Julia Soaemias

Roman empress

• Born: c. 180
• Birthplace: Apamea, Syria
• Died: 222
• Place of death: Rome (now in Italy)

Julia Soaemias exercised political influence within the Roman Imperial family of the Severans through manipulation of familial, religious, and governmental resources at a time when women were officially excluded from political power.

Early Life

Knowledge of the life of Julia Soaemias (JEWL-yuh soh-I-mih-uhs) derives principally from three literary sources. First is the Roman history of Dio Cassius, which was written in Greek in the third century c.e. Dio was a political insider whose work was a comprehensive Roman history that is only partially preserved. Fortunately, many details of the Severan Dynasty under which Dio had pursued his own political career are preserved. The second main literary source is the Roman history from the time of Marcus Aurelius written (also in Greek) by Dio’s slightly younger contemporary, Herodian of Syria. Finally, the Historia Augusta (c. 325 c.e.; The Scriptores Historiae Augustae, 1921-1932) is a Latin work of unknown authorship that dates from the late third or early fourth century c.e. and that relies on numerous other sources that are now lost. Although generally considered the least reliable of the three literary sources for information about the Severan Dynasty, the Historia Augusta can, nevertheless, supply some verifiable, or at least potentially correct, information. In addition, a wealth of information has emerged from the careful study of inscriptions and coins. Still, one must note that there is often substantial disagreement among these sources regarding the details of events. Nevertheless, the general outline of the role played by Soaemias under the Severans can be sketched with some certainty.

Julia Soaemias was born into an influential Syrian family whose members were the wives and mothers of the “Severan” Roman emperors, who (with the exception of Macrinus, 217 c.e.-218 c.e.) held the chief position in the Roman government from the accession of Septimius Severus (193 c.e.) until the death of Severus Alexander (235 c.e.).

A brief account of the genealogy of Julia Soaemias must precede any discussion of her character and activities because she grew up amid an extraordinary group of women and could not help but be influenced by the pervasive character of her family. Julia Soaemias’s aunt was Julia Domna, the second wife of the emperor Septimius Severus. Her grandfather, Julius Bassianus, served as high priest of the cult of Baal in the city of Emesa (now Homs) on the Orontes River in the Roman province of Syria Phoenice. Although Emesa had become a part of Roman Syria under Domitian (r. 81 c.e. -96 c.e.), the cult of Elagabal, along with its famous temple, was independently administered by priest-kings who passed down control of the cult within their family. Because the cult attracted many worshipers and lavish gifts, Soaemias’s family had available political and monetary resources from this association. Further, the women in Soaemias’s family were well-educated and ambitious; they wielded broad influence throughout the years that the Severan emperors ruled. As the wife of the emperor, Julia Domna advised Septimius Severus, especially in matters of religion, and developed a reputation as an intellectual among the Roman aristocracy.

Along with her sister, Soaemias’s mother, Julia Maesa, cultivated close ties with the Imperial court and was mindful of the future of her two daughters, Soaemias (the elder) and Mamaea. Soaemias was born in Apamea in 180 to Maesa and Julius Avitus, a man of consular rank. In 193 Maesa moved to the Imperial court at Rome with her sister. Soaemias married Varius Marcellus, an influential proconsular official of equestrian rank who served in various positions under Septimius Severus and Caracalla.

Although she spent most of her young life in Syria, Soaemias traveled to Rome at least once and probably participated in the Secular Games there among the wives of influential equestrians. In 204, at the age of twenty-four, she gave birth to a son whom she named Avitus. His full name was Varius Avitus Bassianus, but he is best known as Elagabalus, after the god whom he served as a priest. When Septimius Severus was succeeded in 211 by his son (with Julia Domna) Caracalla, Julia Domna, who had shared many official duties with her husband during his life, began to exercise greater power within the government. Soaemias’s mother, Maesa, was also making contacts within the Imperial household and acquiring greater personal wealth. The influence of her mother and aunt must have had considerable effect on the shaping of Soaemias’s character because the Severan women worked closely together to guarantee their family’s prestige in the Imperial government and were, no doubt, in constant communication.

It is not known if Soaemias actually lived at Rome with her mother during the reigns of Severus and Caracalla, as some have conjectured, but she may have visited frequently. There is evidence of her being at Rome near 204, the year that her son, Elagabalus, was born. It is reasonable to suppose, however, that she spent much of her time at Emesa soon after that; Elagabalus was highly trained in the priestly duties at an early age.

Despite the closeness of the family, however, any plans on which Maesa and Domna may have entered to establish an Imperial dynasty at Rome were interrupted in 217 when a Praetorian Prefect and sometime lawyer named Macrinus conspired with the army to assassinate Caracalla and to become emperor. He saw those plans to fruition. Shortly after hearing of Caracalla’s death, Domna died also, perhaps by her own hand; the sources are unclear. Following the coup, Macrinus ordered Maesa to return to Syria. However, he allowed her to do so in full possession of her property, which she had much augmented during her years in the capital. When Soaemias’s mother returned to Emesa, she was equipped with wealth, contacts, and knowledge about the machinations of Imperial government. These tools would not go to waste; Maesa now turned her attention to her daughters, Soaemias and Mamaea, and to her Imperial aspirations for the family.

Life’s Work

At the time Maesa returned to Emesa from Rome, her husband, Julius Avitus, had died of old age. Soaemias’s husband was also dead (in 217 c.e., or shortly before that), and her son, Elagabalus, was thirteen years old. Both Soaemias and Elagabalus had caught the attention of soldiers from a Roman legion, the Legio III Gallica, which was stationed not far from Emesa. Elagabalus had been consecrated as a priest to the sun god El-Gabal, or Elagabal, as his hereditary obligation. Mamaea’s son, Alexianus (six years younger than Avitus) was also so dedicated. Elagabalus, however, was most zealous in the performance of his duties, dancing and performing rites for the god. A handsome young man known for his especially fervent performances at cult observances, Elagabalus was much admired by the soldiers from the legion who made frequent trips to the temple at Emesa. Further, Soaemias had entered into a relationship with a man of local influence whose name was Gannys, with whom she may have even lived as though he were her husband.

Maesa and Soaemias could not mistake the opportunity that these circumstances afforded them. Pointing to the uncanny resemblance of Elagabalus to Caracalla, they spread the story that the handsome youth was, in fact, the son of the late emperor. Whether or not this story is true, it is, at very least plausible; Soaemias had likely been in Rome at the Secular Games near the date of Avitus’s birth (c. 204 c.e.). Soaemias’s relationship with the influential Gannys gave the family hope that the soldiers, who had become increasingly disillusioned with the treatment that they were receiving under Macrinus, could be swayed to proclaim Elagabalus emperor.

On the evening of May 15, 218 c.e., Soaemias, Elagabalus, Mamaea, Alexianus, and Maesa came secretly onto the military base of Legio III Gallica. Dio reports that only Avitus was brought into the camp, but both the Historia Augusta and Herodian agree that the entire family came immediately into the company, and under the protection of, the army. The legion proclaimed Elagabalus the new emperor under the title Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Pius Felix Augustus. On receipt of this news, the Roman senate understood that the threat was not one posed by a single usurper but rather one orchestrated by Soaemias, Mamaea, and Maesa. As a result, the senate declared war not only against Avitus but also against Soaemias, Mamaea, Maesa and the youthful Alexianus.

The Legio III Gallica was joined by Legio II Parthica after its defection, and the combined forces, under the command of Gannys, began to move northward toward Antioch to oppose the Praetorian forces under Macrinus that were hastening to crush the rebellion. They met on June 8, 218, outside Antioch. Numerous defections to Avitus’s side had preceded this engagement, and Macrinus’s reinforcements had not yet arrived. Thus, the numbers on each side were similar, and the battle was closely contested. Gannys had only limited military experience, and his troops began to flee as they met the experienced praetorian forces under Macrinus. At this juncture, Soaemias and Maesa leapt from their carriages and managed to give heart again to the soldiers in flight. These soldiers then returned to the battle and defeated Macrinus’s troops.

It remained only for Soaemias and Maesa to reach Rome with Elagabalus and to install him on the throne. Maesa, knowing the political elite, orchestrated the assassination of numerous members of the government who were then replaced by chosen men of the equestrian order who would remain loyal. A series of dispatches were sent to Rome outlining the legitimacy of Elagabalus’s claim and informing the senate that he would be hailed, when he arrived at Rome, not under his Imperial title but under his priestly name: Deus Sol Elagabalus. From this time on, Soaemias’s son would be known to history only as Elagabalus. Gannys, whom Elagabalus had at first chosen as caesar (heir to Imperial power), was slain within the year, apparently in order to focus all loyalty and authority on Elagabalus and his family. On July, 14, 218, the senate officially recognized Elagabalus as the emperor. Elagabalus, his mother, and family were delayed at Nicomedia over the course of the winter, arriving in Rome about a year later.

At Rome, Soaemias held considerable prestige as a result of her position as mother of the emperor. Further, inscriptional evidence indicates that she was even invited into the meetings of the senate. Soaemias, although politically capable, was less than successful in preserving the alliances within her own family that could have reinforced the power wielded by the dynasty. Elagabalus fell out of favor, perhaps because of personal excesses (no doubt exaggerated by hostile historical sources) or administrative incompetence. At very least, it does seem true that the real interests of Elagabalus were not directed toward dynastic succession but rather focused on instituting the sun god Elagabalus as the supreme deity of the Roman world.

As a result, the stability of his rule was threatened, and Maesa, the family matriarch, determined that Mamaea’s son Alexianus was a potentially more capable ruler than Elagabalus. Soaemias championed Elagabalus against the interests of Mamaea and Alexianus, and the two factions became rivals. Soaemias was able to convince her son to adopt Alexianus in order to appease the army, which he did in June of 221. Alexianus (Severus Alexander) shared power with Elagabalus in 222, but the adoption had been one that even Elagabalus had mocked, and the rivalry between the two factions of the family continued. Maesa and the Praetorians took the side of Mamaea in the dispute but, at first, tolerated Elagabalus as the emperor. However, when it came to light that Soaemias and Elagabalus had been conspiring to assassinate Alexander, the Praetorians demanded that Elagabalus appear in their camp with the uninjured Alexander. He did so, but this scene repeated itself a short time later and on that occasion, after the Praetorians saw that Alexander was safe, they killed both Elagabalus and Soaemias. The Praetorians and populace viewed Soaemias as being equally guilty with Elagabalus of misgovernment and treachery; both their bodies were desecrated, hers eventually tossed away by the side of the road and his disposed of in the river Tiber. The maltreatment of Soaemias in death was a grisly testimony to the power that she had held in life.

Significance

The roles played by Soaemias, her mother, and her sister display the extent to which women were able to make decisions that influenced the destiny of an empire that, in many of its functions, denied any official political function to women. As at few other times in the history of the Roman Empire, women were among the most important political actors on the stage during the reign of the Severans.

Bibliography

Brauer, George C. The Young Emperors. New York: Crowell, 1967. A well-written, albeit factually strained, look at the lives of the Severan circle.

Dio Cassius. Dio’s Roman History. Translated by Earnest Cary. 9 vols. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1970-1987. Greek text with facing English translation. Includes excellent introduction and summaries of each book.

Grant, Michael. The Severans: The Changed Roman Empire. New York: Routledge, 1996. Grant details the lives and times of the Severans with ample historical evidence, a clear discussion of the sources, and numerous plates showing numismatic, inscriptional, and other ancient witness to the period.

The Scriptores Historiae Augustae. Translated by David Magie. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1979-1982. Latin text with facing English translation. Includes thorough introduction detailing theories regarding the authorship and date of the work.

Whittaker, C. R., trans. Herodian. 2 vols. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1969-1970. Greek text with facing English translation. Includes clear introduction and numerous historical notes.