Julia Domna

Abstract

``The philosopher Julia,'' as she is called by a 3rd century historian, lived during the period which followed Marcus Aurelius the Stoic and preceded Plotinus the Neoplatonist.1 Though, so far as we know, she did not write any philosophical works, she devoted herself to the study of philosophy when her busy life as an empress permitted. Among those who have been called philosophers she is, with the possible exception of Marcus Aurelius, unique in having her name on more than three hundred and fifty different varieties of coins and on more than one hundred and eighty public buildings or statues and in being officially declared a divinity.2