#justiceforplautilla

Fulvia Plautilla bust at the Getty Villa

Who was Fulvia Plautilla?

She was the hapless young bride of Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, otherwise known as Caracalla to you and me. Not the greatest guy, to put it mildly.

Married to cement her Father’s political legacy, she was most likely close to 14 when she was handed over to the cruel son of Emperor Septimius Severus. She may have conceived a daughter but there is scant evidence the union was consummated. Caracalla managed to have her father killed for treason, and Plautilla was banished to live the rest of her days in exile, until she was strangled upon his orders.

She remains a sad little footnote in history. Until now.

When I learned about Plautilla, I could not stop thinking about what her life must have been like. Did she love anyone? What made her happy? She was barely old enough to know herself before she was handed over, from one man to another, for the purpose their self-aggrandizement. Did she sing? Dance? Did she have a pet?

The lone adjective Cassius Dio used to describe her was ‘profligate’: extravagant or wasteful of resources. Perhaps she would order platters of food just to taste them. Perhaps she covered her arms in so many gold bracelets she clinked when she walked. Maybe she was obsessed with villas and demanded real estate from her husband (she wouldn’t have been the first unhappy wife to do this).

Perhaps she just wanted something that was hers and hers alone.

While I was writing Empress in Exile, my north star was ‘Justice for Plautilla’. I wanted to give voice to someone who was never given one even though she lived through one of the most turbulent periods of the Roman Empire. I wanted to give her the life she deserved.

Time will tell if readers consider it a story worth reading.

#fulviaplautilla #herstory