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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Orielensis, post: 7436712, member: 96898&quot;]Here is a recent purchase that, at least in my eyes, deserves a short write-up:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1290549[/ATTACH] </p><p><font size="3">Julia Soaemias, Roman Empire, AR denarius, 218–222 AD, Rome mint. Obv: IVLIA SOAEMIAS AVG, bust of Julia Soaemias, draped, r., hair waved and turned up low at the back. Rev: VENVS CAELESTIS; Venus, diademed, draped, seated l., holding apple in extended r. hand and sceptre in l. hand; at feet, child. 19mm, 3.39g. Ref: RIC IV Elagabalus 243. Ex Artemide, eLive auction 17, lot 506.</font></p><p><br /></p><p>I very much like Severan denarii, and Julia Soaemias has been one of the few Severan women that I didn&#039;t yet have a portrait of. As if that weren&#039;t reason enough to buy this coin, she also is a fascinating historical figure.</p><p><br /></p><p>Julia Soaemias was a niece of Julia Domna, the wife of the emperor Septimius Severus. That didn&#039;t exactly make her the obvious next empress. But after the assassination of Caracalla in 217 AD, there was no male Severan heir left. Julia Soaemias and her mother Julia Maesa seized the opportunity, defeated the interim emperor Macrinus, and installed Julia Soaemias&#039; son Elagabalus on the imperial throne.</p><p><br /></p><p>Elagabalus&#039; reign unfortunately was successful only in scandalizing the Roman aristocracy. Julia Soaemias appears to have tried to exercise as much influence as possible during this time. According to Cassius Dio, she was the only women in Roman history who ever entered the senate &quot;as though she were a member&quot; (Historia Augusta Elag. 4.2). That didn&#039;t prevent the situation from escalating. When a bloody conflict within the Severan family ensued in 222 AD, Julia Soaemias and her son were murdered. The public anger at Elagabalus also carried over to his mother: &quot;Julia Soemias is the only empress recorded whose corpse was desecrated publicly as an act of <i>poena post mortem</i>&quot; (Varner: Mutilation and Transformation: Damnatio Memoriae and Roman Imperial Portraiture [Leiden/Boston: Brill 2004], 195).</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Please post your coins of Julia Soaemias and her relatives!</b>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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