The Roman Empress Ulpia Severina: Ruler and Goddess

Of the twelve Augustae who lived during the fifty years of the so-called ＂military anarchy＂ (235-284 A.D.), Ulpia Severina, wife of the ＂Illyrian＂ emperor Aurelian (270-275 AD), is certainly one of the most enigmatic and less known. The book focuses on Ulpia Severina, who, even though never mentioned by name in literary sources, has been studied almost exclusively from the perspective of the numerous coins issued in her name and is the subject of many interesting honorific inscriptions that had not been thoroughly examined or adequately valued until this study. This exceptional situation, represented by the sole presence of Ulpia Severina on the throne of Rome, deserves more attention than it has received. The pages of the university history textbooks dedicated to the reconstruction of a fifty-year phase of Roman-imperial history must be, if not rewritten, at least integrated in order to give the deserved space to this empress and, therefore, to the so-called ＂interregnum,＂which lasted at least two months, between the death of Aurelian and the advent of emperor Tacitus.

Margherita Cassia is associate professor of Roman History at the Department of Humanities, University of Catania. Her research interests comprise the condition of women in the imperial age (Egypt, Sicily, Asia Minor); the city-country relationship in Cappadocia, Pontus, Malta and Sicily; society, economy, and culture in the Cappadocian Fathers; political history, ethnogeography, and family ties in Strabo’s Geography; the role of medicine in the Roman-imperial age; imperial power and the medical profession; and university teaching of ancient history. Her publications include: Cappadocia romana. Strutture urbane e strutture agrarie alla periferia dell’Impero (2004), La piaga e la cura. Poveri e ammalati, medici e monaci nell’Anatolia rurale tardoantica (2009), Andromaco di Creta. Medicina e potere nella Roma neroniana (2012), Fra biografia e cronografia. Storici cappadoci nell’età dei Costantinidi (2014), Marcello di Side. Gli imperatori adottivi e il potere della medicina (2016), Roma e la sua storia. Dalla città all’Impero (2019).