Ulpia Severina

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Ulpia Severina was the wife of Roman emperor Aurelian, from whom she had a daughter. Very little is known about her, as there are no literary sources even mentioning her existence. Almost everything known about her, including her name, is gathered from coins and inscriptions.

Aurelian married Severina before becoming emperor. According to coinage depicting her, Severina gained the title Augusta in the autumn of 274 A.D. She also received the titles of Pia ("pious") and mater castrorum et senatus et patriae ("mother of the barracks (armies), senate, and country").

It is assumed that she was a daughter of Ulpius Crinitus, though this assumption is based on the unreliable Historia Augusta and thus is purely speculative. Some scholars believe that she was from Dacia, where the nomen Ulpia was common due to the influence of Trajan . According to Historia Augusta, Aurelian regularly presented Ulpia sigillaria by the end of Saturnalia, according to tradition.

There is considerable numismatic evidence for Severina ruling in her own right during the interregnum between the death of Aurelian and the election of Marcus Claudius Tacitus.

Note

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Last updated on Sunday July 20, 2008 at 18:19:19 PDT (GMT -0700)
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