Annia Faustina

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Denarius of Annia Faustina

Annia Aurelia Faustina was the third wife of the Roman emperor Elagabal , who ruled from 218 to 222. On her coins she is called Annia Faustina; her full name Annia Aurelia Faustina is only recorded in writing. After she married Elagabal, then seventeen, in July or August 221, she was given the title of Augusta as Empress .

Annia Faustina was descended from Claudius Severus , the son-in-law of the emperor Marcus Aurelius . She was probably a great-granddaughter of Marcus Aurelius and his wife Annia Galeria Faustina, known as Faustina the Younger . Her father was probably the son of Claudius Severus, Tiberius Claudius Severus Proculus , who held the ordinary consulate in 200 . Her first marriage was to Pomponius Bassus , who was a full consul in 211 and was later executed on the orders of Elagabal. Bassus was accused of criticizing the emperor's actions. This was considered high treason . Elagabal had the death sentence subsequently imposed by the Senate. He refrained from giving evidence of the alleged high treason and justified this with the fact that the consular was already dead. The contemporary historian Cassius Dio claims that Elagabal ordered the death of Bassus in order to be able to marry Annia, who was "beautiful and of noble descent", and that he did not allow her to mourn her first husband. According to recent research, however, the execution took place very early, even before Elagabal, who had been made emperor in Syria in May 218, arrived in Rome in the summer of 219. The real reason for the elimination of Bassus was therefore not the later marriage plan of the emperor. Elagabal presumably feared that Bassus could lay claim to the dignity of Emperor due to his marriage to a descendant of Mark Aurel.

Elagabal had previously been married to Iulia Aquilia Severa for the second time . Since Aquilia before this marriage Vestal had been, he had a serious infringement of the Roman sacral law committed and the religious tradition, as the Vestal Virgins were obliged to preserve their virginity. This marriage of the emperor was a scandal of the worst proportions. It had a devastating effect on his public image and dramatically worsened his relationship with the Senate , which was also severely disturbed for other reasons . His grandmother Julia Maesa saw this as a threat to the continued existence of the dynasty. So she tried to relax. At her urging, Elagabal broke off his offensive association with Aquilia in July or August 221 and married Annia Faustina. One advantage of the new marriage was that Annia was respected in the Roman ruling class because of her noble ancestry. Her elevation as the new empress should mark a change of course and be perceived as a positive signal in the Senate. Through her second marriage Annia became fictitiously the mother of the future emperor Severus Alexander , whom Elagabal had adopted in June 221 and made Caesar ; she is attested in inscriptions as the "mother of Caesar".

The attempt to appease the angry Romans by marrying Annia soon failed, because Elagabal separated from her towards the end of 221. He returned to Aquilia and married her a second time. Nothing is known about Annia's further fate.

Annia's appearance can only be inferred from her coin portraits. So far it has not been possible to plausibly assign a round sculpture to it.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Arthur Stein : Annia Faustina Augusta. In: Edmund Groag , Arthur Stein (Ed.): Prosopographia Imperii Romani , 2nd edition, part 1, Berlin / Leipzig 1933, p. 128 f. (A 710).
  2. ↑ Cassius Dio 80 (79), 5.4.
  3. ↑ The statement in Herodian 5,6,2 is incorrect , it comes from Mark Aurel's son Commodus .
  4. ↑ On Bassus see Ladislav Vidman: Pomponius Bassus . In: Leiva Petersen , Klaus Wachtel (eds.): Prosopographia Imperii Romani , 2nd edition, part 6, Berlin 1998, p. 308 (P 700); see. the family table p. 310.
  5. ↑ Cassius Dio 80 (79), 5: 1-4.
  6. ↑ Björn Schöpe: The Roman imperial court in Severan times (193–235 AD) , Stuttgart 2014, p. 142 f. and note 349.
  7. ↑ For the chronology see Martin Frey: Investigations on Religion and Religious Policy of the Emperor Elagabal , Stuttgart 1989, p. 96.
  8. ↑ See Martin Frey: Investigations on Religion and Religious Policy of the Emperor Elagabal , Stuttgart 1989, pp. 96 f., 103 f .; Martijn Icks: The Crimes of Elagabalus , London 2011, pp. 38, 65.
  9. ↑ See inscription 40 in L'Année épigraphique , Année 1936, p. 14.
  10. ↑ For the chronology see Martin Frey: Investigations on Religion and Religious Policy of Emperor Elagabal , Stuttgart 1989, p. 97 f.
  11. ↑ See Dimitri C. Gofas: Observations sur une inscription de Sparte contenant des damnationes memoriae (SEG XXXIV, 309). In: Giuseppe Nenci, Gerhard Thür (Hrsg.): Symposion 1988. Lectures on Greek and Hellenistic legal history , Cologne / Vienna 1990, pp. 397–412, here: pp. 404 f. and note 37.
  12. ↑ Max Wegner : Iulia Cornelia Paula, Iulia Aquilia Severa, Annia Faustina . In: Heinz Bernhard Wiggers , Max Wegner: Caracalla, Geta, Plautilla. Macrinus to Balbinus (= Max Wegner (Ed.): The Roman Emperor , Section 3 Volume 1), Berlin 1971, pp. 167–176, here: 170, 174–176.
personal data
SURNAME Annia Faustina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Annia Aurelia Faustina
BRIEF DESCRIPTION third wife of the Roman emperor Elagabal
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd century or 3rd century
DATE OF DEATH after 221