Julia Bodina was a Roman Freedwoman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 from Mauretania

Mauretania

Mauretania is a part of the historical Ancient Libyan land in North Africa. It corresponds to present day Morocco and a part of western Algeria...

 North Africa

North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...

. She was a former slave in the household of the Roman Client Queen Julia Urania

Julia Urania

Julia Urania was a Roman Client Queen of Mauretania. She married the Roman Client King Ptolemy of Mauretania, who was a son of the former Mauretanian Client Monarchs Juba II and Cleopatra Selene II.Her grandson was Gaius Julius Alexio.-Biography:...

 and Roman Client King Ptolemy of Mauretania

Ptolemy of Mauretania

Ptolemy of Mauretania was a prince and the last Roman client King of Mauretania.-Family and early life:Ptolemy was the son of King Juba II and Queen Cleopatra Selene II of Mauretania. He had a younger sister called Drusilla of Mauretania...

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In Cherchell

Cherchell

Cherchell is a seaport town in the Province of Tipaza, Algeria, 55 miles west of Algiers. It is the district seat of Cherchell District. As of 1998, it had a population of 24,400.-Ancient history:...

 Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

, a funeral inscription has been found that belongs to Bodina. Cherchell was then known as Caesaria, the capital of the Roman Client Kingdom of Mauretania in the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

. In her funeral inscription, Bodina ascribes Julia Urania as Queen Julia Urania. Julia Urania was ascribed as Queen as a local courtesy or probably a posthumus honor as a dedication to the memory of the former ruling monarch. The inscription reveals that Bodina was a loyal former slave to Julia Urania.

According to the inscription, she appeared to have taken the gentilicium

Roman naming conventions

By the Republican era and throughout the Imperial era, a name in ancient Rome for a male citizen consisted of three parts : praenomen , nomen and cognomen...

 of her former mistress, Julia Urania. There is a possibility that Bodina may have been a former slave from the Royal family of Emesa

Royal family of Emesa

The royal family of Emesa, also known as the Emesani Dynasty or the Sempsigerami of Emesa , sometimes known as The Sampsiceramids were a ruling Roman client dynasty of priest-kings in Emesa, Syria Province...

, a Roman Client Kingdom in Syria

Syria (Roman province)

Syria was a Roman province, annexed in 64 BC by Pompey, as a consequence of his military presence after pursuing victory in the Third Mithridatic War. It remained under Roman, and subsequently Byzantine, rule for seven centuries, until 637 when it fell to the Islamic conquests.- Principate :The...

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Source

• Royal Egyptian Genealogy, Ptolemaic Dynasty: Cleopatra Selene