About 175 AD Septimius Severus married Paccia Marciana, like him from Lepcis Magna. She died some ten years later. In 187 AD Severus then married Julia Domna from Emesa (Homs, Syria), daughter of Julius Bassianus. They had two sons, the oldest of which - Caracalla - was named after his father and grandfather: Lucius Septimius Bassianus. Some ancient historians have claimed that Domna was his stepmother, perhaps because there was some confusion about Caracalla's exact date of birth. His naming after Bassianus suggests otherwise, although it must be said that his portraits do not seem to portray a man in his twenties.
Domna accompanied her son on his voyage to the East. According to Dio, Caracalla "appointed her to receive petitions and to have charge of his correspondence in both languages" (77,18,2). There is one piece of corroborating evidence. In 214 or 215 AD she wrote a letter to the authorities of Ephesus, of which some lines have been preserved in an inscription:
Julia Augusta to the Ephesians.
I join in the prayer of all cities and all peoples
to receive (benefactions) from my dear son, the emperor,
especially in the case of your city on account of (its magnificence)
and beauty and the rest of its endowment and because of the fact that
it is a school for those who come from anywhere to its seat of learning.Inscription from Ephesus.
AE 1966, 430; SEG 51.1579.
Translation Kaius Tuori 2016, 191. Photo: Jones 2017, fig. 1.There is no reason to think of a formalized role, and Tuori comments: "it would be safe to assume that the binding decision itself would have been made by the emperor himself".
Domna chose a very characteristic hairstyle, created by a wig. It was copied by other women, and is used by art historians as a secure dating criterion.
Portrait of Julia Domna in the Yale University Art Gallery.
Photo: Yale University Art Gallery.Portrait of Julia Domna in the Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University.
Photo: Wikimedia, Katolophyromai.In 217 AD Domna committed suicide, in Antiochia, after hearing that Caracalla had been killed.
