| Marcia Otacilia Severa | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Augusta | |||||||||
 Marble sculpture of Otacilia Severa. | |||||||||
| Empress of the Roman Empire | |||||||||
| Tenure | 244–249 | ||||||||
| Died | 249? | ||||||||
| Spouse | Emperor Philippus I the Arab | ||||||||
| Issue |
| ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Father | Governor Otacilius Severus | ||||||||
| Religion | Uncertain, possibly Christian | ||||||||
Marcia Otacilia Severa was the Roman empress and wife of Emperor Philip the Arab, who reigned over the Roman Empire from 244 to 249. She was the mother of Emperor Philip II. [1]
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 either a member of or related to the gens Marcia. According to sources she had a brother called Severianus, who served as Roman Governor of Lower Moesia in 246–247. [2]
In 234 Severa married Philip, who was probably serving at the time in the Praetorian Guard under Emperor Alexander Severus. They had at least one child, Marcus Iulius Philippus Severus or Philippus II (born in 238), who later became co-emperor with his father. [3]
In February 244, 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, giving Gordian a proper funeral and returning his ashes to Rome for burial. [4] Philip gave Severa the honorific title of Augusta and had their son made heir of the purple.
Severa and Philip are sometimes considered as the first Christian imperial couple, because during their reign persecutions of Christians were replaced by a policy of tolerance, but this belief has not been proven. It was through her intervention, for instance, that Bishop and Saint Babylas of Antioch was saved from persecution.
In August 249, Philip was killed near Verona in battle against Decius, who had been proclaimed Augustus by the Danubian armies. Severa was in Rome; 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.
The Severan dynasty, sometimes called the Septimian dynasty, was an Ancient Roman imperial dynasty that ruled the Roman Empire between 193 and 235, during the Roman imperial period. The dynasty was founded by the emperor Septimius Severus, who rose to power after the Year of the Five Emperors as the victor of the civil war of 193–197, and his wife, Julia Domna. After the short reigns and assassinations of their two sons, Caracalla and Geta, who succeeded their father in the government of the empire, Julia Domna's relatives themselves assumed power by raising Elagabalus and then Severus Alexander to the imperial office.
The 240s decade ran from January 1, 240, to December 31, 249.
Gaius Messius Quintus Trajanus Decius, known as Trajan Decius or simply Decius, was Roman emperor from 249 to 251.
Gordian III was Roman emperor from 238 to 244. At the age of 13, he became the youngest sole emperor of the united Roman Empire. Gordian was the son of Antonia Gordiana and Junius Balbus, who died before 238. Antonia Gordiana was the daughter of Emperor Gordian I and younger sister of Emperor Gordian II. Very little is known of his early life before his acclamation. Gordian had assumed the name of his maternal great grandfather in 238.
Philip the Arab was Roman emperor from 244 to 249. He was born in Aurantis, Arabia, in a city situated in modern-day Syria. After the death of Gordian III in February 244, Philip, who had been Praetorian prefect, achieved power. He quickly negotiated peace with the Persian Sassanid Empire and returned to Rome to be confirmed by the Senate. During his reign, the city of Rome celebrated its millennium.
Gaius Vibius Trebonianus Gallus was Roman emperor from June 251 to August 253, in a joint rule with his son Volusianus.
Hostilian was briefly Roman emperor in 251. Hostilian was born to Decius and Herennia Etruscilla at an unknown date and elevated to caesar in 250 by Decius. After Decius and Herennius Etruscus, Hostilian's brother, were killed at the Battle of Abritus, an ambush by the Goths, Trebonianus Gallus was proclaimed emperor by the legions. Almost immediately, he elevated Hostilian to co-emperor and his own son, Volusianus, to caesar. Hostilian died soon after, either due to plague or being murdered by Trebonianus Gallus.
Silbannacus was an obscure Roman emperor or usurper during the Crisis of the Third Century. Silbannacus is not mentioned in any contemporary documents and his existence was forgotten until the 20th century, when two coins bearing his name were discovered, the first in the 1930s and the second in the 1980s. His unusual name suggests that he might have been of Gallic descent.
Annia Aurelia Faustina was an Anatolian Roman noblewoman. She was briefly married to the Roman emperor Elagabalus in 221 CE and thus was a Roman empress. She was Elagabalus' third wife.
Philip II, also known as Philip the Younger, was the son and heir of the Roman emperor Philip the Arab by his wife Marcia Otacilia Severa.
Furia Sabinia Tranquillina was the Empress of Rome and wife of Emperor Gordian III. She was the young daughter of the Praetorian Prefect Timesitheus by an unknown wife.
The gens Otacilia, originally Octacilia, was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. The gens first rose to prominence during the First Punic War, but afterwards lapsed into obscurity. The first of the family to obtain the consulship was Manius Otacilius Crassus, in 263 BC.
Severian, Siverian, Severians or Severianus may refer to:
This section of the timeline of Romanian history concerns events from Late Neolithic until Late Antiquity, which took place in or are directly related with the territory of modern Romania.
Severa may refer to:
Marcus Sedatius Severianus was a Roman senator, suffect consul, and general during the 2nd century AD, originally from Gaul. Severianus was a provincial governor and later a provincial consul. The peak of his career was as suffect consul for the nundinium of July–September 153 as the colleague of Publius Septimius Aper. He was governor of Cappadocia at the start of the Roman war with Parthia, during which he was convinced by the untrustworthy oracle to invade Armenia in 161. Sedatius committed suicide while under siege in the Armenian city of Elegeia, on the upper Euphrates. The legion he led was wiped out shortly after. He was replaced as governor of Cappadocia by Marcus Statius Priscus.
The gens Severia was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. No members of this gens appear in history, but many are known from inscriptions.
Ramsay, William (1870). "Philippus II., M. Julius". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology . Vol. 3. p. 273.