Marina Severa (died before 375) was the Empress of Rome and first wife of Emperor

Valentinian I Valentinian I ( la, Valentinianus; 32117 November 375), sometimes called Valentinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 364 to 375. Upon becoming emperor, he made his brother Valens his co-emperor, giving him rule of the eastern provinces. Vale ...

. She was the mother of later Emperor

Gratian Gratian (; la, Gratianus; 18 April 359 – 25 August 383) was emperor of the Western Roman Empire from 367 to 383. The eldest son of Valentinian I, Gratian accompanied his father on several campaigns along the Rhine and Danube frontiers and w ...

. Her full name is unknown. Marina Severa is a combination of the two names given in primary sources.

Socrates of Constantinople Socrates of Constantinople ( 380 – after 439), also known as Socrates Scholasticus ( grc-gre, Σωκράτης ὁ Σχολαστικός), was a 5th-century Greek Christian church historian, a contemporary of Sozomen and Theodoret. He is th ...

calls her "Severa" while

John Malalas John Malalas ( el, , ''Iōánnēs Malálas''; – 578) was a Byzantine chronicler from Antioch (now Antakya, Turkey). Life Malalas was of Syrian descent, and he was a native speaker of Syriac who learned how to write in Greek later i ...

, the ''

Chronicon Paschale ''Chronicon Paschale'' (the ''Paschal'' or ''Easter Chronicle''), also called ''Chronicum Alexandrinum'', ''Constantinopolitanum'' or ''Fasti Siculi'', is the conventional name of a 7th-century Greek Christian chronicle of the world. Its name com ...

'' and

John of Nikiû John of Nikiû (fl. 680-690) was an Egyptian Coptic bishop of Nikiû (Pashati) in the Nile Delta and general administrator of the monasteries of Upper Egypt in 696. He is the author of a ''Chronicle'' extending from Adam to the end of the Muslim ...

name her "Marina".

Life

Marina Severa married Valentinian before he ascended to the throne. Their son, Gratian was born in 359 at

Sirmium Sirmium was a city in the Roman province of Pannonia, located on the Sava river, on the site of modern Sremska Mitrovica in the Vojvodina autonomous provice of Serbia. First mentioned in the 4th century BC and originally inhabited by Illyrian ...

Pannonia Pannonia (, ) was a province of the Roman Empire bounded on the north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia. Pannonia was located in the territory that is now wes ...

. Valentinian was chosen emperor in 364. He divorced his wife around 370 to marry Justina, widow of usurper

Magnentius Magnus Magnentius ( 303 – 11 August 353) was a Roman general and usurper against Constantius II from 350 to 353. Of Germanic descent, Magnentius served with distinction in Gaul under the Western emperor Constans. On 18 January 350 Magnentius ...

. According to

: This account was dismissed by later historians whose interpretation of it was an unlikely legalization of bigamy. However Timothy Barnes and others consider this decision to only allow various Romans to divorce and then remarry. The controversy being that Christianity had yet to accept the concept of a divorce. Barnes considers that Valentinian was willing to go forth with the legal reformation in pursuit of dynastic legitimacy that would secure his presence on the throne. Timothy Barnes, "Ammianus Marcellinus and the Representation of Historical Reality" (1998), pages 123-125

, the

and

report Severa to have been banished because of involvement in an illegal transaction. Barnes considers this story to be an attempt to justify the divorce of Valentinian I without blaming the emperor. According to the account of John of Nikiû: When Valentinian died in 375, he was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, next to his first wife.

References

Sources

External links

Section about her in "Ammianus Marcellinus and the Representation of Historical Reality" by Timothy David Barnes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Severa, Marina Valentinianic dynasty 4th-century deaths 4th-century Christians 4th-century Roman empresses Burials at the Church of the Holy Apostles Year of birth unknown