Publia Licinia Julia Cornelia Salonina (died 268,

Mediolanum Mediolanum, the ancient city where Milan now stands, was originally an Insubres, Insubrian city, but afterwards became an important Ancient Rome, Roman city in Northern Italy. The city was settled by a Celts, Celtic tribe belonging to the Ins ...

) was an '' Augusta'' of the Roman Empire, married to Roman Emperor

Gallienus Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus (; – September 268) was Roman emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260 and alone from 260 to 268. He ruled during the Crisis of the Third Century that nearly caused the collapse of the empire. He ...

and mother of

Valerian II Publius Licinius Cornelius Valerianus (died 258), also known as Valerian II (), was the eldest son of Roman Emperor Gallienus and '' Augusta'' Cornelia Salonina who was of Greek origin and grandson of the Emperor Valerian who was of a noble an ...

Saloninus Publius Licinius Cornelius Saloninus Valerianus (died 260), typically just called Saloninus, was a young Roman nobleman who briefly became emperor in 260. The grandson of Valerian I, Saloninus was appointed ''caesar'' (heir) in 258 in an at ...

, and

Marinianus Marinianus was Roman consul in the year 268, under Emperor Gallienus. He was related to the Egnatia gens and has been speculated to be the cousin, son or nephew of Emperor Gallienus. Marinianus and Valerianus Minor (Gallienus' brother), were kill ...

Life

Arco di Gallieno o Porta Esquilina - lato interno - Panairjdde

Salonina's origin is unknown. One modern theory is that she was born of

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

origin in

Bithynia Bithynia (; ) was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor (present-day Turkey), adjoining the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, and the Black Sea. It bordered Mysia to the southwest, Paphlagonia to the northeast a ...

, then part of the province of

Bithynia et Pontus Bithynia and Pontus (, Ancient Greek ) was the name of a province of the Roman Empire on the Black Sea coast of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). It was formed during the late Roman Republic by the amalgamation of the former kingdoms of Bithynia (mad ...

Asia Minor Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

. However, there exists some scepticism on that. There has been speculation that she was related to a senator named Publius Cornelius Saecularis of Salona. She may also have been related to her father-in-law's second wife Cornelia Gallonia, and possibly to the previous empress

Julia Cornelia Paula Julia Cornelia Paula (lived 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 descen ...

. She married Gallienus about ten years before his accession to the throne. When her husband became joint-emperor with his father Valerian in 253, Salonina was named ''Augusta''. Salonina was the mother of three princes,

and

. Her fate after Gallienus was murdered during the siege of

in 268 is unknown. One theory is that her life was spared; another is that she was executed together with other members of her family, at the orders of the Senate of Rome. Her name is reported on coins with Latin legend as ''Cornelia Salonina''; however, from the Greek coinage come the names ''Iulia Cornelia Salonina'', ''Publia Licinia Cornelia Salonina'', and ''Salonina Chrysogona'' (attribute that means "begotten of gold"). The names "Publia Licinia" were probably added to her name to mirror her husband whose two first names were "Publius Licinius".

References

Bibliography

* Bray, John. ''Gallienus : A Study in Reformist and Sexual Politics'', Wakefield Press, Kent Town, 1997, *
Partial Salonina coinage
* "Dictionary of Roman Coins", by Seth William Stevenson (1889).

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Salonina 3rd-century Roman empresses 3rd-century Greek women Year of birth unknown Crisis of the Third Century Salonina, Julia Augustae Valerian dynasty Mothers of Roman emperors

Life

References

Bibliography

Further reading

External links