MANLIA SCANTILLA: Roman Empress wife of Didius Julianus
Silver Denarius (2.76 grams) Rome mint: March-June, 193 A.D.
MANL SCA-NTILLA AVG, draped bust of Scantilla right.
IVNO REGINA, Juno standing left, holding patera and scepter, peacock at her feet.
Reference: RIC 7a; C. 2; BMC 11.
Little is known about Manlia Scantilla, wife of the short-reigning Emperor Didius Julianus. Her name indicates she belonged to the influential Manlia gens, and there are hints that her ambition for social status at least partly drove her husband's career. According to Dio, following the murder of the Pertinax on March 28, 193 BC, it was Scantilla that urged him to make a bid for the throne himself, whereupon Julianus rushed to the Praetorian camp and engaged an the infamous "auction of the empire," securing the throne with a bid of 25,000 sesterces per Praetorian guardsman. The Senate reluctantly confirmed the fait accompli, and then took the unusual step of conferring upon Julianus' wife and daughter the title of Augusta, or Empress. However qualified he may have been, Julianus' nefarious means of gaining power made him hated in Rome. Generals of armies around the Empire were roused to action; the nearest of them, Septimius Severus, marched on Rome and deposed Julianus after an anxiety-filled reign of only 66 days. Julianus was dispatched by one of the same Praetorians who had proclaimed him; Scantilla and Didia Clara, however, were spared, at least initially. Scantilla is said to have died only a few weeks after her husband; Clara's final fate is unknown.