A medallion bearing her likeness with an enigmatic hairstyle is placed alongside that of Diocletian in a

frieze that runs between the first and second row of columns in the Imperial Mausoleum,
transformed in the early Middle Ages into the Cathedral of St Doimus.

Nothing is known of her origin, but she clearly had a peaceful family life with Diocletian, when not a
word was said on this score against this most bitter persecutor of the Christians by any of the later
writers who were so little inclined to him.

Prisca was, many writers have concluded from circumstantial evidence, a crypto-Christian.

From some time after Diocletians abdication in 305 it seems that she was permanently living with
her daughter Valeria. She was married to Galerius, who was first Diocletians Caesar and then
Augustus; on his deathbed in Salonica in 311, Galerius confided them to the care of his heir Licinius,
who demanded from the widow the wealth that she had inherited.
From him they fled to Maximinus Daia (Galerius whilom Caesar and nephew) who, however, wanted
to back up his ambitions to the throne by marrying Valeria, daughter of the still authoritative
Diocletian, the creator of the tetrarchy.

The response of this constant wife is recorded: she cannot talk of marriage in her widows weeds
while the ash of her husband, his father, is still warm; and it would be disgraceful of him to drive out
a faithful wife, which he would probably do to her; finally, it would be improper for a woman of her
name and rank, not heeding customs and examples, to accept a second husband.

When she had refused him, then, mother and daughter were imprisoned in some little populated
region of Syria, in spite of the pleas that Diocletian repeatedly but vainly wrote to Maximinus from
his palace in Split.

Mother and daughter wandered the last fifteen months of their lives in disguise through various
provinces until finally at the end of 314 or the beginning of 315 they were recognised and arrested in
Salonica. They were publicly beheaded, and their bodies cast into the sea.

Ita illis pudicita et condicio exitio fuit And so their rank and their modesty were their downfall,
concluded Lactantius, witness of this watershed time and writer of the famous work De mortibus
persecutorum (On the deaths of the persecutors).
AELIA GALLA PLACIDIA
The daughter of Roman Emperor Theodosius I the Great, she was captured by the Visigoths of Alaric
during the sack of Rome in 410 and abducted as hostage. She was married on January 1, 414, to
Alarics heir Ataulf in Narbonne, southern Gaul. The son she bore died in his first year of life and was
buried in Barcelona.

After the assassination of Ataulf, she was returned to Ravenna in early 416, ransomed for 600,000
measures of grain. Here in January 417 she married the general Constantius, whom she bore a
daughter Justa Grata Honoria and a son Placidius Valentinian (419).

Her half-brother, Honorius, Emperor of the West, proclaimed Constantius his joint ruler in 421, while
Placidius obtained the title of Augustus. But in the same year, Constantius died, and when her
relations with her brother, as well as the whole situation in Ravenna, became dangerous, Galla and
her children fled in spring 423 to Constantinople to the court of her nephew, Theodosius II.

But Honorius died in the summer of the same year, and in Rome Joannes, previously primicerius
notariorum (head of the civil service) became the new Roman emperor. Theodosius, however,
supported the claim of his underage relative Valentinian, who was proclaimed Caesar in August 424
in Salonica. From here in the early spring of the following year a Byzantine fleet with troops
commanded by Ardaburius set sail

The ships carrying Placidia and her children were wrecked somewhere off the coast of Dalmatia. Out
of gratitude for her salvation, Galla vowed to raise a church dedicated to St John the Evangelist,
which she really did later build, together with her daughter. And while the Italian-bound army was

mustering in Salonica, the most suitable base for interventions in the Adriatic basin, Galla and her
children took up residence in Diocletians Palace, and waited the development of events in Ravenna.

But by the following summer, from Aquileia she promulgated a constitution in the name of Augustus
Theodosius and Caesar Valentinian.

In autumn 425 the usurper Ioannes was arrested and executed. As early as October 23 of the same
year, the six-year-old son of Galla was proclaimed Emperor Valentinian III, and Honoria, but a year
older, became an Augusta. The mother took over the role of regent.

Thus Galla spent a few summer months of 425 with her children in Split. The grave of some dignitary
of her train (with valuable grave goods exhibited today in the Archaeological Museum in Split),
placed before the threshold of the crypt of the Small Temple of Diocletians Place, as well as the
eloquent epitaph mentioning a court lady from the Galla circle on a sarcophagus found in the Basilica
of St Euphemia in front of the Golden Gate, tell us that the imperial familys passage through Split left
a profound mark.

Indeed, judging from everything, Galla can be connected with the conversion of the Small Temple
(most often called Jupiters Temple) into a Christian church dedicated to St John, which in the early
Middle Ages became the baptistery of Split Cathedral. Thus it can be classified among the many other
fulfilled vows (like the renovation of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and the Basilica
San Paolo furoi le mura in Rome, and the building of churches in Ravenna) made by this princess of
the long face, dark eyes, in whom ran Roman and Illyrian, Hispanic and Gothic blood.
Galeria Valeria
Daughter of Diocletian and wife of Galerius

The story of Galeria Valeria is a tragic and poignant one of an empress whose life and death were
totally dictated by the politics of the period. There seems to be little she could have done to
influence the events that controlled her life and in the end brought about her untimely death.

The lives of women of the imperial family during the later Roman Empire are very well documented,
thanks to the emergence of several sources during this period of renewed prosperity and vigor for
the empire. During the late Third and early Fourth Centuries, the political moves of Diocletian and
the Tetrarchy determined who the emperors would marry and politics took total control of the lives
and futures of the women to whom they were married. In A. D. 293 Diocletian chose Galerius,
another Illyrian general to help him rule the huge Roman empire, for he realized that it had become

too large for one man to rule successfully. Diocletian ruled in the West and Galerius became his coemperor in the East. Galeria Valeria was Diocletian's daughter and, to cement the alliance between
Diocletian and Galerius, Valeria was married to Galerius. It appears that this was not a very happy
marriage. Galeria Valeria was sympathetic towards Christians during this time of severe persecution
and it is possible that she was actually a Christian herself. The imperial couple were not blessed with
any children during their eighteen year marriage. After Galerius died in A. D. 311, Galeria Valeria and
her mother went to live at the court of Maximinus Daia, the caesar who became emperor of the East
upon the death of Galerius.

Maximinus proposed marriage to Valeria soon afterward. He was probably more interested in her
wealth and the prestige he would gain by marrying the widow of one emperor and the daughter of
another than he was in Valeria as a person. She refused his hand, and immediately Maximinus
reacted with hatred and fury. Diocletian, by now an old man living in a seaside villa on the Dalmatian
coast, begged Maximinus to allow the two women to come home to him. Maximinus refused and
had Valeria and her mother banished to live in a village in Syria.

During the civil war that erupted between Maximinus and Licinius, Valeria and Prisca disguised
themselves and escaped, trying to reach the safety of Diocletian's villa. In the meantime, Diocletian
had died, leaving the women without a haven of safety to which to run. For fifteen months the two
royal fugitives traveled from one city to another, always living in fear of being discovered and in
search of a little peace.

Finally, they were recognized by someone in the Greek city of Salonika. They were hastily taken to a
square in the city and beheaded before a crowd of citizens who had once revered them as empresses.
The bodies of Valeria and her mother were afterwards thrown into the sea.

Coin portraits of Galeria Valeria depict a strong, almost masculine face with a large jaw and
prominent chin. She probably did not look much like her portraits, though. The style used for
imperial coin portraits showed all four Tetrarchs and their later caesars and co-emperors with thick
necks, large jaws, prominent brows, and an overall :tough guy" appearance. In fact, all the portraits
of these men look very much alike except the portraits on special issues or medallions which were
occasionally struck as gifts to royalty or as rewards for military achievement. Many scholars believe
that this style of portraiture was intended to convey the image of a tough, united, no-nonsense
group of men who ruled as imperial brothers who could not be divided and turned against each
other. When it came time to strike coins in Valeria's name, it almost seems that they took the
standard imperial portrait and did only what little they absolutely had to in order to make it look like
a woman's face!