Ulpia Severina may have been the daughter of Ulpius Crinitus, a general of Valerian. Ulpius Crinitus probably adopted Aurelian in 258 and gave him Severina in marriage. Severina had a daughter by Aurelian, by whom she became grandmother to an Aurelian who became a Senator in the time of Constantine I. Nothing is known of Severina prior to Aurelian's becoming Augustus in the late summer of 270. After that time she traveled with him on his military campaigns and became quite popular with the troops because she devoted her time and wealth to their welfare, in sharp contrast to previous Empresses. It is said that she acquired a martial air, and that her conduct was faultless. For some reason Aurelian did not honor her with coins until at least the third year of his reign, when his own reform of the coinage was under way. When Aurelian was murdered near Byzantium in the late summer of 275, Severina survived and there is substantial evidence from the coins to believe that she may have continued to strike and perhaps even rule during the so-called 'Interregnum.' Her coins of Alexandria dated in the final year of the reign of Aurelian comprise the bulk of that mint's coinage, and her final issues at other mints, which were usually restricted to a few officinae, were struck at all officinae. The last issues of Antioch (approximately August to October of of 275) were all only in her name, and they bear the very unusual title "P F AVG" - unknown for empresses except for a rare issue of Salonina (and then again adopted again in the early fifth century by Galla Placidia, Honoria, and Licinia Eudoxia). Finally, she was the only Empress to strike coins bearing the legend "CONCORDIAE MILITVM," and those coins were her last issue. They seem to have been the hope of an Empress who found herself in charge of a contrite Army.