Kinzer Coins

Authentic Ancient Roman Silver Coin of Empress Julia Maesa

Name: Authentic Ancient Roman Silver Coin of Empress Julia Maesa
Brand: Kinzer Coins
Price: 143.0 USD
Availability: OutOfStock

Authentic Ancient Roman Silver Coin of Empress Julia Maesa

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Own a Silver Coin from the Grandmother Who Ran the Roman Empire From Behind Two Emperors

A real silver-washed antoninianus of Julia Maesa — the most powerful woman of the Severan era, who engineered her family's return to the throne, orchestrated the removal of her own grandson when he became a liability, and ran the Roman Empire as its de facto ruler until her death around AD 224. NGC certified.

From $143.00

✓ NGC Certified
✓ Guaranteed Authentic
✓ 30-Day Returns

👑 Sister of Julia Domna, grandmother of two emperors — the de facto ruler of Rome who maintained her family's imperial power through political intelligence no man around her could match
🏛 Reverse depicts Pudicitia, Pietas, or Juno — traditional Roman feminine virtues projected onto a woman whose real virtue was an extraordinary capacity for ruthless political survival
🤲 Struck AD 218–224 — from the woman who engineered the end of her own grandson's reign when he became inconvenient. NGC certified.

Own This Piece of History

Why This Coin Matters

Julia Maesa spent decades at the center of Roman imperial power as the sister of Julia Domna, the empress who had effectively co-governed with Septimius Severus. When Caracalla was assassinated in AD 217 and the new emperor Macrinus pushed the Severan women out of Rome, Maesa refused to accept political irrelevance. She returned to Emesa in Syria — and began planning.

Her instrument was her grandson Elagabalus, a fourteen-year-old high priest of a Syrian sun god. Maesa spread the claim — almost certainly false but politically brilliant — that he was Caracalla's illegitimate son. The Syrian legions, always responsive to Severan dynasty claims, proclaimed him emperor. Macrinus was defeated and killed. Maesa had done in months what professional politicians might have spent decades attempting.

For four years she governed through Elagabalus — but the boy proved genuinely impossible to control. His religious extremism, his social conduct, and his complete indifference to Roman political convention were alienating the Praetorian Guard and the Senate simultaneously. When Maesa calculated that he had become more dangerous to keep than to remove, she made the coldest decision of her extraordinary career. She transferred her support to her other grandson Alexander Severus, encouraging the Praetorians to act. In AD 222, Elagabalus and his mother Soaemias were assassinated — and Maesa's more manageable grandson took the throne seamlessly. She governed through Alexander until her death around AD 224, after which the Senate deified her — the ultimate acknowledgment of a woman who had held no formal political authority yet had arguably run Rome for nearly a decade. Certified by NGC.

Perfect for:

Collectors of Severan dynasty, imperial women, and Roman silver antoniniani
History lovers drawn to Julia Maesa and the Syrian women who dominated Rome's later Severan court
Roman empress portrait, deified women, and NGC certified silver enthusiasts
Anyone seeking a historically extraordinary piece from the most politically capable woman in Roman imperial history