Aconia Fabia Paulina

Aconia Fabia Paulina (died c. 384) was a late Roman aristocrat and priestess. Her father was Aconius Catullinus Philomatius, who was suffect consul in 349. In 344 Paulina married Vettius Agorius Praetextatus, and was through him initiated into various mystery cults.

Paulina and her husband owned property on the Esquiline and Aventine hills in Rome, close to which inscriptions about them have been found. Most knowledge about the couple comes from four inscriptions on a funerary monument to them , with Paulina often considered to be the author of the poem about Praetextatus on it. They were also well known in their time for their paganism, being mentioned to that effect in two letters by Jerome and other contemporary Christian sources.

Biography

Paulina's father Aconius Catullinus Philomatius was a prominent aristocrat who held the office of Praefectus urbi of Rome from 342 to 344 and served as ordinary consul in 349. In 344, Paulina married Vettius Agorius Praetextatus, who held numerous posts in the provinces of the Roman Empire and was ultimately appointed praetorian prefect of Italy in 384 before dying in the same year. thumb Plinth with descriptions of the religious roles held by Praetextatus (387). CIL VI, 1778Praetextatus was a member of various mystery cults, into which he initiated Paulina. Through the Eleusian mysteries she entered the cult of Iacchus and of Persephone and Ceres, goddesses whose cults (in addition to that of Liber) she also encountered through the Lernian mysteries. A consacranea in the cult of Ceres, Paulina was also a hierophant in the cult of Hecate, which had its base in Aegina. Paulina may have completed her initiation in these three Greek mystery cults from 362 to 364, during her husband's tenure as governor of the province of Achaia. Through baptism with bull's blood Paulina was also initiated into the cult of Isis, where she held the rank of Isiaca, and she was also a devotee of the Magna Mater and Attis.

Information about Paulina's contact with these mystery cults is derived from the funerary monument to her and Praetextatus, as well as on an inscription on a plinth that likely supported a statue of her . To the former, religion takes greater prominence than in comparable ancient inscriptions. She and Praetextatus may then have sought to highlight their devotion to the pagan gods in the face of the growing popularity of Christianity. 384 was indeed a highpoint in the influence of the pagan aristocracy, which however decreased in the same year due to Praetextatus's death and the failure of his friend Quintus Aurelius Symmachus's attempt to return the altar of Victory to the Senate.

The date of Paulina's own death is disputed. Maijastina Kahlos has argued that she died in 384 shortly after her husband, while Heike Niquet and Jörg Rüpke have proposed that she died in 387, suggesting that her death prompted the creation of an inscription to Praetextatus that is dated to that year . She and Praetextatus were survived by at least one child, who dedicated a monument in their house to them.