Justina Augusta

340 – 388 · Generation XVII

Justina (AD 340 – AD 388). Married Valentinian I around AD 370. 2 of their children are recorded in this archive. Widow of a usurper, then empress; fought bishop Ambrose for Milan’s churches on behalf of her son. Her father Justus, governor of Picenum, was reportedly put to death by Constantius II after dreaming that the imperial purple issued from his side, and she may herself have descended from the Constantinian house. Married to the usurper Magnentius between 350 and 353, she was then too young for children. Around 370 she became Valentinian I’s second wife and stepmother to Gratian, bearing a son and three daughters. When Valentinian died in 375, her brother Cerealis had the troops at Aquincum proclaim her young son emperor, and she helped him govern from Milan. An Arian, she backed the court’s demand in 385 for a basilica at Easter, the start of her long struggle with Ambrose. Fleeing Magnus Maximus in 387, she took her children to Thessalonica and joined the talks that married Galla to Theodosius; she died in 388, the year Maximus fell.

Place in the family

• The archive records 5 of her descendants, across 4 generations.

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Partners

• Married Valentinian I Flavius (321 – 375) in 370 — 2 children together

Children

• Valentinian II Flavius (371 – 392)
• Galla Flavia (370 – 394)

Life

• 340 — Born
• 370 — Married Valentinian I
• 388 — Died