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Julia Maesa – Grandmother of Roman Emperors Elagbalus &
Severus Alexander –
Silver Denarius 20mm (2.18 grams) Struck at the mint of Rome 218-222 A.D.
Reference: RIC 268 (Elagabalus), BMC 76 (Elagabalus), S 7756, C 36
IVLIA MAESA AVG – Draped bust right.
PVDICITIA – Pudicitia seated left, pulling veil and holding scepter.
PVDICITIA AVGustæ – This form of legend by which the attributes of deified
modesty are more closely identified with the person of the Empress than they are
in previously cited instances, appears with the usual type of a veiled woman, on
coins of Roman empresses.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured,
provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of
Authenticity.
Pudicitia (“modesty” or “sexual virtue”) was a central concept in
ancient Roman sexual ethics
. The word is
derived from the more general pudor, the sense of shame that regulated an
individual’s behavior as socially acceptable. Pudicitia was most often a
defining characteristic of women, but men who failed to conform to
masculine sexual norms
were said to exhibit
feminizing impudicitia, sexual shamelessness. The virtue was
personified
by the
Roman goddess
Pudicitia, whose
Greek equivalent
was
Aidôs
.
As virtue
Romans, both men and women, were expected to uphold the virtue of
pudicitia, a complex ideal that was explored by many ancient writers,
including Livy
,
Valerius Maximus
,
Cicero
and
Tacitus
. Livy describes the legendary figure of
Lucretia
as the epitome of pudicitia.
She is loyal to her husband and is modest, despite her incredible beauty. The
story of Lucretia shows that the more virtuous a woman was, the more appealing
she was to potential adulterers.
Pudicitia was not only a mental attribute but also physical; a
person’s appearance was seen as an indicator of their morality. The way a man or
woman presented him or herself in public, and the persons they interacted with
caused others to pass judgment on their pudicitia. For example, if a
woman was seen associating with men other than her husband people would make a
negative judgment on her pudicitia. Romans idealized the woman who was
univira, a “one-man” woman, married once, even though by the time of Cicero
and Julius Caesar
,
divorce
was common, the subject of gossip
rather than social stigma.[1]
Modest self-presentation indicated pudicitia. The opposite of
pudicitia was impudicitia, “shamelessness” or “sexual vice.” An
assault on pudicitia was
stuprum
, sexual misconduct or “sex crime.”
Romans associated the loss of pudicitia with chaos and loss of
control. In Cicero’s
oration against Verres
, he discusses many of
the governor’s transgressions including sexual misconduct with both men and
women. In the Imperial age,
Augustus
enacted a program of moral legislation
to encourage pudicitia.
The goddess
According to Livy
, there were two temples of Pudicitia in
Rome. The original one was for women of the
patrician
class only, but when
Verginia
was excluded on account of marrying a
plebeian
consul
, she and a group of plebeian matrons
founded an altar of Pudicitia for women of the
plebeian
class as well. Livy states that the
plebeian shrine of Pudicitia eventually fell into disuse after its sacred
character had been abused.
Julia Maesa (7
May ca. 165
AD
–ca.
3 August
224) was a
Roman
citizen
and daughter of
Julius Bassianus
, priest of the sun god
Heliogabalus
, the patron god of Emesa (modern
Homs
) in the
Roman province
of
Syria
. Grandmother of both the
Roman emperors
Elagabalus
and
Alexander Severus
, she figured prominently in the ascension of each to the
title at the age of fourteen.
Like her younger sister
Julia
Domna
, she was among the most important women to exercise power behind the
throne in the
Roman empire
.
Julia Maesa was married to Syrian noble
Julius Avitus
and had two daughters
Julia Soaemias
and
Julia Avita Mamaea
each one mother of an emperor. Following the accession to
the throne of her brother in law
Septimius Severus
, Julia Maesa moved to Rome to live with her sister. After
the murder of her nephew, the emperor
Caracalla
,
and the suicide of Julia Domna, she was compelled to return to Syria. But the
new emperor Macrinus
did not proscribe her and allowed her to keep her money.
Once back in Syria and possessed of ample funds, Maesa
engaged in a plot to overthrow Macrinus and place one of her grandsons,
Elagabalus
son of Julia Soaemias, in his place. In order to legitimise this pretension,
mother and daughter fomented the rumor that the 14 year old boy was Caracalla’s
illegitimate son. The two Julias were successful, mainly due to the fact that
Macrinus was of an obscure origin without the proper political connections, and
Elagabalus became emperor.
For her loyalty and support, Elagabalus honored Julia Maesa
with the title Augusta avia Augusti (Augusta, grandmother of
Augustus). When the teenager proved to be a disaster as emperor scorning Roman
values with both religious and sexual scandals (even taking the liberty of
marrying a
Vestal virgin
among a rumored five wives during his brief four years reign),
Julia Maesa decided to promote instead her fourteen year-old grandson
Alexander Severus
.
She convinced Elagabalus to adopt Alexander as his heir and
he was murdered shortly afterwards by the
praetorian guard
alongside his mother, both being thrown into the
Tiber river
in contempt after being dragged from the palace and through the
streets, when a rumor circulated that Alexander had died.
Julia Maesa died in an uncertain date around 226 and like her
sister Domna before her, was deified.
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