Serena (wife of Stilicho)
niece of Roman emperor Theodosius I
Serena (died 408) was a member of the Theodosian dynasty as the niece of the emperor Theodosius I, as well as the wife of the military commander Stilicho.
Family
Serena was the daughter of Honorius, the brother of Theodosius I and son of Theodosius the Elder, and her mother's name is presumed to be Maria. She had an elder sister named Thermantia. Serena's father died prior to 379, after which she was adopted by her uncle Theodosius.
Around the year 384, she was married to the general Stilicho. The poet Claudian stated that the union had been arranged by Theodosius due to Stilicho's military capability; some modern scholars contend that, as Stilicho was relatively undistinguished at the time, it is more likely that Serena herself had chosen to marry the general.
The couple had a son, Eucherius, and two daughters, Maria and Thermantia, respectively the first and second wives of the emperor Honorius.
Life
A resident at the court of Honorius, Serena selected a bride for Claudian, and took care of Honorius' half-sister Galla Placidia.
Zosimus reported that during Theodosius I's visit to Rome in 394, Serena, a Christian, took a necklace from a statue of Rhea Silvia and placed it on her own neck. An old woman, the last of the Vestal Virgins, appeared, rebuking Serena and calling down punishment upon her for her act of impiety.
The public source identifies “Serena (wife of Stilicho)” as niece of Roman emperor Theodosius I. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Serena, wife and Stilicho.
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This entry incorporates text from “Serena (wife of Stilicho)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.