c. 160–217
Julia Domna was born into the priestly royal family of Emesa and married the future emperor Septimius Severus. She accompanied the imperial court during military campaigns, cultivated a circle of intellectuals and became a central figure in the Severan dynasty as the mother of Caracalla and Geta.
After Severus died, the brothers’ rivalry ended with Geta’s murder and a purge of his supporters. Her position makes her both a dynastic power broker and a mother attempting to preserve an imperial house fractured by Caracalla’s rule. Julia Domna was Roman empress as the wife of Septimius Severus and the mother of Caracalla and Geta.
Simon Turney’s Caracalla grows up inside the dynasty created by Septimius Severus and Julia Domna, sharing imperial status with his brother Geta while courtiers turn rivalry between the two heirs into a question of survival. In Gillian Bradshaw’s Dark North, in 208 CE, Emperor Septimius Severus arrives in Britain with his sons and an immense Roman force determined to break resistance north of Hadrian’s Wall. Memnon, an African cavalry scout serving with the army, is pulled into the imperial household after rescuing a young attendant of Empress Julia Domna. Julia Domna is treated fictionally in Alex Gough’s Emperor’s Knife, Georg Ebers’ A Thorny Path, Alex Gough’s Emperor’s Axe, Alex Gough’s Emperor’s Fate, and Alex Gough’s Emperor’s Lion.
