Early Life
Julianus was born to Quintus Petronius Didius Severus and Aemilia Clara. Julianus's father came from a prominent family in Mediolanum (Milan) and his mother was a North African woman, of Roman descent. Clara came from a family of consular rank. His brothers were Didius Proculus and Didius Nummius Albinus. His date of birth is given as 30 January 133 by Cassius Dio and 2 February 137 by the Historia Augusta.
Didius Julianus was raised by Domitia Lucilla, mother of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. With Domitia's help, he was appointed at a very early age to the vigintivirate, the first step towards public distinction. He married a Roman woman named Manlia Scantilla, and sometime around 153, Scantilla bore him a daughter and only child Didia Clara.
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“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)