| Marcia Otacilia Severa | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Augusta | |||||||||
 Possible bust of Otacilia Severa, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. | |||||||||
| Empress of the Roman Empire | |||||||||
| Tenure | 244–249 | ||||||||
| Spouse | Emperor Philippus I the Arab | ||||||||
| Issue |
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| |||||||||
| Father | Otacilius Severus or Severianus | ||||||||
| Mother | Marcia | ||||||||
| 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 Moesia Inferior 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.[ citation needed ]
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 sister of Emperor Gordian II. Very little is known of his early life before his acclamation.
Philip I, commonly known as Philip the Arab, was the Emperor of the Roman Empire from 244 to 249. After the death of Gordian III in February 244, Philip, who had been Praetorian prefect, rose to power. He quickly negotiated peace with the Sasanian Empire and returned to Rome to be confirmed by the Senate.
Julia Domna was Roman empress from 193 to 211 as the wife of Emperor Septimius Severus. She was the first empress of the Severan dynasty. Domna was born in Emesa in Roman Syria to an Arab family of priests of the deity Elagabalus. In 187, she married Severus, who at the time was governor of the Roman province of Gallia Lugdunensis. They had two sons, Caracalla and Geta. A civil war over the Roman throne broke out in 193, and shortly afterwards Severus declared himself emperor. The war ended in 197 with the defeat of the last of Severus's opponents.
Roman usurpers were individuals or groups of individuals who obtained or tried to obtain power by force and without legitimate legal authority. Usurpation was endemic during the Roman imperial era, especially from the crisis of the third century onwards, when political instability became the rule.
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:
Philip the Arab was one of the few 3rd-century Roman emperors sympathetic to Christians, although his relationship with Christianity is obscure and controversial. Philip was born in Auranitis, an Arab district east of the Sea of Galilee. The urban and Hellenized centers of the region were Christianized in the early years of the 3rd century via major Christian centers at Bosra and Edessa, but there is little evidence of Christian presence in the small villages of the region in this period, such as Philip's birthplace at Philippopolis. Philip served as praetorian prefect, commander of the Praetorian Guard, from 242; he was made emperor in 244. In 249, after a brief civil war, he was killed at the hands of his successor, Decius.
Severa may refer to:
The Battle of Verona was fought between the Roman general and usurper Decius, and emperor Philip the Arab in 249. Decius was victorious and Philip and his son Philip II were both killed. Decius was subsequently declared Roman emperor.
The Gordian dynasty, sometimes known as the Gordianic dynasty, was short-lived, ruling the Roman Empire from 238 to 244 AD. The dynasty achieved the throne in 238 AD, after Gordian I and his son Gordian II rose up against Emperor Maximinus Thrax and were proclaimed co-emperors by the Roman Senate. Gordian II was killed by the governor of Numidia, Capillianus and Gordian I killed himself shortly after, only 22 days after he was declared emperor. In 238, Pupienus and Balbinus, who were not of the Gordian dynasty, were declared co-emperors but the Senate was forced to make Gordian III a third co-emperor in 238, due to the demands of the Roman people. Maximinus attempted to invade Italy but he was killed by his own soldiers when his army became frustrated. After this, the Praetorian Guard killed Pupienus and Balbinus, leaving Gordian III as the sole emperor. Gordian III ruled until AD 244 when he was either killed after his betrayal by Philip the Arab, or killed at the Battle of Misiche; with his death, the dynasty was ended and Philip the Arab became emperor.
The Gothic War of 248–253 took place between the years 248 and 249, as well as in the year 253. Within this war, a series of battles occurred and plundering was carried out by the Goths and their allies in the eastern territory of the Roman Empire, specifically in the Balkans. With the cessation of the payment of tribute previously made by the Roman emperor Philip the Arab to the tribes beyond the Danube, the Goths and their allies, led by King Ostrogotha and his subcommanders Argedo and Gundericus, moved towards the Roman border and began a series of attacks, including against the fortified city of Marcianopolis in Thracia. After these actions, the Goths withdrew with their spoils of war.
Coinage from Maximinus Thrax to Aemilianus is understood as the set of coins issued by Rome during the reigns of more than a dozen emperors of the first part of the period called military anarchy, succeeding Severus Alexander, from 235 to 253: Maximinus Thrax (235–238), Gordian I (238), Gordian II (238), Pupienus (238), Balbinus (238), Gordian III (238–244), Philip the Arab (244–249), Decius with his sons Herennius Etruscus and Hostilian (249–251), Trebonianus Gallus with his son Volusianus (251–253), and finally Aemilianus (253).
Ramsay, William (1870). "Philippus II., M. Julius". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology . Vol. 3. p. 273.