Marcia Otacilia Severa

Hi Everyone I'm getting this very nice silver Antoninianus'2 Denari' of Empress Marcia Otacilia Severa who was wife to Philip I 'The Arab' and mother to Philip II too. Coin info: Date Struck: AD 246 - 248
Diameter: 21.5 mm
Weight: 4.41 g
Die Axis: 6 h
Obverse Legend: M OTACIL SEVERA AVG
Obverse Description: Diademed and draped bust right on crescent
Reverse Legend: IVNO CONSERVAT' Ivno Conservatrix - Juno the protectress (or preserver).
Reverse Description: Juno standing left, patera in right hand, scepter in left
Mint: Rome
Primary Reference: RIC 127
Reference2: RSC 020. About her: Marcia Otacilia Severa or Otacilia Severa was the Empress of Rome and wife of Emperor Marcus Julius Philippus or Philip the Arab, who reigned over the Roman Empire from 244 to 249 AD. She was a member of the ancient gens Otacilia, of consular and senatorial rank. Her father was Otacilius Severus or Severianus, who served as Roman Governor of Macedonia and Moesia, while her mother was a member of gens Marcia or was related to the gens. According to sources she had a brother called Severianus, who served as Roman Governor of Lower Moesia between 246-247 AD. In 234 AD, Severa married Philip who at that time probably served in the Praetorian Guard under Emperor Alexander Severus and they had three children.

Marcus Iulius Philippus Severus or Philippus II (born in 238 AD);
Iulia Severa or Severina who is known from numismatic evidence but is never mentioned by the ancient Roman written sources;
Quintus Philippus Severus (born in 247 AD).
In February 244 AD, the emperor Gordianus died in Mesopotamia, it is suspected in the sources that he was murdered, and there is a possibility that Severa was involved in the conspiracy. Her husband Philip became the new emperor and he gave his young predecessor a proper funeral and his ashes were returned to Rome for burial.

Philip gave Severa the honorific title of Augusta and had their son made heir of the purple.

Severa and Philip are generally considered as the first Christian imperial couple, because during their reign the persecutions of Christians had ceased and the couple had become tolerant towards Christianity but their beliefs has not been proven. It was through her intervention, for instance, that Bishop and Saint Babylas of Antioch was saved from persecution.

In 249, the Danubian armies proclaimed Trajan Decius Augustus and in August, Philip died in battle near Verona and
Trajan Decius became the sole emperor. Severa was in Rome at that time and when the news of her husband's death arrived, their son was murdered by the Praetorian Guard still in her arms. Severa survived her husband and son and lived later in obscurity.