Julia Domna: Syrian Empress Barbara Levick Julia Domna's influence on her age, unlike that of most women of the ancient Rome, has not been underestimated. Throughout history she has been regarded as one of the most important figures to operate behind the imperial throne. In fact, as the Emperor Septimius Severus' prized and respected wife and the loyal mother of Caracalla, who joined them and their armies in their travels, she was on hand for all the Emperors' decisions and a figure visible throughout the Empire. Yet her fame has come at a price. As part of a dynasty which used force and violence to preserve its rule, she was distrusted by its subjects; as a Syrian, she was the object of prejudice; as a woman with power, she was resented. Such judgments have been persistent; some modern historians blame Julia and her dynasty for the century of crisis that followed their rule, for the corruption of the Empire, civil war, oriental despotism, and exotic novelties in the imperial cult. On the other hand, Domna was the centre of a literary circle considered highly significant by nineteenth-century admirers. This book contains an overdue reassessment of these assumptions: * Was Julia more powerful than earlier empresses? * Did she really promote despotism? * How seriously is her literary circle to be taken? This book covers Julia's life, and charts her travels form Aswan to York during a period of profound upheaval, seeking the truth about this woman who inspired such extreme and contrasting views, exposing the instability of our sources about her, and characterizing a sympathetic, courageous, intelligent, and important woman. Barbara Levick Is Emeritus Fellow and Tutor in Literae Humaniores at St. Hilda's College, Oxford. She is the author of Claudius (1990), Vespasian (1999) and Tiberius the Politician (ed. 2, 2000), and co-editor, with Richard Hawley, of Women in Antiquity: New Assessments (1995).