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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;brassnautilus, post: 2312936, member: 74300&quot;]Ancient marriages among influential families were more like political deals, where look probably didn&#039;t matter much.</p><p>I also find it hard to believe that all these noble women showed no sign of obesity. It&#039;s not like they had gyms or liposuction...</p><p>In the few cases, where the emperor chose his own bride (octavian, elagabalus) or shown serious affections (severus alexander, caligula), I think we can believe the girls were genuinely good looking.</p><p><br /></p><p>Actually, we aren&#039;t sure whether Elagabalus was really attracted to Aquilia Severa, it could be a religious/symbolic union. Elagabalus wasn&#039;t really testosterone driven.</p><p>Nevertheless, she was a vestal virgin. I&#039;m sure they didn&#039;t pick ugly girls for that.</p><p>Punishment for a vestal virgin who broke her vow of celibacy was death by getting buried alive. Not only did she get out of that, she also survived Elagabalus&#039; death, in that sense she was extremely fortunate.</p><p><img src="http://oi68.tinypic.com/rmjyu8.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>In this sense, at least Julia Mamaea didn&#039;t go out of her way to kill Aquilia. One can imagine her state of mind after death of her sister and nephew, yet she left the girl to live, despite she was directly linked to the whole thing.</p><p>I think Julia Mamaea had some good qualities, unlike her son who was just down right despicable. She also accompanied her son to the battlefield like Julia Donna before her. Foolish, perhaps, but these women had guts.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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