Fulvia Plautillaanálisis histórico y arqueológico de una emperatriz de los Severos

Abstract

The main objective of this dissertation is the integral study of the figure of Fulvia Plautilla, wife of the Roman Emperor Caracalla. Her scarce presence in literary sources, besides the importance that Julia Domna had in the government of Septimus Severus and, later, of Caracalla, has determined that she has not been treated with special attention neither by her contemporaries nor by the most recent historiography. In the first part, two fundamental axes have been developed. The first concerns the historical-diachronic study of her figure, from the moment we have news of her, related to her marriage, until her death at the hands of her husband, prior to her retirement to Lipari. For this purpose, we have undertaken an exhaustive analysis of the classical written and epigraphic sources, as well as the main theories and historiographic hypotheses put forward in the last two centuries. Secondly, we have paid special attention to the importance that it had as a fundamental part of the policy of consensus developed by Septimus Severus. Moreover, Fulvia Plautilla was also used by Plautianus, her father and one of the most feared praetorian prefects of Rome, as a guarantee of her stability. Having undertaken this task, the second part of the Thesis systematically catalogues and studies all the sources associated with the Augusta, whether they are inscriptions, portraits or coins. To this end, we have produced three major catalogues, analysing their items from a broad and rigorous historiographic perspective. This does not imply that all the portraits or inscriptions studied correspond to her, as we have collected all the material testimonies that at one time were ascribed to her by the scientific literature. We believe that the main starting point has been achieved and with this we can see that, beyond the importance that the young wife of Caracalla may have had in her time, she constituted an important piece in the ideological discourse developed during a crucial period of the History of Rome such as the beginning of the Severan dynasty. In addition to aspects of classicism, others were introduced, such as the irruption of the military apparatus in the imperial Chancellery, which proclaimed the complex times that would occur years later and would lead to the period known as the Late Empire.