Maria (died 407) was the first empress consort of
Honorius,
Western Roman Emperor. She was the daughter of the general
Stilicho. Around 398 she married her first cousin, the Emperor Honorius. It is uncertain when she was born, but she was probably no older than fourteen at the time of her marriage. Maria had no children, and died in 407. After her death, Honorius married her sister,
Thermantia.
Family
Maria was a daughter of
Stilicho,
magister militum
(Latin for "master of soldiers"; : ) was a top-level military command used in the late Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine the Great. The term referred to the senior military officer (equivalent to a war theatre commander, the e ...
of the Western Roman Empire, and
Serena. Her siblings were
Eucherius and
Thermantia. "De Consulatu Stilichonis" by
Claudian reports that her unnamed paternal grandfather was a cavalry officer under
Valens
Valens (; ; 328 – 9 August 378) was Roman emperor from 364 to 378. Following a largely unremarkable military career, he was named co-emperor by his elder brother Valentinian I, who gave him the Byzantine Empire, eastern half of the Roman Em ...
, Emperor of the
Eastern Roman Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
.
Orosius clarifies that her paternal grandfather was a
Romanized
In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, ...
Vandal
The Vandals were a Germanic people who were first reported in the written records as inhabitants of what is now Poland, during the period of the Roman Empire. Much later, in the fifth century, a group of Vandals led by kings established Vandal ...
.
Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire
''Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire'' (abbreviated as ''PLRE'') is a work of Roman prosopography published in a set of three volumes collectively describing many of the people attested to have lived in the Roman Empire from AD 260, the date ...
, vol. 1 The fragmentary chronicle of
John of Antioch, a 7th-century monk tentatively identified with
John of the Sedre,
Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch from 641 to 648 calls the grandfather a
Scythian, probably following
Late Antique practice to dub any people inhabiting the
Pontic–Caspian steppe
The Pontic–Caspian Steppe is a steppe extending across Eastern Europe to Central Asia, formed by the Caspian and Pontic steppes. It stretches from the northern shores of the Black Sea (the ''Pontus Euxinus'' of antiquity) to the northern a ...
as "Scythians", regardless of their language.
Jerome
Jerome (; ; ; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome.
He is best known ...
calls Stilicho a semibarbarian, which has been interpreted to mean that Maria's unnamed paternal grandmother was a
Roman.
The poem "In Praise of Serena" by Claudian and the "Historia Nova" by
Zosimus clarify that Maria's maternal grandfather was an elder Honorius, a brother to
Theodosius I
Theodosius I ( ; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. He won two civil wars and was instrumental in establishing the Nicene Creed as the orthodox doctrine for Nicene C ...
.
[ Zosimus, "''Historia Nova'', Book five, 1814 translation by Green and Chaplin] Both were sons of
Count Theodosius
Count Theodosius (; died 376), Flavius Theodosius or Theodosius the Elder (), was a senior military officer serving Valentinian I () and the Western Roman Empire during Late Antiquity. Under his command the Roman army defeated numerous threats, ...
and Thermantia, as clarified in the "Historia Romana" by
Paul the Deacon
Paul the Deacon ( 720s 13 April in 796, 797, 798, or 799 AD), also known as ''Paulus Diaconus'', ''Warnefridus'', ''Barnefridus'', or ''Winfridus'', and sometimes suffixed ''Cassinensis'' (''i.e.'' "of Monte Cassino"), was a Benedictine monk, sc ...
. Genealogists consider it likely that Maria was named after her maternal grandmother, tentatively giving said grandmother the name "Maria".
Marriage
In c. February, 398, Maria married
Honorius, her maternal first cousin, once removed. Her husband was a son of Theodosius I and his first wife
Aelia Flaccilla. Honorius was not yet fourteen-years-old. The
Epithalamion written in their honor by
Claudian survives. He places his flattering description of Maria in the mouth of
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...
, a
Roman goddess
A goddess is a female deity. In some faiths, a sacred female figure holds a central place in religious prayer and worship. For example, Shaktism (one of the three major Hinduism, Hindu sects), holds that the ultimate deity, the source of all re ...
principally associated with
love
Love is a feeling of strong attraction and emotional attachment (psychology), attachment to a person, animal, or thing. It is expressed in many forms, encompassing a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most su ...
,
beauty
Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes them pleasure, pleasurable to perceive. Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, humans and works of art. Beauty, art and taste are the main subjects of aesthetics, one of the fie ...
and fertility, the equivalent of the
Greek goddess Aphrodite
Aphrodite (, ) is an Greek mythology, ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, procreation, and as her syncretism, syncretised Roman counterpart , desire, Sexual intercourse, sex, fertility, prosperity, and ...
. "E'en though no ties of blood united thee to the royal house, though thou wert in no way related thereto, yet would thy beauty render thee worthy of a kingdom. What face could rather win a sceptre? What countenance better adorn a palace? Redder than roses thy lips, whiter than the hoar-frost thy neck, cowslips are not more yellow than thine hair, fire not more bright than thine eyes. With how fine an interspace do the delicate eyebrows meet upon thy forehead! How just the blend that makes thy blush, thy fairness not o'ermantled with too much red! Pinker thy fingers than
Aurora
An aurora ( aurorae or auroras),
also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...
's, firmer thy shoulders than
Diana's; even thy mother dost thou surpass. If
Bacchus
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ) by the Gre ...
,
Ariadne's lover, could transform his mistress' garland into a
constellation
A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object.
The first constellati ...
how comes it that a more beauteous maid has no crown of stars?"
Claudian, "Epithalamium", Loeb Classical Library, edition 1922
/ref>
There is a scholarly debate about how old Maria was. This would depend on when her parents were married. Passages of "De Consulatu Stilichonis" by Claudian, report that Stilicho first rose to fame through successfully negotiating a peace treaty with the Sassanid Empire
The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranians"), was an Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, the length of the Sasanian dynasty's reign ...
, then was chosen by Theodosius I to marry his niece.[Claudian, "On Stilicho's Consulship", Loeb Classical Library, edition 1922](_blank)
/ref>
The account seems to report that (1)Stilicho negotiated the treaty
A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between sovereign states and/or international organizations that is governed by international law. A treaty may also be known as an international agreement, protocol, covenant, convention ...
of mutual friendship between Theodosius I and Shapur III (2) Theodosius I and Aelia Flaccilla acted as adoptive parents to Serena, possibly following the deaths of her natural parents. The treaty has been usually dated to 384, but dates as late as 387 have been suggested for both the treaty and the marriage following it. By any estimation, Maria would be at most fourteen-years-old at the time of her marriage.[David Woods , "Theodosius I (379-395 A.D.)"](_blank)
Empress
According to the account of Zosimus, "When Maria was about to be married to Honorius, her mother, deeming her too young for the marriage-state and being unwilling to defer the marriage, although she thought that to submit so young and tender a person to the embraces of a man was offering violence to nature, she had recourse to a woman who knew how to manage such affairs, and by her means contrived that Maria should live with the emperor and share his bed, but that he should not have the power to deprive her of virginity. In the meantime Maria died a virgin, and Serena, who, as may readily be supposed, was desirous to become the grandmother of a young emperor or empress, through fear of her influence being diminished, used all her endeavours to marry her other daughter to Honorius." The account may have attempted to explain why Maria died without giving birth. However this might also be explained by the young ages of the imperial couple, the tale of Honorius being drug
A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via insufflation (medicine), inhalation, drug i ...
ged by his mother-in-law Serena considered fanciful. Her sister Thermantia went on to marry Honorius.
References
Sources
Profile of Stilicho in the Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire
Profile of her sister Thermantia in the Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maria
4th-century births
407 deaths
Theodosian dynasty
4th-century Roman empresses
5th-century Roman empresses