Faustina the Elder

100 – 140 · Generation IX · Nerva–Antonine

Faustina (AD 100 – AD 140). Married Antoninus around AD 112. One of their children is recorded in this archive. Her widower founded a charity of “Faustinian girls” in her name and deified her. The only known daughter of the consul Marcus Annius Verus, she was born and raised in Rome and was a niece of Hadrian’s empress, Vibia Sabina. Of her four children only Faustina the Younger, later wife of Marcus Aurelius, lived to see her parents reach the throne. Hadrian’s death in July 138 made her husband emperor, and the Senate named her Augusta; the couple stayed in Italy, dividing their time between Rome and estates such as Lorium, where she perhaps died in 140. Celebrated for beauty and good sense, she gave to charities for the poor and backed the schooling of Roman children, girls above all; her braided hairstyle stayed in fashion for generations. Her memory stayed everywhere through Antoninus’s reign: the Senate dedicated a temple to her in the Forum, her portrait filled the coinage, and her cult reached from Sagalassos to Ephesus and Olympia.

Place in the family

The archive records 3 of her descendants, across 2 generations.

One of 12 people of Nerva–Antonine (30–192) in this archive. The adoptive emperors: for four reigns the purple passed to a chosen heir rather than a born one.

Partners

Married Antoninus Pius (86 – 161) in 112 — one child together

Children

Faustina the Younger (130 – 175)

Life

100 — Born
112 — Married Antoninus
140 — Died