Justina (Empress)

Justina († 388 ) was the second wife of the Roman emperor Valentinian I (364-375) and mother of Valentinian II. (375-392).

Life

Justina was a daughter of Justus, governor of Picenum under Constantius II and had at least two brothers, Constantius and Cerealis. She was first married to Magnentius , who ruled the Roman West as the anti-emperor from 350 to 353. According to Zosimos and John of Antioch , the marriage remained childless because Justina was too young. Around 370 she married Valentinian I. For the emperor it was also the second marriage, from the first marriage he had the son Gratian, who had already been made co-emperor in 367 . Justina and Valentinian had at least four children, the son Valentinian II and the daughters Galla , Grata and Justa.

After Ammianus Marcellinus , Zosimos and Philostorgios , Justina stayed in Sirmium when Valentinian I died on November 17, 375 . She took over the reign of Valentinian II, who was just four years old, who succeeded his half-brother and guardian Gratian in the west, and took her residence in Milan . Justina adhered to Arianism , but was only able to become active in church politics in favor of her faith after the death of her husband. She was in a bitter argument with Ambrose of Milan , the leader of the Nicene Party in Italy.

In 383 Gratian was defeated by the usurper Magnus Maximus , who took power in Britain , Gaul , Hispania and Africa . Maximus, who ruled from Trier , was recognized in 384 by Theodosius I and - willy-nilly - also by Valentinian and Justina as co-emperors, whose sphere of influence was now limited to Italy.

In 387 Maximus broke the arrangement with Valentinian, crossed the Alps and marched towards Milan. Justina fled with her children to Theodosius in Thessaloniki . After Zosimos, Justina offered her daughter Galla as his wife, if he would help Valentinian II regain his throne. Theodosius agreed and married Galla towards the end of the year. In the summer of 388 Theodosius defeated the troops of Maximus, who had to surrender at Aquileia and was executed on August 28th. Justina died that same year; she did not see her son reinstated as emperor in the west.

swell

• Ammianus Marcellinus 30.10
• Socrates Scholastikos , Historia ecclesiastica , 4.30 (English)
• Zosimos 4 , 53 (English)

literature

• Noel Lenski: Failure of Empire: Valens and the Roman State in the Fourth Century AD Berkeley 2002, ISBN 0-520-23332-8 .
• Justina. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 3, Bautz, Herzberg 1992, ISBN 3-88309-035-2 , Sp. 888.
• Otto Seeck : Iustinus 15 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume X, 2, Stuttgart 1919, column 1337 f.