Antinoan Connections: Goddesses and Antinous–Aelia Domitia Paulina

Hadrian eventually followed Trajan’s example in deifying his elder sister Aelia Domitia Paulina Minor, who preceded Hadrian in death just as Marciana did Trajan; but, he took a lot of criticism for this because he did not do so immediately, as she seems to have died during the same year in which Antinous died, 130 CE.

Paulina seems to have been born in c. 75 CE, about a year before Hadrian, to Domitia Paulina Major and Publius Aelius Hadrianus Afer. Afer’s maternal cousins were Ulpia Marciana and Ulpius Traianus (i.e. the Emperor Trajan). Paulina Major died in about 85 or 86 CE, and Afer died not long after, whereupon Paulina Minor and Hadrian went to live with Trajan’s family. Before Trajan’s accession to the principate in 98, Paulina Minor had a marriage arranged by him to the Spanish Roman politician (indeed, both Trajan and Hadrian’s families were of Spanish provincial origin) Lucius Julius Ursus Servianus. They had a daughter, Julia Serviana Paulina, who was born before the death of Trajan, and whose husband Gnaeus Pedanius Fuscus Salinator eventually gave her a child of the same name in 118, who was groomed to be Hadrian’s heir.

In 130, Aelia Domitia Paulina died, and Hadrian and Servianus held a private funeral for her together. It then seemed that Hadrian would adopt the young Salinator to be his heir, as Servianus had encouraged for many years. However, both Servianus and the younger Salinator were executed by Hadrian to prevent this when Hadrian adopted his first heir, Aelius Caesar. This did not sit well with many people, but we hear nothing about what Julia Serviana Paulina thought of the execution of her son and father after the death of her mother, and she seems to disappear from the record. However, it does seem that Aelia Domitia Paulina was sometimes syncretized with Selene later, and may have come into cultic association with Antinous through such means, in addition to being honored in Antinoöpolis with a phyla named after her, with demoi in it named for Isis and Cybele (amongst others).

Ave Diva Aelia Domitia Paulina! Ave Ave Antinoe!