Julia Domna — Empress from Homs
Roman empress from Emesa (Homs), wife of Septimius Severus and patron of intellectuals
The daughter of Homs's temple priest who became "Mother of the Camps" and mother of two emperors.
Julia Domna was born around 160 CE in Emesa (Homs) in Syria, the daughter of Julius Bassianus, priest of the sun god Elagabal at the city's famous temple. Around 187 CE she married the Roman officer Septimius Severus, who became emperor in 193 CE, making her empress for nearly eighteen years.
She accompanied her husband on military campaigns, earning from the army the title "Mother of the Camps" (Mater Castrorum), and gave birth to the future emperors Caracalla and Geta. She was renowned as a patron of intellectuals, surrounding herself with philosophers, sophists, and jurists; the writer Philostratus records that she commissioned his "Life of Apollonius of Tyana."
After her son Caracalla was murdered in 217 CE and Macrinus took the throne, she was forced to leave Rome for Antioch, where she ended her life by refusing food in the same year; according to the ancient sources, she had long suffered from a tumour in her breast.
A few years later, her sister Julia Maesa — also from Homs — engineered the Severan family's return to power through her grandson Elagabalus. Julia Domna is counted among the most powerful women of Rome, and dozens of coin types bearing her portrait circulated across the empire.
