Originally promised by Hadrian to Lucius Verus, Atoninus betrothed her to his cousin Marcus Aurelius in 139; they married in 145. She was raised to an Augusta the following year.
She was said to have had a lively personality, but the late and unreliable Augustan History impugns her character, relating stories of adultery with sailors and gladiators, suggesting that Commodus was either the son of a gladiator (as explanation for his interest in gladiatorial combat), or that Faustina washed herself with the blood of an executed gladiator and then lay with Aurelius in that state.
Faustina went with Aurelius on his campaign to the north (170-174) and then to the East, where she died (175). Aurelius consecrated her and founded a second Puellae Faustinianae in her name.
Faustina the Elder was the wife of one Roman emperor-Antoninus Pius-and aunt and mother-in-law of another-Marcus Aurelius.
Although Faustina the Elder (so named to distinguish her from her daughter Faustina the Younger) had a enduring reputation as a woman of intelligence and virtue, she has yet to be the subject of extensive study.
Included in the exhibition will be images relating to Faustina's death and her metamorphosis into a goddess, such as prints, drawings, coins, early photographs, and watercolors that represent the empress's funeral cart and pyre, and her transcendence into the heavens on the wings of an eagle.
Feeds |
Contact