Faustina the Elder
Template:Short description Template:Infobox Roman emperor
Annia Galeria Faustina the Elder, sometimes referred to as Faustina I or Faustina Major<ref>An inscription from Liguria (Template:CIL) refers to her (in the genitive) as DIVAE FAVSTINAE MAIORIS.</ref> (Template:Circa 100Template:RefnTemplate:Refn – late October 140),<ref>Birley, Anthony (2000). Marcus Aurelius, Routledge, p. 243. Routledge. Template:ISBN</ref><ref>According to S. Vidman's interpretation of the Fasti Ostienses (1982, p. 122; cited by Template:Harvp), Faustina died sometime in the range 21–23 October, while her funeral occurred sometime between 6 and 12 November. See Beckmann (2012), p. 22.</ref><ref name=K/> was a Roman empress and wife of the Roman emperor Antoninus 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.<ref name="pietas"/>
Early life
Faustina was the only known daughter of consul and prefect Marcus Annius Verus and Rupilia Faustina.<ref name="livius">Template:Cite web</ref> Her brothers were consul Marcus Annius Libo and praetor Marcus Annius Verus. Her maternal aunts were Roman Empress Vibia Sabina and Matidia Minor. Her paternal grandfather was named Marcus Annius Verus, like her father, while her maternal grandparents were suffect consul Lucius Scribonius Libo Rupilius Frugi Bonus and possibly Vitellia.<ref>Rupilius. Strachan stemma.</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Faustina was born and raised in Rome.
While a private citizen, she married Antoninus Pius between 110 and 115. Faustina bore four children with Pius: two sons and two daughters.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> These were:
- Marcus Aurelius Fulvius Antoninus (died before 138); his sepulchral inscription has been found at the Mausoleum of Hadrian in Rome.<ref name="livius"/><ref name="forvm">Template:Cite web</ref>
- Marcus Galerius Aurelius Antoninus (died before 138); his sepulchral inscription has been found at the Mausoleum of Hadrian in Rome.<ref name="livius"/><ref name="forvm"/> He is commemorated by a high-quality series of bronze coins, possibly struck at Rome, though their language is Greek.<ref>Template:Harvp. His name appears as ΓΑΛΕΡΙΟϹ ΑΝΤⲰΝΙΝΟϹ (Galerios Antôninos) on these coins.</ref>
- 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.<ref name="livius"/><ref name="forvm"/>
- 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.<ref name="livius"/><ref name="forvm"/>
According to the unreliable Historia Augusta, there were rumours while Antoninus was proconsul of Asia that Faustina conducted herself with "excessive frankness and levity".<ref>Historia Augusta: Antoninus Pius 3.7 (the original phrase is nimiam libertatem et uiuendi facilitatem). Template:Harvp, 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, Template:ISBN; or at Template:Cite web).</ref>
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.<ref name="livius"/> 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.Template:Citation needed A letter between Fronto and Antoninus Pius has sometimes been taken as an index of the latter's devotion to her.<ref>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. Template:Harvp.</ref>
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.Template:Sfnp
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.Template:Sfnp
Several provincial groups chose to honour her while she was empress: a company of couriers in Ephesus named themselves after her,Template:Sfnp while a company of clapper-players in Puteoli dedicated an altar to her in her lifetime.<ref>Template:Harvp. The inscription in question is Template:CIL.</ref>
Death and legacy
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Faustina died near Rome in 140, perhaps at Antoninus Pius's estate at Lorium.Template:Sfnp 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.<ref name="livius"/> Because of this, Faustina was the first Roman empress with a permanent presence in the Forum Romanum.<ref>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.</ref> The Senate authorized gold and silver statues of her, including an image to appear in the circus,<ref>HA Pius 6.7.</ref> where it might be displayed in a carpentum (a kind of covered wagon) or currus elephantorum (a cart drawn by elephants).Template:Sfnp 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).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Her remains were interred in the Mausoleum of Hadrian.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Certain cities struck coin issues in honour of the "divine Faustina" (Template:Langx);<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the most notable such cities were Delphi, Alexandria, Bostra, and Nicopolis.<ref>Template:Harvp. The spelling ΦΑΥΣΤΙΝΑ was used in Alexandria, ΦΑΥΣΤΕΙΝΑ elsewhere in the East; both spellings could be found in Delphi.</ref> Martin Beckmann suggests that the coins of Nicopolis might have been minted at Rome and given out as imperial largesse at the Actian Games.Template:Sfnp 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;Template:Sfnp the deities Pietas and Aeternitas, among others;<ref>Beckmann (2012) considers that Pietas and Aeternitas are evocative of "the 'spiritual side' of Faustina's divinisation" (p. 19).</ref> and an eagle (or less often a winged genius) bearing a figure aloft, with the legend CONSECRATIO (i.e. Faustina's ascension into heaven).Template:Sfnp Coins of Faustina were sometimes incorporated into jewellery and worn as amulets.Template:Sfnp
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The posthumous cult of Faustina was exceptionally widespread, and Faustina's image continued to be omnipresent throughout Antoninus Pius' principate.Template:Sfnp A colossal marble head, believed to be that of Faustina and discovered in 2008,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.Template:Sfnp Faustina also appears on the Parthian Monument at Ephesus commemorating members of the imperial family.Template:Sfnp Bergmann and Watson have characterized the commemoration of Faustina as central to Antoninus Pius' political persona.<ref name="pietas">Template:Harvp: “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.”</ref>Template:Sfnp 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.<ref>Template:Harvp. The statue is now on display in the Musei Capitolini.</ref>
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.Template:Sfnp This was evidently the case in Ostia,<ref>Thus Template:Harvp, arguing from the evidence of an inscription from Ostia (Template:CIL).</ref> and probably so in Rome.<ref>Template:Harvp, 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.</ref>
The Temple of Faustina is thought to have been dedicated in 144.Template:Sfnp It is a grandTemplate:Sfnp hexastyle structureTemplate:Sfnp with Corinthian columns,Template:Sfnp possibly designed originally to be a temple of Ceres.Template:Sfnp Depictions on coins appear to show a cult image of Faustina seated on a throne and holding a tall staff in her left hand.Template:Sfnp 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.Template:Sfnp
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.Template:Sfnp Herodes Atticus venerated Faustina as the “new Demeter” (the Greek equivalent of Ceres) at a private sanctuary he established outside Rome,Template:Sfnp now the church of Sant'Urbano.Template:Sfnp In addition to Ceres, Vesta and Juno feature prominently in Faustina's coinage.Template:Sfnp She was also associated with the Magna Mater and at Cyrene with Isis; at Sardis she was worshipped conjointly with Artemis.Template:Sfnp
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.Template:Sfnp
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.Template:Sfnp
Marcus Aurelius also built a Temple of Faustina at Elefsina in Greece.<ref>Archaeological Site of Eleusis-Temple of Faustina</ref>
Faustina continued to be commemorated in certain Renaissance depictions as a “model wife”.Template:Sfnp
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