v34_0628 - GIULIA MAESA Sesterce, (GB, Æ 31)

JULIA MAESA

(+223 or 226)

Sister of Julia Domna, mother of Julia Soaemias and Julia Mamaea, grandmother of Elagabalus and Severus Alexander - Augusta

Julia Maésa is the sister of Julia Domna, therefore the sister-in-law of Septimius Severus. She married Julius Avitus and had two daughters, Julia Soémias, mother of Elagabalus, and Julia Mamée, mother of Alexandre Sévère. She is about fifty years old in 217 at the death of her sister, who did not support the assassination of her son Caracalla. Immensely rich, she campaigned with the soldiers stationed in Emesa to have her eldest grandchild, Elagabalus, proclaimed emperor. In 222, it is still she who, in order to save the dynasty, will allow her daughter and Elagabal to be massacred in order to promote her second grandson, Alexander Severus, to the title of august. She died at the beginning of this principate, between 223 and 228, more probably in 226.