Renewal without Decline: The Antonines and Severans

The political stability of the Antonine dynasty saw emperors and the authors describing their reigns both move away from claims that problems in the empire had been caused by imperial predecessors. What emerged instead under the emperor Hadrian was a focus on restorations of the empire without blaming previous emperors for causing Rome to decline, a way of describing change that Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius followed. The Severan dynasty did as well, especially after Septimius Severus manufactured connections to his Antonine imperial predecessors in order to create the illusion of political continuity. This illusion of prosperous continuity gives the misleading impression of a thriving empire. Instead, for much of the later second century, Romans suffered from maladies as diverse as barbarian invasions and the deadly Antonine Plague. As conditions deteriorated under Alexander Severus, however, authors like Cassius Dio and, later, Herodian again return to the old way of speaking about Roman decline.

Heliogábalo vestido divinamente: a indumentária religiosa do imperador sacerdote de Elagabal = Heliogabalus divinely dressed: the religious clothes of Elagabalus’ priest emperor

Resumo: Heliogábalo foi um jovem imperador romano de origem siríaca e membro da dinastia dos Severos (193-235). Seguindo uma tradição familiar, Heliogábalo foi sacerdote do deus solar Elagabal, da cidade de Emesa, na Síria. Diante de uma análise da documentação textual contemporânea de Heliogábalo, cruzada com análises das moedas emitidas no governo do imperador, apresentarei elementos sobre suas vestimentas sacerdotais de culto a Elagabal, consideradas na documentação textual antiga como cross-dressing, ou seja, transitando entre as fronteiras normativas de gênero da época. Analisarei a representação de sua indumentária religiosa e também relacionarei a essa representação a ideia trazida por Dião Cássio sobre a tentativa de Heliogábalo em fazer uma intervenção cirúrgica em seu corpo, buscando construir uma vagina nele. Também relacionado à sua indumentária religiosa, apresentarei a análise sobre a possibilidade do que seria um símbolo sacerdotal encontrado na imagem da cabeça do imperador em algumas de suas moedas. Abstract: Heliogabalus was a young Roman emperor from a Syriac origin and member of the Severan dynasty (193-235). Following a family tradition, Heliogabalus was the priest of the solar god Elagabal, from the city of Emesa, in Syria. Developing an analysis of the contemporary textual documentation of Heliogabalus, crossed with analyzes of the coins issued in the emperor's government, I will present elements about his priestly clothes of worship to Elagabalus, which were considered in the ancient textual documentation as cross-dressing, in other words, transitioning the normative gender boundaries of that time. I will analyze the representation of his religious dress and relate to this representation the idea brought by Cassius Dio about the attempt of Heliogabalus to make a surgery intervention in his body, seeking to build a vagina. Also related to his religious clothes, I will present the analysis on the possibility of what would be a priestly symbol found in the image of the emperor's head on some of his coins.Palavras-chave:Império Romano, dinastia dos Severos, Heliogábalo, Elagabal, Performances cross-dressing.Key words: Roman Empire, Severan dynasty, Heliogabalus, Elagabalus, Cross-dressing performance.

Las emperatrices sirias las excepcionales series monetales de Julia Domna y Julia Mamea = The «Sirian Empresses» and the Exceptional Issues of Julia Domna and Julia Mamea

En el presente trabajo se analizan unas excepcionales series monetales acuñadas a finales del siglo II y principios del III d.C., a nombre dos de las «emperatrices sirias» que más poder alcanzaron dentro de la dinastía Severa: Julia Domna y su sobrina Julia Mamea. Además de estudiar todo lo relativo a sus diseños y leyendas, se intentará averiguar los motivos que originaron estas series tan especiales.AbstractIn the present work we analyze some exceptional monetary series minted at the end of the II century and the beginning of the III AD, in the name of two of the most powerful «Syrian empresses» of the Severan dynasty: Julia Domna and Julia Mamea. In addition to studying everything related to their designs and legends, we will try to find out the reasons that gave rise to these special series.

The Jewish Patriarchate

The Jewish Patriarch (Hebr. Nasi) was the leading Jewish communal official in the late Roman and early Byzantine Empires, in both Palestine and the Diaspora. The Patriarchate, which emerged around the turn of the 3rd century under the leadership of Rabbi Judah I, had the support of the Severan dynasty (193–235 ce). The testimony of Origen (Letter to Africanus 14), who lived in Caesarea c. 230, views the function of the “Jewish ethnarch” (another term for Patriarch) as that of a king, enjoying, inter alia, the power of capital punishment. Non-Jewish sources from the 4th century attest that the Patriarch enjoyed extensive prestige and recognition. The Theodosian Code is particularly revealing in this regard. One decree, issued by the emperors Arcadius and Honorius in 397, spells out the dominance of the Patriarch in a wide range of synagogue affairs; he stood at the head of a network of officials, including archisynagogues, presbyters, and others—all of whom had privileges on a par with the Christian clergy. Together with other realms of Patriarchal authority noted in earlier rabbinic literature, such as making calendrical decisions, declaring public fast days, and issuing bans, the prominence of this office in Jewish communal and religious life had become quite pronounced at this time. The Patriarchate’s disappearance around 425 ce (for reasons unknown) was the last vestige of a unifying public office for Jews living under Roman domination.

Emperors and Usurpers

This historical commentary examines books 79(78)–80(80) of Cassius Dio’s Roman History, which cover the period from the death of Caracalla in 217 B.C. to the reign of Severus Alexander and Cassius Dio’s retirement from political life in A.D. 229 Cassius Dio, a Roman senator, provides a valuable eyewitness account of this turbulent period, which was marked by the assassination of Caracalla; the rise of Macrinus, Rome’s first equestrian emperor, and his subsequent overthrow; the tempestuous, and by all accounts peculiar, reign of Elagabalus; and the continuation of the Severan dynasty under the young Severus Alexander. In addition to elucidating important passages from these books, this study assesses Cassius Dio’s political life and its relationship to his literary career; his call to history and time of composition; his historical method; and his attitude toward and subsequent presentation of the later Severan dynasty. In its investigation of books 79(78)–80(79), the work assesses an important stretch of Dio’s actual text, which for other parts has been preserved largely in epitome and excerpts. Finally, the work aims to fill a gap in scholarship, as no commentary on these books of Cassius Dio’s history has been produced since the nineteenth century, and its publication coincides with a renewed interest in the history and historiography of the Severan period.