Flavia Maximiana Theodora

Flavia Maximiana Theodora, also known as Theodora, was a Roman Empress, wife of Constantius Chlorus.

Flavia Maximiana Theodora
Flavia Maximiana Theodora. On the reverse, the goddess Pietas.
Empress of the Roman Empire
Tenure	305–306 (alongside Galeria Valeria)
Born	before 275
Spouse	Constantius Chlorus
Issue	Flavius Dalmatius Julius Constantius Hannibalianus Anastasia Flavia Julia Constantia Eutropia
Father	Uncertain, perhaps Consul Afranius Hannibalianus or Emperor Maximian
Mother	Uncertain, perhaps Eutropia

She is often referred to as a stepdaughter of Emperor Maximian by ancient sources, leading to claims by historians Otto Seeck and Ernest Stein that she was born from an earlier marriage between Eutropia, wife of Maximian, and Afranius Hannibalianus.[1] This man was consul in 292 and praetorian prefect under Diocletian.

Timothy Barnes challenges this view stating that all "stepdaughter sources" derive their information from the partially unreliable work Kaisergeschichte (written in the 4th century), while more reliable sources refer Theodora as Maximian's natural daughter.[2] He concludes that she was born no later than c. 275 to an unnamed earlier wife of Maximian, possibly one of Hannibalianus' daughters.[3]

In 293, Theodora married Flavius Valerius Julius Constantius (later known as Constantius Chlorus), after he had divorced from his first wife, Helena, to strengthen his political position. The couple had six children:

• Flavius Dalmatius;
• Julius Constantius, father of Roman Emperor Julian and of the unnamed wife of Constantius II;
• Hannibalianus;
• Anastasia, who was to marry Bassianus;
• Flavia Julia Constantia, wife of Roman Emperor Licinius;
• Eutropia, mother of Nepotianus.

References

1. Aurelius Victor, Epitome de Caesaribus 39.25; Eutropius, Breviaria 9.22; Jerome, Chronicle 225^g; Epitome de Caesaribus 39.2, 40.12, quoted in Timothy Barnes, New Empire, 33; Barnes, New Empire, 33.
2. Origo Constantini 2; Philostorgius, Historia Ecclesiastica 2.16^a, quoted in Barnes, New Empire, 33. See also Panegyrici Latini 10(2)11.4.
3. Barnes, New Empire, 33–34.

Bibliography

• Barnes, Timothy D.. The New Empire of Diocletian and Constantine. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982. ISBN 0-7837-2221-4

External links

Media related to Flavia Maximiana Theodora at Wikimedia Commons