Lollia Paulina

Family

Lollia Paulina's father was Marcus Lollius Paulinus, who was a formal consul, and her mother was Volusia Saturnina, a sister of senator and consul Lucius Volusius Saturninus. Her maternal grandmother was a distant relative to Emperor Tiberius. Her father's maternal uncle was senator and consul Marcus Aurelius Cotta Maximus Messalinus and paternal grandfather was the general Marcus Lollius Paulinus. Paulina's younger sister was Lollia Saturnina who was married to the consul Decimus Valerius Asiaticus and by whom she had a son. Paulina became rich after inheriting her relative's estates.

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Marriages

Paulina's first husband, Publius Memmius Regulus, was suffect consul in CE 31 and a Roman Governor. Tacitus describes him as a man of 'dignity, who was a person of influence and good name'. Regulus died in CE 62.

In CE 38, Paulina was with Regulus at the province he was governing when Caligula ordered her to leave her husband upon overhearing a remark about her grandmother's beauty — Paulina was forced to divorce Regulus and marry Caligula, becoming his third wife and Empress that same year. Caligula divorced her after six months of marriage, ostensibly because she was infertile, and forbade her to sleep with or associate with another man.

Sometime later, Paulina became a rival to Caligula's sister Agrippina the Younger and was considered a choice for fourth wife of Caligula's uncle, the Emperor Claudius, following the death of Claudius's third wife, the Empress Valeria Messalina. In CE 49, Agrippina, then married to Claudius, had Paulina charged with sorcery. Without a hearing, Paulina's property was confiscated and she was sent into exile.

Tacitus reported that Paulina was forced to commit suicide under the watch of a colonel of the Guards, and implied that this was done under Agrippina's orders.

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Reputation

Lollia Paulina is mentioned in Pliny the Elder's Natural History as an example of Roman ostentation, reportedly for wearing a large share of her inheritance to a dinner party in the form of jewelry worth some 40 million sesterces.^[2] Pliny's complaint was made in the context of Rome spending enormous amounts for importing India's 'useless' pepper and pearls, as worn by Lollia Paulina even around her shoes. A sepulchre was not erected in her honor until the reign of the Emperor Nero.

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References

^ Aut. E. Groag, A. Stein, L. Petersen - e.a. (edd.), Prosopographia Imperii Romani saeculi I, II et III, Berlin, 1933-x, L 308. (PIR²)
^ Prof. Menachery, George, quoted in Kodungallur, 1987, 2000.

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Primary sources

Ancient Library 1904
Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars
Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome
Robert Graves, I, Claudius

Royal titles
Preceded by Livia Orestilla	Empress of Rome 38	Succeeded by Milonia Caesonia

v t e Roman emperors

Principate 27 BC – 235 AD	Augustus Tiberius Caligula Claudius Nero Galba Otho Vitellius Vespasian Titus Domitian Nerva Trajan Hadrian Antoninus Pius Marcus Aurelius with Lucius Verus Commodus Pertinax Didius Julianus Septimius Severus Caracalla Geta Macrinus with Diadumenian Elagabalus Alexander Severus

Crisis 235–284	Maximinus Thrax Gordian I and Gordian II Pupienus and Balbinus Gordian III Philip the Arab Decius with Herennius Etruscus Hostilian Trebonianus Gallus with Volusianus Aemilianus Valerian Gallienus with Saloninus Claudius Gothicus Quintillus Aurelian Tacitus Florianus Probus Carus Carinus Numerian

Dominate 284–395	Diocletian Maximian Constantius Chlorus Galerius Severus Maxentius Maximinus Daia Licinius with Valerius Valens and Martinianus Constantine the Great Constantine II Constans I Constantius II with Vetranio Julian Jovian Valentinian I Valens Gratian Valentinian II Theodosius I

Western Empire 395–480	Honorius with Constantine III Constantius III Joannes Valentinian III Petronius Maximus Avitus Majorian Libius Severus Anthemius Olybrius Glycerius Julius Nepos Romulus Augustulus

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