Julia Mamaea

Roman empress, regent of the Roman Empire

• Born: Second century
• Birthplace: Emesa, Syria
• Died: March 10, 0235
• Place of death: Moguntiacum (now Mainz, Germany)

Julia Mamaea effectively ruled the Roman Empire throughout the reign of her son, Severus Alexander, cementing the power of the Severan Dynasty while achieving needed reforms.

Early Life

Born the younger daughter of Julia Maesa, Julia Avita Mamaea (JEWL-yuh ah-VEE-tuh MAH-mee-uh) married Gessius Marcianus. Julia Mamaea’s entire family on the maternal side was connected to the worship of the Syrian solar deity, Elagabal, for whom her grandfather was high priest at Emesa. Indeed, her nephew the emperor Elagabalus (named for the god) brought the cult to Rome formally. Though many of his efforts were undone after his death, the import of the cult, like Elagabalus’s magnificent buildings, was one of the key factors in Julia Mamaea’s early life.

For some time Julia Mamaea was overshadowed by her ambitious and gifted mother, the augusta (or empress) Julia Maesa, and her older sister, Julia Soaemias. As a niece of the empress Julia Domna, wife of Emperor Septimius Severus, she was prominent as a member of the Severan Dynasty. While her mother and sister conspired successfully to place her nephew Elagabalus on the throne, she carefully saw to the education of her son, Alexianus. Her constant care in this regard lasted the rest of her life; even as emperor, he enjoyed the best instruction as well as a maternal vigilance over his personal customs and pastimes. In fact, her life and career may be seen as largely devoted to his success as a good emperor, even if she herself virtually ruled.

Julia Mamaea’s prudence and dignity were said to contrast with the lax reputation of her elder sister, who, in the plot to raise Elagabalus to the throne, put forth the notion that he was an illegitimate child of the murdered Emperor Caracalla. Julia Mamaea was prepared, for her own son (originally named Marcus Julius Gessius Alexianus Bassianus) and the dynasty’s sake, to play along with the story that he, too, was a son of Caracalla.

Life’s Work

After the assassination of her sister Julia Soaemias (who had been raised to the rank of augusta) and that of her nephew Emperor Elagabalus in 222 c.e., Julia Mamaea’s son, known to history as Emperor Severus Alexander, was chosen ruler. He had already been formally adopted by his cousin as “caesar,” or heir-designate. Now, following the precedents of her mother, Julia Maesa, and sister Julia Soaemias, Julia Mamaea became augusta on the accession of her son. This rank, one primarily honorific, had come to denote something much more under the Severan Dynasty: a powerfully effective regency for the throne. Thus, Julia Mamaea enjoyed the important benefit of succeeding her older sister, while yet sharing the honor with Julia Maesa, who had survived the downfall of Julia Soaemias and Elagabalus.

Unlike Julia Soaemias, Julia Mamaea appears to have been a faithful wife to her husband. Also unlike Julia Soaemias, she protected her son from a lascivious lifestyle. These differences, no doubt, exacerbated the friction between Julia Mamaea and her sister, but details are lacking. One way in which Julia Mamaea followed her sister’s lead was in the free exercise of power behind her son’s throne. Again unlike Julia Soaemias, she remained a model for the young ruler throughout his reign. In addition, the mother’s earlier care for the son’s education continued in a broader way. Ulpian, the great contributor to the field of law, was made Alexander’s personal guardian, in addition to his promotion by the new augusta to the post of Praetorian Prefect. For his part, Ulpian advanced the theory that an augusta could receive prerogatives from the emperor.

To assist her son in governing the Empire, Julia Mamaea created a Council of Sixteen from among the senators. Though this body lacked decisive constitutional dimensions (its deliberations were not binding), she had created an efficient mechanism for her son on one hand, and on the other she had made an impressive showing of restoring the senate’s ancient prestige. Unfortunately, part of the equilibrium the augusta created was upset for a time because of the machinations of Epagathus, a wealthy freedman with a personal grudge against Ulpian. He succeeded in bribing some of the Praetorians to kill Ulpian—as it turned out, in the presence of both Julia Mamaea and Alexander. However, after ostensibly raising Epagathus to the governorship of Egypt, the augusta avenged Ulpian’s death when the culprit was executed onboard a ship bound for Crete.

Knowing that Dio Cassius, the historian and politician, was unpopular for his severity with the soldiers, Julia Mamaea was able to help raise him to the consulship but avoid trouble by having him reside at Rhegium for most of his term. Further courting good relations with the senatorial nobility, she arranged her son’s marriage to Barbia Orbilia. When this caused unwanted friction after Alexander promoted his father-in-law to the rank of caesar, Julia Mamaea first drove the younger augusta from the palace. Afterward, when her father, Orbilius, took refuge with the Praetorians, Alexander himself soon arrived at their camp accompanied by troops, and both father and daughter were arrested. Julia Mamaea soon had the caesar executed and the girl exiled.

Julia Mamaea’s frugal manner came to be expected likewise of the emperor; for example, he was said to have paid the costs of his various birds through selling their eggs and young fowl. However, her reputation came to be that of parsimony and greed. On at least one occasion she managed to confiscate a considerable inheritance. Practically speaking, such moves may well represent her shrewd efforts to disarm potential mutinies by depriving would-be conspirators of financial means.

The augusta’s reforms were effective. Apparently following an older precedent from the reign of Pertinax in the late second century, she saw to it that small landholders survived the pressures of the wealthy landlords who had the benefit of slave labor. Loans were available at very low interest rates in select circumstances. On one occasion she solved a meat shortage by an Imperial decree that prevented the slaughter of female animals. The keepers of the livestock soon restored the supply. In another move, one designed to win the favor of the nobility, she saw to it that customary spectacles were financed by the state. It had been the traditional burden of new office holders to pay for these. Further, the costs of establishing new governors in office was likewise assumed by the state: Transport and baggage animals, servants, clothing, silver services, and concubines were all now provided.

When the aggression of Ardashīr I , architect of the renewed Persian Empire, brought Alexander to war in the East, Julia Mamaea accompanied him. They first attempted energetically to negotiate with the Persians, but after enduring effrontery from a heavily armed Persian embassy, they entered the war in earnest. Unfortunately, the main column of the Roman force, hindered by camp disease and the heat, was slow, and Ardashīr achieved successes over other troops before the Imperial plan could be carried out. In spite of this significant setback, the Roman frontiers were, after all, soon restored, and mother and son returned to Rome. Following amphitheater games and the distribution of gifts, it was clear that the popularity of the reign was not diminished. Alexander established youth organizations named in Julia Mamaea’s honor, called the Mamaeani.

Unfortunately, the confusion that accompanied the troop movements in the East had brought crisis to the German frontier, so in response to the governors of that region, the emperor and his mother again left Rome for a military campaign abroad. Alexander was successful in crossing the Rhine River and impressing the Germans with a show of force and then in negotiating peace with a large payment. Ironically, these very successes were the immediate causes for the downfall of the dynasty. Now soldiers of the German frontier, motivated by jealousy of some of the eastern troops, as well as the idea that Julia Mamaea was generous with the enemy but not the Roman forces, brought about a mutiny. A personal grudge is also cited. The general Maximin had previously suggested the marriage of his son to Alexander’s sister Theoclia, and Julia Mamaea instead had arranged the girl’s marriage to a senator. Maximin led the rebellion, and on March 10, 235, his troops entered Alexander’s headquarters at Moguntiacum and killed both Julia Mamaea and her son.

Significance

After the downfall of her sister and nephew, Julia Mamaea, with her son, stepped forward to fill the place vacated by a coup, as natural heirs in a dynastic succession. However, her individual accomplishments were meritorious and deserving of respect apart from her role as one of “the four Julias.” If she lacked her mother’s political charisma, she worked diligently for the welfare of the state, even when it brought her difficulties and the occasional, severe setback, for example, the downfall of Ulpian. Her eventual demise, like that of her son, may be fairly attributed to the complexities of the military emergencies that arose swiftly, rather than any failure of capable and energetic leadership.

Julia Mamaea’s importance, on a grand scale, is simple. She ruled the Roman Empire, in effect, throughout the nominal reign of her young son. However, on closer scrutiny, she ruled vigorously and decisively. Her reforms were grounded in prior experience and practical necessity. She succeeded in gathering individuals of outstanding qualification for her son’s regime, men like Ulpian, the great jurist. Ironically, even Maximin, the general who eventually unseated her, had capably risen in the ranks during her administration, and the outcome may have been quite different had the Persian War gone according to plan. At the time of her death in 235, the Roman Empire was efficiently administered, thanks to her vigilance. Its treasury was not depleted, thanks to her frugality. In fact, the reign of her son and her own regency were models of governance for the Empire—and not only in hindsight provided by the subsequent period of anarchy.

In other arenas, too, she provided examples not often emulated. For example, in her pursuit of ecumenical religious knowledge, represented by her conference with the Christian Origen (at Antioch during the Persian War), her actions were suggestive of a tolerance that subsequent rulers were far from capable of advancing. Such tolerance, fostered already by the other Julias, was a portion of her dynasty’s legacy that did not long survive.

Bibliography

Brauer, George C., Jr. The Decadent Emperors: Power and Depravity in Third-Century Rome. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1995. Brauer chronicles in vivid detail the reigns of the series of young emperors who ruled from 193 to 244 c.e. The four Julias, including Mamaea, receive much attention here as powers behind the throne.

Dio Cassius. Roman History. Translated by Earnest Cary. 9 vols. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1961. Though this history survives intact only for earlier times, the Byzantine epitomist Xiphilinus fortunately preserved the material in his condensed form. This is valuable in that Dio Cassius was an eyewitness to many of the events.

Herodian. Historiae. Translated by C. R. Whittaker. 2 vols. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1969. In this history covering the period from the death of Marcus Aurelius to the year 238—all within the author’s lifetime—the facts may be less than trustworthy, yet Herodian’s own sources may have been better than is often suggested.

Turton, Godfrey. The Syrian Princesses: The Women Who Ruled Rome, A.D. 193-235. London: Cassell, 1974. Turton here focuses, unlike Brauer, on the women of the Severan Dynasty who determined much of the destiny of the Empire. Julia Mamaea receives the principal attention in the final two chapters. A bibliographical appendix includes useful discussion of primary sources and some relevant modern works.