The Power of Domitia

sulla80
7 hours ago
4 min read

Today's coin of interest is a small provincial bronze with a portrait of Domitia wife of Domitian, pleasing green patina and a little dirt (literally and metaphorically).

Suetonius was clearly not a big fan of Domitian - neither were the senators - when news of his death broke - Suetonius writes:

"The senators on the contrary were so overjoyed, that they raced to fill the House, where they did not refrain from assailing the dead emperor with the most insulting and stinging kind of outcries." 
-Suetonius, Life of Domitian, 23

Domitian & Julia Flavia

Suetonius shares stories of Domitian's excesses - this one a scandal that could not have endeared the Domitian to his brother Titus.

"He was excessively lustful. His constant sexual intercourse he called bed-wrestling, as if it were a kind of exercise. It was reported that he depilated his concubines with his own hand and swam with common prostitutes. After persistently refusing his niece, who was offered him in marriage when she was still a maid, because he was entangled in an intrigue with Domitia, he seduced her shortly afterwards when she became the wife of another, and that too during the lifetime of Titus. Later, when she was bereft of father and husband, he loved her ardently and without disguise, and even became the cause of her death by compelling her to get rid of a child of his by abortion." 
-Suetonius, Life of Domitian, 22

Juvenal (Satire 2) wrote poetically about Domitian, and Domitian's alleged incestuous relationship with his niece Julia Flavia, daughter of his brother Titus:

ex Satire 2 (Juvenal) 

"qualis erat nuper tragico pollutus adulterconcubitu, qui tunc leges revocabat amarasomnibus atque ipsis Veneri Martique timendas,cum tot abortivis fecundam Iulia vulvamsolveret et patruo similes effunderet offas"

Translation:

“Like that recent adulterer, polluted by a tragic incestuous affair,who at that very time revived harsh moral laws,feared even by Venus and Mars themselves,while Julia’s fertile womb was emptied by repeated abortions,spilling forth shapeless offspring resembling her uncle.”

Domitia's Bloodline

Domitia was Augustus' great-great-great-great-granddaughter & great-niece-by-marriage of the long-dead emperor Caligula, through an aunt who had died before she was born. Domitia managed to survive cheating on the emperor with an actor named Paris. She certainly seems to have had the upper hand.

"He had had a son by her in his second consulship, whom he lost the second year after he became emperor; he divorced her because of her love for the actor Paris, but could not bear the separation and soon took her back, alleging that the people demanded it." 
-Suetonius, Life of Domitian, 3

Perhaps especially surprising given Domitian seems to have had difficulty taking a joke. Her first husband, Aelius Lamia, kept making bitter quips about Domitian taking his wife. Suetonius preserves one in which, when Titus suggests that Lamia remarry, he replied "What, are you looking for a wife too?" Titus gave him a suffect consulship in 80 (which may have been a deliberate poke at Domitian). When Domitian became emperor, he had Lamia executed, allegedly on account of the jokes.

Domitia somehow managed to survive

Although, the Paris affair may be literary invention rather than recoverable fact. She certainly seems to have had the upper hand and enough personal power that she didn't become a scandalous footnote. She survived even the post-96 transition (death of Domitian and his damnatio memoriae) with no serious consequences, remained a visible Augusta, and may even have retained a limited public role after Domitian’s death.

The Hands of Power

They sent her away when the theater still rang
With Paris’ soft sandals and dangerous songs;
Domitian, red-eyed with imperial pride,
Could master the Senate - not the rumor inside.

She vanished to villas where olives bent low,
While Rome whispered scandals wherever wine flowed;Yet back to the Palatine quietly she came,
Still Augusta in gold, still bearing his name.

And when steel found the emperor deep in the night,
Some said Domitia had a hand in the fight.

Domitia the industrialist

Among the most striking and little-known facts: Domitia was one of the great female landowners and producers of imperial Rome. Päivi Setälä's catalog of Private Domini in Roman Brick Stamps documents her as a dominus figlinarum - proprietor of brickyards (figlinae) in the Tiber valley.

Her gardens became Castel Sant'Angelo.

The Horti Domitiae on the right bank of the Tiber were her private estate. It was on her land, after her death, that Hadrian built his Mausoleum (today's Castel Sant'Angelo). The gardens conjtinued to be known my her name into the reign of Aurelian, almost two centuries after her death, which is remarkable given Domitian's official condemnation.

Map of Provincial coins with portraits of Domitia from Roman Provincial Coinage

Her coinage was unusually widespread.

More than 50 eastern cities minted coins for Domitia, more than for Julia Titi, Marciana, Matidia, or Plotina, and even more than for many better-known imperial women. Domitian’s face has sometimes been found defaced under damnatio memoriae while Domitia’s portrait was left untouched, suggesting she retained a surprisingly strong standing in the Greek East. Here is my coin (RPC II 1336) featuring Domitia & grapes.

Based on RPC - there are 55 cities + 1 uncertain = 56 entries and a total of 102 coin types that include a portrait of Domitia.

Crete - Lappa (1)
Achaea - Magnesia (1)
Macedonia - Amphipolis (2), Stobi (1)
Thrace - Calchedon (1)
Bithynia-Pontus- Prusias ad Hypium (1)
Asia - Cistophoric mint (1), Mytilene (1), Pergamum (3), Nacrasa (4), Thyatira (2), Elaea (1), Myrina (1), Phocaea (1), Temnus (1), Magnesia ad Sipylum (1), Mostene (1), Smyrna (4), Teos (1), Colophon (1), Metropolis (1), Nicaea Cilbianorum (1), Cilbiani Superiores (2), Ephesus (8), Tralles (2), Nysa (1), Samos (3), Cos (4), Harpasa (1), Attuda (1), Heraclea Salbace (1), Sebastopolis (1), Tabae (2), Cibyra (3), Laodicea ad Lycum (8), Sardis (2), Philadelphia (2), Sala (3), Silandus (1), Cadi (1), Aezani (1), Ancyra (3), Iulia Gordus (1), Eumenea (1), Synnada (1), Docimeum (1), Cotiaeum (1)
Galatia-Cappadocia - Caesarea (4)
Cilicia - Mopsus (1), Irenopolis (2), Aegeae (2), Epiphanea (1), Corycus (1)
Judaea - Gaba (1)
Egypt - Alexandria (1)
Uncertain - (2)