Caecilia Paulina (died in 235/236) was a Roman

Empress An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (empr ...

and consort to Emperor

Maximinus Thrax Gaius Julius Verus Maximinus "Thrax" ("the Thracian"; – 238) was Roman emperor from 235 to 238. His father was an accountant in the governor's office and sprang from ancestors who were Carpi (a Dacian tribe), a people whom Diocleti ...

, who ruled in 235–238.

Name

Her full titulature, ''Diva Caecilia Paulina Pia Augusta'', is preserved on an inscription (). On her coins she is termed simply Diva Paulina. The coins with her inscription were not struck during her life, but some time later, probably after she was deified. No sculptural likenesses of her survive.

Life

Almost nothing is known about her life, as ancient writers rarely mentioned her by name. Her husband never set foot in Rome,Meckler, Michael
Maximinus Thrax (235-238 A.D.)
roman-emperors.org. Accessed 2012-5-29. thus it is likely that neither did she, at least in her time married to the Emperor. She lived during the

Crisis of the Third Century The Crisis of the Third Century, also known as the Military Anarchy or the Imperial Crisis (AD 235–284), was a period in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed. The crisis ended due to the military victories of Aurelian and with the ascensio ...

, a time of the crumbling and near collapse of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...

, caused by three simultaneous crises: external invasion, internal civil war, and economic collapse. While the 4th century historian

Ammianus Marcellinus Ammianus Marcellinus (occasionally anglicised as Ammian) (born , died 400) was a Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from antiquity (preceding Procopius). His work, known as the ''Res Gestae ...

wrote about Paulina in his book on the Gordian emperors, this part of his work was lost, only the sections of his ''History'' covering the period 353–378 are extant. In a later passage, however, Marcellinus refers to the Empress as the good wife of the difficult husband who had: Paulina had one son, Gaius Julius Verus Maximus, appointed Caesar in 236 by his father, but both men were murdered by the soldiers in May 238. Paulina probably died around late 235 or early 236, as Maximus had her deified in 236. The city of

Anazarbus Anazarbus ( grc, Ἀναζαρβός, medieval Ain Zarba; modern Anavarza; ar, عَيْنُ زَرْبَة) was an ancient Cilician city. Under the late Roman Empire, it was the capital of Cilicia Secunda. Roman emperor Justinian I rebuil ...

Cilicia Cilicia (); el, Κιλικία, ''Kilikía''; Middle Persian: ''klkyʾy'' (''Klikiyā''); Parthian: ''kylkyʾ'' (''Kilikiyā''); tr, Kilikya). is a geographical region in southern Anatolia in Turkey, extending inland from the northeastern co ...

struck coins in the name of "Thea Paulina" (the Greek equivalent of "Diva Paulina"), and dated them to the year 254 of that city's era which converts to 235/236 of the modern calendar. That Paulina is referred to as divine on the coins indicates that she was dead when the coins were produced.

Joannes Zonaras Joannes or John Zonaras ( grc-gre, Ἰωάννης Ζωναρᾶς ; 1070 – 1140) was a Byzantine Greek historian, chronicler and theologian who lived in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, Turkey). Under Emperor Alexios I Komnenos he hel ...

claims that Maximinus executed his wife, but that accusation is unproven, and improbable if she was deified by her husband.

Name

Life

See also

References

Further reading