Faustina the Younger
130 – 175 · Generation X · Nerva–Antonine
Faustina (AD 130 – AD 175). Married Marcus Aurelius around AD 145. 2 of their children are recorded in this archive. Bore Marcus at least fourteen children and followed him on campaign; the army called her Mother of the Camp. The youngest child of the emperor Antoninus Pius and Faustina the Elder — and the only one of their children to reach adulthood — she was first promised, in 138, to Lucius Verus under an arrangement made by Hadrian; her father broke that match and pledged her instead to her cousin Marcus. The Senate named her Augusta in 147, after her first child was born. Hostile writers, Cassius Dio and the untrustworthy Historia Augusta among them, charged her with poisonings, adultery and a hand in the revolt of Avidius Cassius in 175, which she was said to have backed to protect the young Commodus had Marcus died. She died that winter in the army camp at Halala in Cappadocia, of causes still debated. Marcus laid her in Hadrian’s Mausoleum; she was deified, Halala was renamed Faustinopolis, and he founded charity schools for orphan girls in her name.
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.
Line of descent: Nerva Cocceius → Trajan Optimus → Hadrian Aelius → Antoninus Pius → Faustina the Younger.
Parents
- Antoninus Pius (86 – 161)
- Faustina the Elder (100 – 140)
Siblings
- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121 – 180) (adopted)
- Lucius Verus (130 – 169) (adopted)
Partners
- Married Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121 – 180) in 145 — 2 children together
Children
- Commodus Antoninus (161 – 192)
- Lucilla Augusta (148 – 182)
Life
- 130 — Born
- 145 — Married Marcus Aurelius
- 175 — Died