Fulvia Plautilla Empress
She was the first wife of Caracalla from 202 to 205. She was born in 182 by Fulvius Plautianus who became Prefect of the Praetorian in 197 during the reign of Septimius Severus. In 198 Septimius joined his son Caracalla in power; Caracalla was 10 years old and he was betrothed Plautilla who had already 16 years; for the wedding they had to wait at least 14 years old of the groom and so Plautilla became Augusta in 202.
Gaius Fulvius Plautianus, born in Leptis Magna as Septimius Severus of his mother Fulvia Pia was almost certainly relative, had arrived in Rome and in the places of power as a trusted man of the new emperor; When Septimius Severus became emperor rewarded him with the highest office that could have a non-patrician: prefect of Praetorian.
Maybe after the engagement of Plautilla with Caracalla, Plautianus was admitted in the order senatorial, and with an extraordinary procedure, promoted and wanted by the emperor, he was awarded of the consular ornaments (ornamenta consularia), as that becoming an honorary consul, not effective.
In 203, after the marriage of Plautilla, Plautianus got a real consulate and, as a father in law, he became the third in succession right after Bassianus (Caracalla), and Geta. His power and its connection with the imperial family is confirmed by the presence in the relief Arch of Septimius Severus at Leptis Magna where the character is that it is near Publius Septimius Geta, the older brother of Septimius Severus, but by his body was removed the face for damnatio memoriae.
In court circles in Rome he was not loved his excessive protagonism attitudes and rumors were circulating that he aspired to the succession to Septimius Severus. In fact for a number of Septimius Severus political decisions, worried to remove power at the Senate, who concentrated administrative power and tax collection in the hands of the officers who had favored his rise, first of all Plautianus, he found himself to be the first prefect to be admitted into Curia and became chief of the penal officials with jurisdiction in the hundred miles from Rome. What allowed him to make the power he derived from this charge history not told but you know that in 205 Plautianus was the richest and most powerful man in Rome.
This could be the reason for triggering the hate of Caracalla and the order to kill him; the murder took place under the eyes of Septimius Severus who evidently, fearing too much influence of his old friend, he agreed: Plautianus was thrown out of a window of the imperial palace.
After the assassination, Caracalla also asked at the Senate to decree damnatio memories for Plautianus and his name was deleted from every inscription. The father's misfortune befell Plautilla from which Caracalla asked to divorce immediately accusing her of adulterous conduct.
In reality Bassianus (Caracalla) had never loved Plautilla and already shortly after the wedding hated her, and he did not sleep with her to avoid having children but it seems that in 204 Plautilla had a daughter that you do not know the name.
The human story of Plautilla little is known about, in addition to a better not substantiated guilty of licentiousness which served to Caracalla for a divorce and exile her on the island of Lipari after having taken away all the goods according to the lex Julia.
He was exiled with his brother Hortensius (and perhaps with the baby) and she lived on the island until 211, when after the death of Septimius Severus, was killed by the order of Caracalla. She was 25 years old ...
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by M.L. ©ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (Ed 1.0 - 17/12/2016)