The First Ladies of Rome: The Women Behind the Caesars (68 page)

6
On the
Historia Augusta
’s unreliability: see Goodman (1997), 4–5.

7
See Pliny the Younger,
Panegyricus
7–8; and Griffin (2000), 94–5.

8
Boatwright (2000), 61; Keltanen (2002), 140f.

9
Her birthplace is deduced from the fact that after her death, Hadrian erected a basilica at Nemausus in her honour: see McDermott (1977), 195 and Keltanen (2002), 109f on Plotina’s background.

10
Boatwright (1991), 518 on the
arriviste
status of Plotina and her cohort.

11
Cassius Dio,
Roman History
68.5.5.

12
See Roche (2002), 41–2.

13
Feldherr (2009), 402 points out that Pliny’s panegyric cannot be taken as a straightforward homage to Trajan, but the point about Plotina representing the ideal Roman woman remains the same.

14
Pliny the Younger,
Panegyricus
83.

15
Roche (2002), 48–9.

16
Pliny, the Younger,
Panegyricus
84.2–5. See McDermott (1977), 196.

17
Boatwright (1991), 521–3. Note the slight uncertainty over Matidia Minor’s and Vibia Sabina’s full names.

18
Keltanen (2002), 111 on
Pudicitia
as a first and Vesta as an unusual association.

19
Although they do not tend to appear on state monuments: Kleiner (2001), 53.

20
Fittschen (1996), 42.

21
Fittschen (1996), 42 on Marciana’s style, and on other female hairstyles from the period not sported by imperial women. Cf. Kleiner and Matheson (1996), cat. no. 21.

22
Boatwright (1991), 515 and 532.

23
Cassius Dio,
Roman History
69.1; Aurelius Victor,
de Caesaribus
13;
Historia Augusta
(Hadrian) 4.10.

24
See Bauman (1994), on the tradition in literature and history, beginning with Livia.

25
Caroli (1995), 148–9 on the Edith Wilson affair; and 164 on the Florence Harding controversy; the book in question was
The Strange Death of President Harding: From the Diaries of Gaston B. Means as Told to May Dixon Thacker
(New York: 1930).

26
Historia Augusta
(Hadrian) 2.10.

27
Trans. P. J. Alexander (1938), ‘Letters and speeches of the Emperor Hadrian’,
Harvard Studies in Classical Philology
49: 160–1, with modifications after Hemelrijk (1999), 117.

28
Trans. J. H. Oliver (1989),
Greek Constitutions of Early Roman Emperors from Inscriptions and Papyri
, 177 (Document 73), (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society)

29
See also Boatwright (1991), 531.

30
Lucian,
de Mercede Conductis
33–4.

31
Hemelrijk (1999), 37–41 and 51–2 on attitudes to philosophy and women’s learning.

32
Boatwright (1991), 521 on Plotina’s brickworks. For her coins, see Keltanen (2002), 113.

33
Cassius Dio,
Roman History
69.10.3. Plotina’s ashes: Kleiner (1992b), 262.

34
Keltanen (2002), 114, n. 55; Boatwright (1991), 533; Opper (2008), 211–12.

35
Opper (2008), 211. See Davies (200), 118; Opper (2008), 211

36
See Davies (2000), 118; Opper (2008), 211.

37
Boatwright (1991), 522 and Hemelrijk (1999), 120–1.

38
Opper (2008), 242f.

39
Historia Augusta
(Hadrian) 11.3;
Epitome de Caesaribus
14.8.

40
Lefkowitz and Fant (1992), no. 186.

41
Boatwright (1991), 523.

42
Historia Augusta
(Hadrian) 11.3.

43
Burns (2007), 135. For more modern verdicts on Sabina, see Burns (2007), 125–6, citing M. Grant (1975),
Twelve Caesars
, 2 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons); also Perowne (1974), 117; Royston Lambert (1984),
Beloved of God: the Story of Hadrian and Antinous
, 39 (London: Phoenix). My thanks to Carrie Vout for pointing out this last example to me.

44
Keltanen (2002), 118 and Kleiner (1992b), 241–2.

45
Brennan (1998), 233 and n. 73 on number in entourage. On sources for Hadrian’s and Antinous’s relationship, see Vout (2007), 54f.

46
Vout (2007), 18 on the power differential in male sexual relations.

47
On same-sex emperor relationships, such as that of Nero and Sporus, see Vout (2007), 18 and 138, and chapter two on Hadrian and Antinous and the creation of the latter’s legend.

48
Brennan (1998), 221
and n. 34.

49
See Vout (2007), 54–6 on various explanations for Antinous’s death.

50
Cassius Dio,
Roman History
69.11.5.

51
On dating of the poems, see Hemelrijk (1999), 164–8.

52
We should note that Sulpicia’s authorship is disputed.

53
Hemelrijk (1999), 177 and n. 134.

54
Hemelrijk (1999), 168, citing E. Bowie (1990) ‘Greek Poetry in the Antonine Age’, in D. A. Russell, ed.,
Antonine Literature
(Oxford: Clarendon Press), 62.

55
Brennan (1998), 229f suggests Damo could have been Claudia Damo of Athens and that she was one of Hadrian’s entourage.

56
Hemelrijk (1999), 118.

57
Historia Augusta
(Hadrian) 23.9.

58
On this relief, see Davies (2000), 105–6; Kleiner (1992b), 254; Beard and Henderson (1998), 213–14.

59
Keltanen (2002), 124.

60
Opper (2008), 59 on this theory.

61
Davies (2000), 109.

62
S. Perowne (1960),
Hadrian
(London: Hodder & Stoughton), 117.

63
Historia Augusta
(Antoninus Pius) 5.2 and 6.4–6; Birley (2000a), 47.

64
Birley (2000a), 28f on the family background of the
gens Annia
, including on possible family links to Scribonia and Salonia Matidia.

65
Birley (2000b), 151.

66
See Freisenbruch (2004), for an overview of Fronto’s letters.

67
Fronto to Marcus Aurelius: Vol. 1, p. 183 of Haines.

68
Marcus Aurelius to Fronto: Vol. 1, p. 197 of Haines.

69
Marcus Aurelius to Fronto: Vol. 1, p. 115 of Haines.

70
Fronto to Marcus Aurelius: Vol. 1, p. 125 of Haines.

71
Discourse on Love
, 9: Vol. 1, p. 29 of Haines. Domitia Lucilla on philosophy:
Historia Augusta
(Marcus Aurelius) 2.6. See Hemelrijk (1999), 68–9 on role of mothers in sons’ education.

72
Van den Hout (1999), 56, n. 21.15.

73
Marcus Aurelius,
Meditations
1.3

74
Fronto to Marcus Aurelius: Vol. II, pp. 119–20 of Haines. On Marcus’s and Faustina’s children, see Appendix 2F in Birley (2000a).

75
Historia Augusta
(Antoninus Pius) 6.7–8 and 8.1; Keltanen (2002), 128; Davies (2000), 109.

76
Keltanen (2002), 126–7; cf. Beard and Henderson (1998), 217.

77
Keltanen (2002), 128–32 on Antoninus’s and Annia Galeria’s marriage as a model. Antoninus’s letter to Fronto: Vol. 1, p. 129 of Haines.

78
On the apotheosis relief, see Kleiner (1992b), 287–8; Beard and Henderson (1998), 193–4 and 217–19.

79
Fittschen (1996), 44.

80
Keltanen (2002), 135.

81
Cassius Dio,
Roman History
71.1.3.

82
Boatwright (1991), 522 on possible location of Matidia’s residence. Marcus Aurelius to Fronto on his daughters staying with Matidia: Vol. 1, p. 301 of Haines.

83
Historia Augusta
(Marcus Aurelius) 9.4–6 and 20.7;
Historia Augusta
(Verus) 7.7.

84
Historia Augusta
(Marcus Aurelius) 20.6–7; Cassius Dio,
Roman History
73.4.5.

85
Cassius Dio,
Roman History
72.10.5;
Historia Augusta
(Marcus Aurelius) 17.4; 26.8.

86
Historia Augusta
(Marcus Aurelius) 26.5; Cassius Dio,
Roman History
71.29.1. On Faustina’s probable age, see Birley (2000), 34–5.

87
Cassius Dio,
Roman History
72.29;
Historia Augusta
(Marcus Aurelius) 19.1–9;
Historia Augusta
(Verus) 10.1.

88
Keltanen (2002), 138–40; Davies (2000), 109.

89
Cassius Dio,
Roman History
, 73.4.5–6; Herodian 1.8.3–5.

7
The Philosopher Empress: Julia Domna and the ‘Syrian Matriarchy
’

1
Syrian matriarchy: Balsdon (1962), 156; I. Shahid (1984) (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oats Research Library and Collection),
Rome and the Arabs
, 42; W. Ball (2000), 415; Burns (2007), 201.

2
Caracalla’s last words to his mother Julia Domna: Cassius Dio,
Roman History
78.2.3.

3
See Varner (2004), 177.

4
Philostratus,
Lives of the Sophists
622.

5
Gorrie (2004), 66, n. 25 citing the publications by A. von Domaszewski which form the original basis for this view; see also Levick (2007), 1 and 167, n. 3. Gibbon’s view:
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
(ed. J. B. Bury) Vol. 1, 139 and 171 (London: Methuen)

6
Bowersock (1969), 102, n. 5, citing M. Platnauer (1918)
The Life of Emperor Lucius Septimius Severus
, 128. (Oxford; Oxford University Press)

7
On Severus’s arrival in Emesa, and the general locale, see Birley (1971), 68–71; also Ball (2000), 36f and Levick (2007), chapter one,
passim
.

8
Levick (2007), 18; Birley (1971), 72 and 222.

9
Levick (2007), 19 on Julia Domna’s probable age.

10
See Birley (1971), 73–6; Levick (2007), 28–9 on this sequence of events.

11
See Zwalve (2001) and Birley (1971), 72 on legal dispute concerning one Julius Agrippa.

12
Cassius Dio,
Roman History
75.3;
Historia Augusta
(Severus) 3.9.

13
Levick (2007), 34 on their property portfolio.

14
Cassius Dio,
Roman History
72.21.1–2.

15
Marcia: Cassius Dio,
Roman History
72.22.4; Herodian 1.17.7–11.

16
Birley (1971), 97.

17
Flavia Titiana:
Historia Augusta
(Pertinax) 6.9.

18
Historia Augusta
(Albinus) 9.5;
Historia Augusta
(Severus) 11.9.

19
See E. Doxiadis, (1995)
The Mysterious Fayum Portraits: Faces from Ancient Egypt
(London: Thames & Hudson), 88 and 225a on the Berlin tondo. It is housed today in the Staatliche Museen, in Berlin, where it was acquired in the 1930s.