Prisca

Historical reenactors at Diocletian's Palace; actors playing Diocletian and Prisca are at centre. Spolium from a temple to Jupiter, giving Prisca's nomen and title ("most noble lady Aurelia Prisca"). Aurelia Prisca (died 315) was a Roman empress as the wife of the emperor Diocletian.

Biography Prisca was already married and had a daughter with Diocletian when he became emperor. She was not granted the title of Augusta or Caesarissa but instead Nobilissima Femina. An inscription on a statue base at a temple to Jupiter in Salona gives her name as Aurelia Prisca.

When her husband retired to Spalatum in 305, Prisca stayed with her daughter and son-in-law in Thessalonica. When Galerius died in 311, Licinius was entrusted with the care of Prisca and her daughter Valeria. The two women, however, fled from Licinius to Maximinus Daza. After a short time, Valeria refused the marriage proposal of Maximinus, who arrested and confined her in Syria and confiscated her properties. At the death of Maximinus, Licinius had Prisca and her daughter killed.

Christianity According to the Latin writer Lactantius, Prisca and her daughter Valeria were "forced to be polluted" by sacrificing to the Roman gods during the Great Persecution of 303. Lactantius is, perhaps, implying that Prisca and Valeria were Christian or favorably disposed to Christianity. In later antiquity two Christian saints, Serena of Rome and Saint Alexandra, became known in legends as Diocletian's wife.