Chapter I: Front Matter

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THE EMPRESSES OF ROME

BUST IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM]

THE EMPRESSES OF ROME

by

JOSEPH McCABE

Author of “The Decay of the Church of Rome”

With Twenty-four Illustrations

New York Henry Holt and Company 1911

NOTE

The period embraced by this work extends to the fall of the Western Empire, or to the middle of the fifth century. It was felt that a more extensive range would involve either an inconveniently large work or an inadequate treatment. While, therefore, the Empresses of the East have been included down to the fall of Rome, it seemed that the collapse of the Empire in Rome and the West indicated a quite natural term for the present study. The restriction has enabled the author to tell all that is known of the Empresses of Rome within that period, to enlarge the interest of the study by framing the Imperial characters in occasional sketches of their surroundings, and to weave the threads of biography into a continuous story.

CONTENTS

PAGE
INTRODUCTION 1

CHAP.
I. THE MAKING OF AN EMPRESS 7

II. THE END OF THE GOLDEN AGE 23

III. THE WIVES OF CALIGULA 46

IV. VALERIA MESSALINA 60

V. THE MOTHER OF NERO 79

VI. THE WIVES OF NERO 105

VII. THE EMPRESSES OF THE TRANSITION 122

VIII. PLOTINA 136

IX. SABINA, THE WIFE OF HADRIAN 149

X. THE WIVES OF THE STOICS 163

XI. THE WIVES OF THE SYBARITES 179

XII. JULIA DOMNA 194

XIII. IN THE DAYS OF ELAGABALUS 210

XIV. ANOTHER SYRIAN EMPRESS 222

XV. ZENOBIA AND VICTORIA 233

XVI. THE WIFE AND DAUGHTER OF DIOCLETIAN 250

XVII. THE FIRST CHRISTIAN EMPRESSES 265

XVIII. THE WIVES OF CONSTANTIUS AND JULIAN 286

XIX. JUSTINA 306

XX. THE ROMANCE OF EUDOXIA AND EUDOCIA 322

XXI. THE LAST EMPRESSES OF THE WEST 340

INDEX 351

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

CRISPINA. Bust in the British Museum _Frontispiece_
From a photograph by W. A. MANSELL & CO.

FACING PAGE
LIVIA AS CERES. Statue in the Louvre 20

JULIA. Bust in the Museum Chiaramonti 28

AGRIPPINA THE ELDER. Bust in the Museum Chiaramonti 46

MESSALINA. Bust in the Uffizi Palace, Florence 70

AGRIPPINA THE YOUNGER. Bust in Museo Nazionale, Florence 82

OCTAVIA. Porphyry Bust in the Louvre 112

POPPÆA. Bust in the Capitoline Museum, Rome 118
From a photograph by ANDERSON.

DOMITIA. Bust in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence 130

PLOTINA. Statue in the Louvre 142
From a photograph by W. A. MANSELL & CO.

SABINA. Bust in the British Museum 154
From a photograph by W. A. MANSELL & CO.

FAUSTINA THE ELDER. Bust in the Louvre 164
From a photograph by A. GIRAUDON.

FAUSTINA THE YOUNGER. Bust (reputed) in the British Museum 172
From a photograph by W. A. MANSELL & CO.

LUCILLA. Bust in the National Museum, Rome 184
From a photograph by ANDERSON.

JULIA DOMNA. Bust in the Vatican Museum 202
From a photograph by ANDERSON.

JULIA MÆSA. Bust in the Capitoline Museum, Rome 214
From a photograph by ANDERSON.

JULIA MAMÆA. Bust in the British Museum 226
From a photograph by W. A. MANSELL & CO.

MARCIA OTACILIA SEVERA 236
From a photograph by W. A. MANSELL & CO.

ZENOBIA 248
Enlarged from coin in the Berlin Museum.

SALONINA AND VALERIA 262
Enlarged from coins in the British Museum.

FAUSTA AND FLAVIA HELENA 280
Enlarged from coins in the British Museum.

ÆLIA FLACCILLA AND HONORIA 316
Enlarged from coins in the British Museum.

EUDOXIA AND PULCHERIA 330
Enlarged from coins in the British Museum.

PLACIDIA AND EUPHEMIA 342
Enlarged from coins in the British Museum.

THE EMPRESSES OF ROME