Les Auteurs de L’antiquité Tardive Sur le Mariage Supposé de Julia Domna et de Caracalla: Essai D’interprétation

Abstract

Late ancient historical writers (Historia Augusta, Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, Orosius) present a distorted picture of the family relations within the house of the Severi. Empress Julia Domna is shown in these sources as Caracalla’s step-mother rather than his mother; moreover, they assume an incestuous relationship between them. The aim of this paper is to try to discover the origins of this historical distortion. One of them is a remarkable issue of coins showing Julia Domna and Caracalla facing each other in a fashion characteristic of a married couple. These coins, struck in Moesia Inferior under the governorship of C. Iulius Quintilianus (AD 214/215), circulated in many provinces, probably forming the basis for various gossips about the emperor and his family.