Il tetrarca e sua madre. Romula tra strategia promozionale e azione politica di Galerio

The aim of this paper is to highlight how the memory of Romula, mother of the tetrarch Galerius, does not have an autonomous character, but draws attention only if linked to her son, a man with an exceptional destiny: the scanty information about the woman, drawn from a few literary sources, among which a prominent place is occupied by Lactantius, is in fact functional in clarifying aspects of the character and politics of the future Caesar and later Augustus. A portrait is emerging from the sources is therefore now of Romula/Semele, now of Romula/Olympiad: her traits are stereotyped, built on the basis of rhetorical or historiographical tradition, which drew on both the myth of the twins and that of Alexander the Great with regard to Augustus’ birth.