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Julia Cornelia Paula

Roman empress from 219 to 220

Summary

Roman empress from 219 to 220

Field	Value
name	Julia Cornelia Paula
title	Augusta
image	Julia Paula, marble (3rd century A.D.) - Ephesus Museum.JPG
caption	Marble bust of Julia Cornelia Paula
succession	Roman empress
reign	219–220
consort	yes
spouse	Elagabalus

Julia Cornelia Paula ( 3rd century AD) was a distinguished Roman noblewoman who became Empress of Rome as the first wife of the Roman emperor Elagabalus, who divorced her.

Life

Paula was a lady, according to Herodian, of very noble descent: a relative of the gens Cornelia through her mother, her father, Julius Paulus, was an important jurist active throughout the Severan Dynasty, who subsequently served as praetorian prefect between 228 and 235.

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

In late 220, Elagabalus divorced her to marry the Vestal Virgin Aquilia Severa in a union that was considered scandalous because she was still a Vestal. Apart from falling in love with Severa, Elagabalus married Severa as a part of the religious process of worshiping the Syrian Sun God El-Gabal and integrating El-Gabal into Roman religion.

After the divorce, Elagabalus removed Paula's Augusta title and reduced her to a private station. They had no children and her subsequent fate is unknown.

References

Bibliography

"Emperor Elagabalus", The Roman Empire: People & The Decline, n.d. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
"Julia Paula", Forvm Ancient Coins: NumisWiki, n.d. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
Meckler, Michael L. "Elagabalus (218-222 A.D.)", De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors, 26 August 1997. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
Ramsay, William. "Paula, Julia Cornelia" In William Smith (ed.) Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 3. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1867.

Sources

Herodian 5.6.1.
Cassius Dio 79.9.

References

Bertolazzi, Riccardo. (2020). "Women in the Severan dynasty". Routledge.
Icks, Martijn. (2006-09-12). "Priesthood and Imperial Power The Religious Reforms of Heliogabalus, 220-222 AD". Brill.
Icks, Martijn. (2006-09-12). "Priesthood and Imperial Power The Religious Reforms of Heliogabalus, 220-222 AD". Brill.
Nugent, Mark. (2008). "From ‘Filthy Catamite’ to ‘Queer Icon’: Elagabalus and the Politics of Sexuality (1960–1975)". Helios.
Buongiorno, Pierangelo. (2021-11-25). "The Attitude of Herodian towards the Roman Senate". Brill.
Ramsay 1867, p. 141.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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