Sisters at War: The Rise and Fall of Elagabalus

The Ancients

History Hit

History

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 8 August 2021

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Often found high on the list of Rome’s worst emperors, the short reign of the teenager Elegabalus in the early 3rd century AD is filled with controversy. But it was also a time when several remarkable women came to the fore in the Roman Empire, playing central roles in both the rise and fall of this young emperor. In this podcast late Severan Empresses expert Matilda Brown, currently studying for her PhD at Edinburgh University and old amigo of Tristan, came on the show to shine a light on these female figures: Julia Maesa, Julia Soaemias and Julia Mamaea. From a dramatic battle outside Antioch to a deadly sibling rivalry that ended in bloodshed, this was an awesome chat.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	It's the ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes your host and in today's podcast
0:09.0	where there's a very special podcast for myself because our guest today is Matilda Brown
0:14.2	from the University of Edinburgh. Matilda was a student at the university alongside myself
0:20.6	a few years back we were in the same year we did some of the same courses together whereas
0:25.3	I tutored off to do the easiest stuff of going and speaking to a microphone a few days
0:29.0	a week for the podcast Matilda she stayed on at the university she is now working on her
0:34.2	PhD on Imperial women of the late Severan Dynasty. It was great to get her on the show. As you
0:41.2	know on this podcast I'm very much open to interviewing up and rising talent in the ancient
0:45.9	history academic world and Matilda is certainly one of those figures. In this podcast we focus
0:52.0	in on three extraordinary women from the late Severan Dynasty including Julia Memea,
0:57.3	Julia Miser and Julia whose surname as you will hear I continue to struggle to pronounce
1:02.2	correctly throughout the whole length of this podcast. So Emias we also talk around the central
1:08.8	emperor of these three figures in the early 220s AD and this figure is arguably the most infamous
1:15.1	the worst Roman emperor of them all, Ella Gabelus. We start with the rise of Ella Gabelus and an
1:21.0	incredible clash which occurs outside the ancient city of Antioch and end it with the full of Ella
1:26.2	Gabelus in 222 which culminates in two of these important women, two sisters getting into a deadly
1:33.8	rhetorical clash with one another sisters at war as they battled for control for the support
1:40.3	of the Praetorian Guard for their offspring. So that further ado here's Matilda to talk about
1:47.0	these late Severan imperial women sisters at war the rise and fall of Ella Gabelus.
1:59.7	Matilda it is great to have you on the podcast. Thank you so much for having me Tristan I'm really
2:05.6	excited to talk about later Severan women today. Me too and it's great to see you again after so many
2:11.9	years. Last time I saw you was undergraduate time at the University of Edinburgh studying ancient
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.