Contaminazioni genealogiche e funioni parentali. La rifondazione della dinastia Severa per via matrilineare

According to strict genealogical criteria, there is no patrilineal link between Heliogabalus and the Severan dynasty: his maternal grandmother, taking advantage of the rumors about the fact that they were both illegitimate children of Caracalla, was able to found an all-female dynasty (i.e., it was run entirely by women and based only on matrilineal ties) and gave to it an apparent legitimacy, by presenting it as the re-foundation of the Severan dynasty. In this study, the concept of contamination plays an important role, in two different meanings: on the one hand, genealogical contamination, due to the sources’ attention on the alleged adulterous origins of the two emperors (thus establishing a turbatio sanguinis as the basis of their dynastic legitimacy), on the other the contamination of parental functions, given the particular form of dysfunctional motherhood that Iulia Maesa embodies, disagreeing with the traditional models of Roman culture.