Empresses taking charge? The powerful women of the Severan house in the literary sources

In modern scholarship as well as in ancient sources, the empresses of the Severan dynasty—in particular Julia Domna, Julia Maesa, Julia Soaemias and Julia Mammaea—are often credited with an extraordinary amount of political power. This article examines how the elite male authors who are responsible for our literary record characterise and evaluate these imperial women and their alleged transgression of traditional gender roles. Our main accounts of the four Julias exhibit many literary tropes associated with powerful women, painting them as devious schemers plotting to overthrow emperors, as domineering (grand)mothers and as depraved women signalling political corruption. However, the inconsistent application of these tropes indicates that the Severan empresses never truly take centre stage in Greco-Roman historical narratives, but primarily serve to reflect on the virtues and vices of the emperors and other powerful men with whom they are associated.