Diocletian's death, cf. Alexander Demandt : The late antiquity . 2nd Edition. Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-55993-8 , pp. 73 with note 141 . Demandt himself assumes 316.
↑ "Aureliae Priscae nobilissimae feminae", cf. Jasna Jelicic-Radonic: Diocletian and the Salona Urbs Orientalis . In: Nenad Cambi et al. (Ed.): Dioklecijan, Tetrarhija i Dioklecijanova Palača . Split 2009, ISBN 978-953-163-318-5 , pp. 307-333, here: 311-315 .

personal data
SURNAME	Prisca
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Wife of the Roman emperor Diocletian
DATE OF BIRTH	3rd century
DATE OF DEATH	uncertain: 315

[1] See Arnold Hugh Martin Jones , John Robert Martindale, John Morris : Prisca 1. In: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE). Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1971, ISBN 0-521-07233-6 , p. 726.

[2] Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum 15.1 .

[3] See Alexander Demandt : Die Spätantike . 2nd Edition. Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-55993-8 , pp. 70 with note 120 .

[4] Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum 39 .

[5] Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum 51 .

[6] 311, 312, 313 and 316 are discussed in research as the years of Diocletian's death, cf. Alexander Demandt : The late antiquity . 2nd Edition. Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-55993-8 , pp. 73 with note 141 . Demandt himself assumes 316.

[7] "Aureliae Priscae nobilissimae feminae", cf. Jasna Jelicic-Radonic: Diocletian and the Salona Urbs Orientalis . In: Nenad Cambi et al. (Ed.): Dioklecijan, Tetrarhija i Dioklecijanova Palača . Split 2009, ISBN 978-953-163-318-5 , pp. 307-333, here: 311-315 .