Maria (empress)

Maria
5th-century cameo depicting Maria (right) and her husband Honorius (left)
Roman empress (in the West)
Tenure	398 – 407
Born	c. 384
Died	407 Ravenna
Burial	Old St. Peter's Basilica
Spouse	Honorius
Dynasty	Theodosian
Father	Stilicho
Mother	Serena

Maria (died 407) was a Roman empress as the first wife of the Western Roman Emperor Honorius. She was the daughter of the general Stilicho. It is uncertain when she was born, but she must have been no older than fourteen at the time of her marriage. Maria had no children, and died in 407. After her death, Honorius married her sister Thermantia.

Family

Maria was a daughter of Stilicho, magister militum of the Western Roman Empire, and Serena. Her siblings were Eucherius and Thermantia. "De Consulatu Stilichonis" by Claudian reports that her unnamed paternal grandfather was a cavalry officer under Valens, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire. Orosius clarifies that her paternal grandfather was a Romanized Vandal.^[1] The fragmentary chronicle of John of Antioch, a 7th-century monk tentatively identified with John of the Sedre, Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch from 641 to 648^[2] calls the grandfather a Scythian, probably following Late Antique practice to dub any people inhabiting the Pontic–Caspian steppe as "Scythians", regardless of their language. Jerome calls Stilicho a semibarbarian, which has been interpreted to mean that Maria's unnamed paternal grandmother was a Roman.^[1]

The poem "In Praise of Serena" by Claudian and the "Historia Nova" by Zosimus clarify that Maria's maternal grandfather was an elder Honorius, a brother to Theodosius I.^[3][4] Genealogists consider it likely that Maria was named after her maternal grandmother, tentatively giving said grandmother the name "Maria".^[5][6]

Marriage

In c. February, 398, Maria married Honorius, a cousin of her mother.^[7] In the Epithalamion written in their honor, the poet Claudian places his flattering description of Maria in the mouth of Venus, a Roman goddess principally associated with love, beauty and fertility.^[8]

The date of her parents’ marriage is usually given as the year 384,^[9] meaning that Maria would be, at most, 14 years old at the time of her marriage.^[6]

Empress

During her marriage to Honorius, she had no children, which some ancient sources attributed to underhanded tactics. Zosimus blamed Serena,^[10] while Philostorgius blamed Stilicho.^[11] Doyle characterized Zosimus’ report of Serena administering drugs to her son-in-law for years as “outlandish.”^[12] After her death in 407,^[13] her sister Thermantia went on to marry Honorius.

References

Sources

• Jones, A.H.M.; J.R. Martindale & J. Morris (1971). Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-07233-6.
• Jones, A. H. M. (1992). The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire: Volume 2, AD 395-527. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521201599.