Julia Mamaea  - Augusta: 222-235 A.D.
Bronze 25mm (11.53 grams) of Thessalonica in Macedonia
Reference: Varbanov 4484; Touratsoglou V2/R5
IOVΛΙΑ MAMЄA AVΓ, Diademed and draped bust of Julia Mamaea right.
ΘЄCCAΛONЄIKAIΩN, Nike advancing left holding Kabeiros and palm branch.

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In Greek mythology, the Cabeiri, (Cabiri, Kabeiroi, Kabiri or Greek: Κάβειροι) were a group of enigmatic chthonic deities. They were worshiped in a mystery cult closely associated with that of Hephaestus, centered in the north Aegean islands of Lemnos and possibly Samothrace —at the Samothrace temple complex— and at Thebes. In their distant origins the Cabeiri and the Samothracian gods may include pre-Greek elements Hittite, Thracian, proto-Etruscan, or Phrygian elements. The Lemnian cult was always local to Lemnos, but the Samothracian mystery cult spread rapidly throughout the Greek world during the Hellenistic period, eventually initiating Romans.

The ancient sources disagree about whether the deities of Samothrace were Cabeiri or not; and the accounts of the two cults differ in detail. But the two islands are close to each other, at the northern end of the Aegean, and the cults are at least similar, and neither fits easily into the Olympic pantheon: the Cabeiri were given a mythic genealogy as sons of Hephaestus. The accounts of the Samothracian gods, whose names were secret, vary in the number and sexes of the gods, usually between two and four, some of either sex. The number of Cabeiri also varied, with some accounts citing four (often a pair of males and a pair of females) of them, and some even more, such as a tribe or whole race of Cabeiri, often presented as all male.

The Cabeiri were also worshipped at other sites in the vicinity, including Seuthopolis in Thrace and various sites in Asia Minor.

Origin of the Cabeiri

The Cabeiri were possibly originally Phrygian deities and protectors of sailors, who were imported into Greek ritual. Robert Beekes believes that they are of non-Indo-European, pre-Greek origin.

Depiction in literary sources

They were most commonly depicted as two people: an old man, Axiocersus, and his son, Cadmilus. Due to the cult's secrecy, however, their exact nature and relationship with other ancient Greek and Thracian religious figures remained mysterious. As a result, the membership and roles of the Cabeiri changed significantly over time, with common variants including a female pair (Axierus and Axiocersa) and twin youths who were frequently confused with Castor and Pollux, who were also worshiped as protectors of sailors. The number of Cabiri also varied, with some accounts citing four (often a pair of males and a pair of females) of them, and some even more, such as a tribe or whole race of Cabiri.

Lemnos

The Lemnians were originally non-Greek; they were Hellenized after Miltiades conquered the island for Athens in the sixth century BCE. In Lemnos the cult of the Cabeiri survived, according to achaeological evidence, through the conquest: an ancient sanctuary dedicated to the Cabeiri is identifiable by traces of inscriptions, and seems to have survived the program of Hellenization.

The geographer Strabo reported (Geogr. 10,3,21) that in Lemnos, the mother (there was no father) of the Cabeiri was Kabeiro (Greek: Καβειρώ) herself, a daughter of Proteus (one of the "old men of the sea") and a goddess whom the Greeks might have called Rhea.

In general Greek myth identifies the Cabeiri as divine craftsmen, sons or grandsons of Hephaestus, who was also chiefly worshipped on Lemnos. Aeschylus wrote a play called the Cabeiri, and the fragments that survive have them as a chorus greeting the Argonauts at Lemnos. showed them as prodigious wine-drinkers, and wine jars are "the only characteristic group of finds" from the Cabeirium of Lemnos. Walter Burkert suggests a raucous, burlesque character to the mysteries of the Cabeiri and notes an inscription at Lemnos indicates parapaizonti, the one who "jests along the way". First-fruits were offered to Zeus, Apollo, and the Cabeiri; Burkert also sees the offerings to Zeus and Apollo, father and son, as indicating an initiatory ceremony

Samothrace

The Samothracians were also originally non-Greek, and are associated with the Trojans and the Pelasgians; they used a foreign language in the temple through Julius Caesar's time.

Samothrace offered an initiatory mystery, which promised safety and prosperity to seamen. The secret of these mysteries has largely been kept; but we know that of three things about the ritual, the aspirants were asked the worst action they had ever committed.

The archaic sanctuary of Samothrace was rebuilt in Greek fashion; by classical times, the Samothrace mysteries of the Cabeiri were known at Athens, where Herodotus had been initiated. But at the entry to the sanctuary, which has been thoroughly excavated, the Roman antiquary Varro learned that there had been twin pillars of brass. He describes them as Heaven and Earth, denying the vulgar error that they are Castor and Pollux.

The mysteries of Samothrace did not publish the names of their gods; and the offerings at the shrine are all inscribed to the gods or to the great gods rather than with their names. But ancient sources tell us that there were two goddesses and a god: Axieros, Axiokersa, and Axiokersos, and their servant Cadmilos or Casmilos. Karl Kerényi conjectured that Axieros was male, and the three gods were the sons of Axiokersa (Cadmilos, the youngest, was also the father of the three); Burkert disagrees.

In Classical Greek culture the mysteries of the Cabeiri at Samothrace remained popular, though little was entrusted to writing beyond a few names and bare genealogical connections. Seamen among the Greeks might invoke the Cabeiri as "great gods" in times of danger and stress. The archaic sanctuary of Samothrace was rebuilt in Greek fashion; by classical times, the Samothrace mysteries of the Cabeiri were known at Athens. Herodotus had been initiated. But at the entry to the sanctuary, which has been thoroughly excavated, the Roman antiquary Varro learned that there had been twin pillars of brass, phallic hermae, and that in the sanctuary it was understood that the child of the Goddess, Cadmilus, was in some mystic sense also her consort.

Thebes in Boeotia

At Thebes in Boeotia there are more varied finds than on Lemnos; they include many little bronze votive bulls and which carry on into Roman times, when the traveller Pausanias, always alert to the history of cults, learned that it was Demeter Kabeiriia who instigated the initiation cult there in the name of Prometheus and his son Aitnaios. Walter Burkert (1985) writes, "This points to guilds of smiths analogous to the Lemnian Hephaistos." The votive dedications at Thebes are to a Kabeiros (Greek: Κάβειρος) in the singular, and childish toys like votive spinning tops for Pais suggest a manhood initiation. Copious wine was drunk, out of characteristic cups that were ritually smashed. Fat, primitive dwarves (similar to the followers of Silenus) with prominent genitalia were painted on the cups.

Thebes is connected to Samothrace in myth, primarily the wedding of Cadmus and Harmonia, which took place there.

Etymology

The Semitic word kabir ("great") has been compared to Κάβειροι since at least Joseph Justus Scaliger in the sixteenth century, but nothing else seemed to point to a Semitic origin, until the idea of "great" gods expressed by the Semitic root kbr was definitiely attested for North Syria in the thirteenth century BCE, in texts from Emar published by D. Arnaud in 1985/87 (see Emar). TJ. Wackernagel had produced an Indian etymology in 1907;^[14] in 1925 A. H. Sayce had suggested a connection to Hittite habiri ("looters", "outlaws"), but subsequent discoveries have made this implausible on phonological grounds. Dossein compares Κάβειροι to the Sumerian word kabar, copper.^[15]

The name of the Cabeiri recalls Mount Kabeiros, a mountain in the region of Berekyntia in Asia Minor, closely associated with the Phrygian Mother Goddess. The name of Kadmilus (or Kasmilos), one of the Cabeiri who was usually depicted as a young boy, was linked even in antiquity to camillus, an old Latin word for a boy-attendant in a cult, which is probably a loan from the Etruscan language^{[citation needed]}, which may be related to Lemnian.^[16]

Myth

In myth, the Cabeiri bear many similarities to other fabulous races, such as the Telchines of Rhodes, the Cyclopes, the Dactyls, the Korybantes, and the Kuretes. These different groups were often confused or identified with one another since many of them, like the Cyclopes and Telchines, were also associated with metallurgy.

Diodorus Siculus said of the Cabeiri that they were Idaioi dactyloi ("Idaian Dactyls"). The Idaian Dactyls were a race of divine beings associated with the Mother Goddess and with Mount Ida, a mountain in Phrygia sacred to the goddess. Hesychius of Alexandria wrote that the Cabeiri were karkinoi ("crabs", in modern Greek: "Καβούρια" (kavouria)). The Cabeiri as Karkinoi were apparently thought of as amphibious beings (again recalling the Telchines). They had pincers instead of hands, which they used as tongs (Greek: karkina) in metalworking.

It has been suggested that the Orphic mysteries may have had their origins with the Cabeiri.

CABEI′RIA (καβείρια), mysteries, festivals, and orgies solemnised in all places in which the Pelasgian Cabeiri, the most mysterious and perplexing deities of Grecian mythology, were worshipped, but especially in Samothrace, Imbros, Lemnos, Thebes, Anthedon, Pergamus, and Berytos (Paus. IX.25 § 5, IV.1 § 5, IX.22 § 5, I.4 § 6: Euseb. Praep. Evang. p31). Little is known respecting the rites observed in these mysteries, as no one was allowed to divulge them (Strabo, X p470, &c.; Apollon. Rhod. I.917; Orph. Argon. 469; Valer. Flacc. II.435). Diagoras is said to have provoked the highest indignation of the Athenians by his having made these and other mysteries public (Athenag. Leg. II.5). The most celebrated were those of the island of Samothrace, which, if we may judge from those of Lemnos, were solemnised every year, and lasted for nine days. The admission was not confined to men, for we find instances of women and boys being initiated (Schol. ad Eurip. Phoen. 7; Plut. Alex. 2; Donatus ad Terent. Phorm. I.15). Persons on their admission seem to have undergone a sort of examination respecting the life they had led hitherto (Plut. Laced. Apophth. Antalcid. p141, ed. Tauchnitz), and were then purified of all their crimes, even if they had committed murder (Liv. XLV.5; Schol. ad Theocrit. II.12; Hesych. s.v. Κοίης). The priest who undertook the purification of murderers bore the name of κοίης. The persons who were initiated received a purple ribbon, which was worn around their bodies as an amulet to preserve them against all dangers and storms of the sea (Schol. ad Apollon. l.c.; Diodor. V.49).

Respecting the Lemnian Cabeiria we know that their annual celebration took place at night (Cic. De Nat. Deor. I.42), and lasted for nine days, during which all fires of the island, which were thought to be impure, were extinguished, sacrifices were offered to the dead, and a sacred vessel was sent out to fetch new fire from Delos. During these sacrifices the Cabeiri were thought to be absent with the sacred vessel; after the return of which, the pure fire was distributed, and a new life began, probably with banquets (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. I.608).

The great celebrity of the Samothracian mysteries seemsº to have obscured and thrown into oblivion those of Lemnos, from which Pythagoras is said to have derived a part of his wisdom (Iamblich. Vit. Pyth. c. 151; compare Müller's Prolegomena, p150). Concerning the celebration of the Cabeiria in other places nothing is known, and they seem to have fallen into decay at a very early period (comp. Guthberlet, De Mysteriis Deorum Cabirorum, Franequerae, 1704, 4to.; Welcker, Die Aeschyl. Tril. p160, &c.; E. G. Haupt, De Religione Cabiriaca, 1834, 4to.; Lobeck, Aglaophamus, p1281, &c.; Kenrick, The Egypt of Herod, p264, &c.).

Thessalonica, more anciently Therma, an ancient city in Macedonia, situated at the N.E. Extremity of the Sinus Thermaicus. Under the name of Therma it was not a place of much importance. It was taken and occupied by the Athenians a short time before the commencement of the Peloponnesian war (B.C. 432), but was soon after restored by them to Perdiccas. It was made an important city by Cassander, who collected in this place the inhabitants of several adjacent towns (about B.C. 315), and who gave it the name of Thessalonica, in honor of his wife, the daughter of Philip and sister of Alexander the Great. From this time it became a large and flourishing city. Its harbor was swell situated for commercial intercourse with the Hellespont and the Aegean; and under the Romans it had the additional advantage of lying on the Via Egnatia, which led from the W. shores of Greece to Byzantium and the East. It was visited by Apostle Paula about A.D. 53; and about 2 years afterwards he addressed from Corinth 2 epistles to his converts in the city. Thessalonica continued to be, under the empire, one of the most important cities of Macedonia; and at a later time it became the residence of the prefect, and the capital, of the Illyrian provinces. It is celebrated at this period on account of the fearful massacre of its inhabitants by order of Theodosius, in consequence of a riot in which some of the Roman officers had been assassinated by the populace.

Julia Mamaea  - Augusta: 222-235 A.D.

| Mother of Severus Alexander | Daughter of Julia Maesa | Mother-in-law of Orbiana | Sister of Julia Soaemias | Nice of Julia Domna and Septimius Severus | Aunt of Elagabalus | Cousin of Caracalla and Geta |

Julia Avita Mamaea (14 or 29 August after 180–235) was the second daughter of Julia Maesa, a powerful Roman woman of Syrian Arab origin and Syrian noble Julius Avitus. She was a niece of empress Julia Domna and emperor Septimius Severus and sister of Julia Soaemias. She was born and raised in Emesa (modern Homs, Syria).

Julia's first husband was a former consul (whose name is unknown) who died. Julia married as her second husband Syrian Promagistrate Marcus Julius Gessius Marcianus. Julia bore Marcianus two children, a daughter called Theoclia (little is known of her) and a son, Marcus Julius Gessius Bassianus Alexianus, later emperor Alexander Severus. Unlike her sister, Julia Mamaea was reported to be a virtuous woman, never involved in scandals.

As a member of the Imperial Roman family, she watched closely the death of her cousin Caracalla and the ascent to power of her nephew Elagabalus, the oldest grandson of Julia Maesa and her choice to the throne. Eventually Elagabalus and his mother Julia Soaemias proved incompetent rulers and favour fell on Alexander, Julia's son. He became emperor in 222, following Elagabalus' murder by the Praetorian Guard. Julia and her mother became regents in the name of Alexander, then 14 years old. Upon adulthood, Alexander confirmed his esteem for his mother and named her consors imperii (imperial consort). It was in this condition that she accompanied her son in his campaigns: a custom started with Julia Domna. Thus she travelled to the East, for the campaign against Parthia and to the Germania provinces. Julia Mamaea was with Alexander in Moguntiacum (modern Mainz), capital of Germania Superior, when he was assassinated by his troops. She suffered the same fate.

See also

• Women in Ancient Rome
• Severan dynasty family tree