Annia Galeria Faustina the Elder, sometimes referred to as Faustina I or Faustina Major[1] (
c. 100[3][6] – late October 140),[7][8][2] was a Roman empress and wife of the
Roman emperorAntoninus Pius. The emperor
Marcus Aurelius was her nephew and later became her adopted son, along with Emperor
Lucius Verus. She died early in the principate of Antoninus Pius, but continued to be prominently commemorated as a diva, posthumously playing a prominent symbolic role during his reign.[9]
While a private citizen, she married Antoninus Pius between 110 and 115. Faustina bore four children with Pius: two sons and two daughters.[13] These were:
Marcus Aurelius Fulvius Antoninus (died before 138); his sepulchral inscription has been found at the
Mausoleum of Hadrian in Rome.[10][14]
Marcus Galerius Aurelius Antoninus (died before 138); his sepulchral inscription has been found at the Mausoleum of Hadrian in Rome.[10][14] He is commemorated by a high-quality series of bronze coins, possibly struck at Rome, though their language is Greek.[15]
Aurelia Fadilla (died in 135); she married Aelius Lamia Silvanus or Syllanus. She appears to have had no children with her husband and her sepulchral inscription has been found in
Italy.[10][14]
Annia Galeria Faustina Minor or
Faustina the Younger (between 125–130 to 175), a future Roman Empress; she married her maternal cousin, future Roman Emperor
Marcus Aurelius. She was the only child who survived to see Antoninus and Faustina elevated to the imperial rank.[10][14]
According to the unreliable Historia Augusta, there were rumours while Antoninus was proconsul of
Asia that Faustina conducted herself with "excessive frankness and levity".[16]
Empress
On July 10, 138, her uncle, the emperor
Hadrian, died and her husband became the new emperor, as Antoninus was Hadrian's adopted son and heir. Faustina became Roman Empress and the Senate accorded her the title of Augusta.[10] As empress, Faustina was well respected and was renowned for her beauty and wisdom. Throughout her life, as a private citizen and as empress, Faustina was involved in assisting charities for the poor and sponsoring and assisting in the education of Roman children, particularly girls.[citation needed] A letter between
Fronto and
Antoninus Pius has sometimes been taken as an index of the latter's devotion to her.[17]
After Antoninus Pius' accession to the principate, the couple never left Italy; instead, they divided their time between Rome, Antoninus' favourite estate at
Lorium, and other properties at
Lanuvium,
Tusculum, and
Signia.[18]
Faustina's personal style was evidently much admired and emulated. Her distinctive hairstyle, consisting of braids pulled back in a bun behind or on top of her head, was imitated for two or three generations in the Roman world.[19]
Several provincial groups chose to honour her while she was empress: a company of couriers in
Ephesus named themselves after her,[20] while a company of
clapper-players in Puteoli dedicated an altar to her in her lifetime.[21]
Death and legacy
Faustina died near Rome in 140, perhaps at Antoninus Pius's estate at
Lorium.[22] Antoninus was devastated at Faustina's death and took several steps to honor her memory. He had the Senate
deify her (her apotheosis was portrayed on an
honorary column) and dedicate the
Temple of Faustina to her in the
Roman Forum.[10] Because of this, Faustina was the first Roman empress with a permanent presence in the Forum Romanum.[23] The Senate authorized gold and silver statues of her, including an image to appear in the
circus,[24] where it might be displayed in a carpentum (a kind of covered wagon) or currus elephantorum (a cart drawn by elephants).[25] Antoninus also ordered various coins with her portrait struck, inscribed DIVA FAVSTINA ("Divine Faustina") and elaborately decorated. He also established a charity called Puellae Faustinianae ("Girls of Faustina") to assist orphaned Roman girls and created a new alimenta (see
Grain supply to the city of Rome).[26] Her remains were interred in the
Mausoleum of Hadrian.[27][28] Certain cities struck coin issues in honour of the "divine Faustina" (
Ancient Greek: ΘΕΑ ΦΑΥϹΤΕΙΝΑ);[29] the most notable such cities were
Delphi,
Alexandria,
Bostra, and
Nicopolis.[30] Martin Beckmann suggests that the coins of Nicopolis might have been minted at Rome and given out as imperial largesse at the
Actian Games.[31] The coins issued in the wake of Faustina's funeral illustrate her elaborate funeral pyre, which may have influenced the design of later private mausolea;[32] the deities
Pietas and
Aeternitas, among others;[33] and an eagle (or less often a winged genius) bearing a figure aloft, with the legend CONSECRATIO (i.e. Faustina's ascension into heaven).[34] Coins of Faustina were sometimes incorporated into jewellery and worn as amulets.[35]
The posthumous cult of Faustina was exceptionally widespread, and Faustina's image continued to be omnipresent throughout Antoninus Pius' principate.[36] A colossal marble head, believed to be that of Faustina and discovered in 2008,[37] figured as one of several monumental imperial statues at the ancient site of
Sagalassos in today's
Turkey. In Olympia,
Herodes Atticus dedicated a nymphaeum that displayed statues of Faustina and other Antonines as well as his own ancestors.[38] Faustina also appears on the
Parthian Monument at Ephesus commemorating members of the imperial family.[39] Bergmann and Watson have characterized the commemoration of Faustina as central to Antoninus Pius' political persona.[9][38] One larger-than-life statue, discovered in situ near the Termini railway station at Rome, appears to depict Faustina as
Concordia, with a
patera and cornucopia; it would have been displayed alongside statues of
Diana Lucifera and
Apollo-
Sol in
baths privately owned but available to the public.[40]
Antoninus and Faustina were officially held up as such exemplars of conjugal harmony that newlyweds were directed to pray at an altar of Antoninus and Faustina that they might live up to their example.[41] This was evidently the case in Ostia,[42] and probably so in Rome.[43]
The
Temple of Faustina is thought to have been dedicated in 144.[44] It is a grand[45]hexastyle structure[46] with
Corinthian columns,[47] possibly designed originally to be a temple of
Ceres.[48] Depictions on coins appear to show a cult image of Faustina seated on a throne and holding a tall staff in her left hand.[49] Faustina's portrait on coins from this period is often crowned as well as veiled, which may also recall a feature of Faustina's cult image from the temple.[50]
The deified Faustina was associated particularly closely with
Ceres, who featured prominently on coins of Faustina; for some years, the torch-bearing Ceres was the dominant motif in her gold coinage.[51] Herodes Atticus venerated Faustina as the “new
Demeter” (the Greek equivalent of Ceres) at a private sanctuary he established outside Rome,[52] now the church of
Sant'Urbano.[53] In addition to Ceres,
Vesta and
Juno feature prominently in Faustina's coinage.[54] She was also associated with the
Magna Mater and at Cyrene with
Isis; at
Sardis she was worshipped conjointly with
Artemis.[52]
Ten years after Faustina's death, a new commemorative coinage was introduced, featuring the legend
Aeternitas ('eternity'); such coins may have been introduced to be distributed at a public ceremony in her memory.[55]
After Antoninus Pius' death, his adoptive sons and successors
Marcus Aurelius and
Lucius Verus erected the
Column of Antoninus Pius, which dramatically depicted Antoninus and Faustina being elevated heavenward together on the back of a winged figure.[56]
Marcus Aurelius also built a Temple of Faustina at
Elefsina in
Greece.[57]
Faustina continued to be commemorated in certain Renaissance depictions as a “model wife”.[58]
^The epitomator of Cassius Dio (
72.22) gives the story that Faustina the Elder promised to marry Avidius Cassius. This is also echoed in HA"Marcus Aurelius" 24.
Giacosa, Giorgio (1977). Women of the Caesars: Their Lives and Portraits on Coins. Translated by R. Ross Holloway. Milan: Edizioni Arte e Moneta.
ISBN0-8390-0193-2.
Lambert, Royston (1984). Beloved and God: The Story of Hadrian and Antinous. New York: Viking.
ISBN0-670-15708-2.
^Levick (2014), p. 169, estimates her birth year as
c. 97 CE, while noting the estimate of
c. 105 in Kienast (1990). Römische Kaisertabelle. A latter edition of Kienast's book, however, simply states that her birthdate is unknown and then proceeds to mentions Levick's estimate.[2]
^The Feriale Duranum records the birthday of Diva Faustina as 20–22 September (between 10 and 12 days before the
kalends of October).[4] However, it's not possible to determine if this is Faustina I or
Faustina II. A Roman inscription records the birthday of Faustinae uxoris Antonini as 16 February (14 days before the kalends of March).[5] The text could refer to either Faustina I, who married
Antoninus Pius, or Faustina II, who married
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.
^Birley, Anthony (2000). Marcus Aurelius, Routledge, p. 243. Routledge.
ISBN0-415-17125-3
^According to S. Vidman's interpretation of the Fasti Ostienses (1982, p. 122; cited by
Beckmann (2012), p. 22), Faustina died sometime in the range 21–23 October, while her funeral occurred sometime between 6 and 12 November. See Beckmann (2012), p. 22.
^
abBergmann & Watson (1999), p. 6: “Antoninus’s ideological program was based upon his pietas (loyalty to family, state, and the gods) and the most concerted expression of Antoninus’s piety was Faustina’s consecration.”
^Settipani, Christian (2000). Continuité gentilice et continuité familiale dans les familles sénatoriales romaines à l'époque impériale: mythe et réalité. Prosopographica et genealogica (in Italian). Vol. 2 (illustrated ed.). Unit for Prosopographical Research, Linacre College, University of Oxford. p. 278.
ISBN9781900934022.
^Beckmann (2012), p. 83. His name appears as ΓΑΛΕΡΙΟϹ ΑΝΤⲰΝΙΝΟϹ (Galerios Antôninos) on these coins.
^Historia Augusta: Antoninus Pius3.7 (the original phrase is nimiam libertatem et uiuendi facilitatem).
Levick (2014), pp. 79–80, analyzes this passage with some scepticism. The Historia Augusta’s reliability as a historical source is considered to be patchy (see the caveats in, for example The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Volume 2, Latin Literature, Part 5, The Later Principate, E. J. Kenney, Wendell Vernon Clausen, pp. 43, 45,
Cambridge University Press, 1983,
ISBN0521273714; or at Jona Lendering.
"Historia Augusta". Archived from
the original on 2016-11-16. Retrieved 2015-09-21.).
^Antoninus Pius declares that he would rather live in exile on the island of
Gyaros with Faustina than on the Palatine Hill without her. Fronto ad Antoninum Pium 2.2. However, the "dear Faustina" referred to may instead have been
Pius' daughter.
Levick (2014), pp. 60–61.
^Claire Rowan, ‘Communicating a consecratio: the deification coinage of Faustina I’, in: N. Holmes (ed.), Proceedings of the XIV International Numismatic Congress Glasgow, vol. 1, Glasgow (2012), 991.
^Beckmann (2012), p. 37, suggests that
Cassius Dio (Roman History 72.31.1) may have been mistaken in stating that such a practice in Rome at the temple precinct of Venus and Dea Roma concerned an altar of
Marcus Aurelius and
Faustina the Younger rather than one of Antoninus Pius and Faustina the Elder.
Beckmann, Martin (2012). Diva Faustina: coinage and cult in Rome and the provinces. New York: American Numismatic Society.
Bergmann, Bettina; Watson, Wendy M. (1999). The Moon and the Stars: Afterlife of a Roman Empress. South Hadley, Massachusetts: Mount Holyoke College Art Museum.
Freisenbruch, Annelise (2010). The First Ladies of Rome: The Women Behind the Caesars. London: Jonathan Cape.
Italics indicates a consort to a junior co-emperor, underlining indicates a consort to an emperor variously regarded as either legitimate or a usurper, and bold incidates an empress regnant.