Women Of Rome - Julia Paula, First Wife Of Elagabalus

To introduce Julia Cornelia Paula I have chosen to bring together two historical descriptions to round out the introduction of the women of Elagabalus, including his grandmother, mother, and wives. We start with Wikipedia and follow through with a piece I found from Heritage Classical Coin News. I found that entertaining, if not a bit fanciful:

(most recent purchase)



http://www.coinweek.com/ancient-coi...-elagabalus/
By Lorie Ann Hambly - Heritage Classical Coin News 10/11/13

Julia Cornelia Paula was Empress of Rome from 219-220.Cornelia Paula was a member of the gens Cornelia through her maternal line. Her father, Julius Paulus, was a Roman Nobleman of Greek descent and a historically noted jurist active throughout the Severan Dynasty becoming a praetorian prefect in Rome. She was thus of both Patrician Roman and Greek descent and as such was a scion of the established upper Roman aristocracy.

In early 219, Julia Maesa, eldest sister of Roman Empress Julia Domna, arranged for Cornelia Paula to marry her grandson, the new emperor Elagabalus. Their wedding was lavishly celebrated in Rome. Cornelia Paula became Elagabalus' first wife and was given the honorific title of Augusta and the family name "Julia".

The marriage was arranged by the emperor's powerful grandmother, Julia Maesa, who wished to make the reign of a 15-year-old Syrian youth of ambiguous sexuality palatable to the Roman populace. The wedding was accompanied by extravagant public spectacles and Julia Paula was immediately granted the title of Augusta, or empress, making her one of three women bearing the title in the female-dominated regime, the other two being Julia Maesa and the emperor's mother, Julia Soaemias. (q.v.)

But the marriage soon foundered as Elagabalus found his new bride's sexual mores too conventional for his liking. Elagabalus, you see, was a cross-dressing, sun-worshipping exotic dancer who chose his counselors based on the size of their, um, male sexual equipment. He took little interest in actual governing, leaving this to his ferocious grandmother.

Julia Paula, to all appearances, was a very traditional Roman virgin from a good family; nothing could be more dull to a young man of Elagabalus' tastes. He summarily divorced her late in AD 220 or early in 221, only to turn around and marry the Vestal Virgin Aquilia Severa, a move which scandalized the Roman world all the more.

Julia Paula retired from public life and seems to have survived the chaotic and comical reign of her former husband with her virtue and reputation intact.

Elagabalus would also divorce Aquilia Severa a few months later and take one more crack at conventional matrimony with Annia Faustina, a descendant of Marcus Aurelius. This match also foundered quickly and the never-satisfied emperor returned briefly to Aquilia Severa before being murdered by the Praetorians and dumped into a latrine, along with his mother, on March 11, AD 222.


Since Julia Paula was Augustus for but a single year, it should be no surprise that all her coinage is covered in a single issue, 219-220 AD.
However, her coinage was produced at two mints; Rome and Antioch. Both used the same obverse legend for all her denarii: IVLIA PAVLA AVG. However, there is some variety in the reverse types and legends.



AT ROME:

Of the five reverse types issued at Rome, by far the most frequently encountered is the CONCORDIA reverse featuring Concordia draped and seated l on throne holding patera in extended r. arm, l arm on side of throne, elbow bent, fold of drapery over l. arm. In addition a star is to be found in the right field or high or low in the left field.

The obverse image is pretty uniform noting: "hair in waves, nearly vertical, fastened in queue at back, two ridges." Given the small number of "ridges" it is important to note that at Rome the waves of the hair run nearly vertically, but the "ridges" run horizontally. This is an important description, because it differs from what is seen at Antioch. So the hairstyle can be used to distinguish coins for Paula by mint.

Here are two from my collection from Rome. The second was just acquired and I have to use the seller's photo for now.


In the first case the obverse image conforms exactly to the catalog description in BMCRE; i.e. hair in two waves.
However, the hair at the back forms a small bun, not a queue. (BMCRE 173 for Elagabalus)





In this second case, same coin as above, I count at least three waves, four with the top.
Again, the hair at the back forms a small bun, not a queue (BMCRE 174 for Elagabalus)



In both cases the reverse has a star "high" in the left field. The main difference between "high" and others is that the star touches or nearly touches the lettering of the inscription. Even when the lettering is low and leaves little space to the knee, the star is "high" if it touches the lettering.

Other reverse types from Rome depict Juno, Pudicitia, Venus, and Vesta, four goddesses of particular importance to the personal and social function of women.

Now let us compare these to what we see

AT ANTIOCH:

Here things really get interesting, for we find more diversity of types and treatment of types than at Rome. But our first attention is drawn to the treatment of the obverse portrait. In the catalog, BMCRE the written description is very much like that for Rome, differing by the larger number of ridges in the count. Here is what you see - -

In my first example, the hair is styled rather like what we see at Rome, but with no horizontal "ridges" as above. Instead the "ridges" now run vertically, and these correspond in number to the catalog description, in this case I count six (BMCRE 318 for Elagabalus)



The reverse is also CONCORDIA, but now with the emperor and empress in the pose of clasping their right hands (handshake). For Paula this type is specific to Antioch.

For my next example the execution of the bust is positively ghastly, but it shows with great prominence the formation of the queue in the back of the hair along with five "ridges"




The reverse may look similar to what we saw from Rome, but is different in several ways. The inscription now reads CONCOR DI AAVGG and the type features Concordia seated l. on a (backless) curule chair instead of a throne holding a patera forward in r hand, but cradling a double cornucopia on her left. This coin corresponds most closely to BMCRE 321 for Elagabalus, differing only in the break pattern of the reverse inscription.

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I am now going to break a rule of this series and use a pair of imported images in order to emphasize a point I tried to make above. The next two images are from sellers at V-coins and show examples of the same reverse type and inscription, but one is from Rome and one is from Antioch. From what I have been saying, please tell us which is which, and the clues that told you.

With VENVS GENETRIX they feature a type I do not yet own:

Coin A


Coin B



Which is Rome? Which is Antioch?

How do you know?