Annia Faustina
Encyclopedia
Annia Aurelia Faustina (about 201–after 222) was an Anatolian Roman noblewoman
. She was an Empress of Rome
and third wife of Roman Emperor
Elagabalus
briefly in 221.
and the Roman Senator
, consul Tiberius Claudius Severus Proculus
. Her parents were maternal second-cousins.
Her paternal grandparents were the Pontian Greek
Roman Senator
and Peripatetic Philosopher, Gnaeus Claudius Severus
and his second wife, the Roman Princess Annia Aurelia Galeria Faustina
. Her maternal grandparents were wealthy Roman heiress Ummidia Cornificia Faustina
and an unnamed Roman Senator
. Her paternal half-uncle was Marcus Claudius Ummidius Quadratus, who had been adopted by the Roman Consul Marcus Ummidius Quadratus Annianus
, the nephew of the Roman Emperor
Marcus Aurelius. She was of Pontian Greek
and Italian Roman ancestry.
Her paternal great-grandparents were the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius; Roman Empress Faustina the Younger
; the Roman Senator, Philosopher Gnaeus Claudius Severus Arabianus
and his unnamed wife. Her maternal great-grandparents were Marcus Aurelius’ sister, the noblewoman Annia Cornificia Faustina
and Gaius Ummidius Quadratus Annianus Verus a Roman Senator
who served as a suffect consul in 146. Thus she was a descendant of the former ruling Nerva–Antonine dynasty of the Roman Empire
. Although by birth, Annia Aurelia Faustina was of the Claudia (gens), she was not named after her father; instead she was named in honor of her parent’s relations to the gens Aurelia, the gens Annia
and the Nerva–Antonine dynasty.
, one of a number in that area called the Cyllanian Estates. These estates were very large properties, established from the time of the Roman Dictator of the Roman Republic
, Lucius Cornelius Sulla
(c. 138 BC
-78 BC
).
By 218, her parents had died. Annia Aurelia Faustina had inherited her mother’s estate and the fortune of both parents; she had become a very wealthy heiress. On the site of the estate inscriptions have survived proclaiming her inheritance of the property from her parents and that she was its owner.
About 216, her father may have made a political alliance with a Roman Senator who was a member of the Pomponia (gens)
. This resulted in her marrying the Roman Politician Pomponius Bassus
.
. Upon her marriage, they settled at her Pisidian Estate. Pomponius Bassus treated Annia Aurelia Faustina well and they both lived in domestic tranquility. She bore him at least two known children; a daughter Pomponia Ummidia
(born 219) and a son, Pomponius Bassus
(born 220).
Elagabalus
desired Annia Aurelia Faustina to be his wife. It was her beauty and her high prominent imperial ancestry that attracted the Roman Emperor Elagabalus
to her. In order to marry her, he ordered the execution of Pomponius Bassus. After the death of Pomponius Bassus, Elagabalus forbade her to mourn her first husband. In July 221, Elagabalus took Annia Aurelia Faustina as his third wife (her second marriage). Roman society was more accepting of his marriage to her than of his second marriage to the Vestal Virgin Julia Aquilia Severa
.
Through her marriage to Elagabalus, she became Empress of Rome. Annia Aurelia Faustina through her humble, high born noble descent was is her own right a Roman Princess and could have claimed the Roman throne for herself. When she married Elagabalus, it seemed for a time that the Nerva–Antonine dynasty rule had returned to Rome.
He gave her the title of Annia Faustina Augusta and added the Latin name Julia to her name. Numismatic and other evidence that have survived of her, date from her second, brief marriage, to Elagabalus.
Elagabalus had hoped she would bear him an heir, so that his maternal cousin Alexander Severus
, would not inherit the throne; however, she bore him no children. Towards the end of 221, Elagabalus divorced her; it is not known why. Due to her second brief marriage, there are no surviving sources stating how Annia Aurelia Faustina ruled when she was a Roman Empress. Elagabalus returned to Julia Aquilia Severa and re-married her, as his fourth wife.
inherited the estate. After her death, her descendants had become various distinguished nobles and politicians in Roman Society.
History of Anatolia
The history of Anatolia encompasses the region known as Anatolia , known by the Latin name of Asia Minor, considered to be the westernmost extent of Western Asia...
. She was an Empress of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and third wife of Roman Emperor
Roman Emperor
The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...
Elagabalus
Elagabalus
Elagabalus , also known as Heliogabalus, was Roman Emperor from 218 to 222. A member of the Severan Dynasty, he was Syrian on his mother's side, the son of Julia Soaemias and Sextus Varius Marcellus. Early in his youth he served as a priest of the god El-Gabal at his hometown, Emesa...
briefly in 221.
Ancestry & Family
Annia Aurelia Faustina is an ancient Roman noblewoman that has been scarcely notice in ancient Roman history and by ancient, modern historians. She was an extremely beautiful woman; in her character she was virtuous, charming who share of principle and prudence was greatly shown in her that her female ancestors. She was of noble descent; was the daughter and only child of noblewoman and wealthy heiress Annia FaustinaAnnia Faustina (daughter of Ummidia Cornificia Faustina)
Annia Faustina was a noblewoman of Anatolian Roman descent and a wealthy heiress who lived in the Roman Empire.Annia Faustina was the daughter and only child of the wealthy Roman heiress Ummidia Cornificia Faustina by an unnamed Roman Senator. The full name of Annia Faustina is unknown...
and the Roman Senator
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
, consul Tiberius Claudius Severus Proculus
Tiberius Claudius Severus Proculus
Tiberius Claudius Severus Proculus was a Roman Senator that lived in the Roman Empire.-Descent and Family:Severus Proculus was born of noble descent. He was from a wealthy, prominent, distinguished family in Pompeiopolis, a city in the Roman province of Galatia...
. Her parents were maternal second-cousins.
Her paternal grandparents were the Pontian Greek
Pontic Greeks
The Pontians are an ethnic group traditionally living in the Pontus region, the shores of Turkey's Black Sea...
Roman Senator
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
and Peripatetic Philosopher, Gnaeus Claudius Severus
Gnaeus Claudius Severus
Gnaeus Claudius Severus was a Roman senator and philosopher who lived in the Roman Empire during the 2nd century.Severus was the son of the Roman senator and philosopher Gnaeus Claudius Severus Arabianus by an unnamed mother. Severus was of Pontian Greek descent. He was born and raised in...
and his second wife, the Roman Princess Annia Aurelia Galeria Faustina
Annia Aurelia Galeria Faustina
Annia Aurelia Galeria Faustina , was a Roman Princess. She was the first born daughter and child to Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius and Roman Empress Faustina the Younger. Her younger sister was Roman Empress Lucilla and younger brother was Roman Emperor Commodus...
. Her maternal grandparents were wealthy Roman heiress Ummidia Cornificia Faustina
Ummidia Cornificia Faustina
Ummidia Cornificia Faustina was a wealthy Roman noblewoman, an heiress and the niece of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius.Cornificia Faustina was the daughter of Marcus Aurelius’ sister, Annia Cornificia Faustina and the Roman Senator who served as a suffect consul in 146, Gaius Ummidius Quadratus...
and an unnamed Roman Senator
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
. Her paternal half-uncle was Marcus Claudius Ummidius Quadratus, who had been adopted by the Roman Consul Marcus Ummidius Quadratus Annianus
Marcus Ummidius Quadratus Annianus
Marcus Ummidius Quadratus Annianus was a wealthy Roman Politician and the nephew of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius.Quadratus was the son of Marcus Aurelius’ sister, Annia Cornificia Faustina and the Roman Senator who served as a suffect consul in 146, Gaius Ummidius Quadratus Annianus Verus....
, the nephew of the Roman Emperor
Roman Emperor
The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...
Marcus Aurelius. She was of Pontian Greek
Pontic Greeks
The Pontians are an ethnic group traditionally living in the Pontus region, the shores of Turkey's Black Sea...
and Italian Roman ancestry.
Her paternal great-grandparents were the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius; Roman Empress Faustina the Younger
Faustina the Younger
Annia Galeria Faustina Minor , Faustina Minor or Faustina the Younger was a daughter of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius and Roman Empress Faustina the Elder. She was a Roman Empress and wife to her maternal cousin Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius...
; the Roman Senator, Philosopher Gnaeus Claudius Severus Arabianus
Gnaeus Claudius Severus Arabianus
Gnaeus Claudius Severus Arabianus was a Roman Senator and philosopher that lived in the Roman Empire.Severus was the son of the consul and the first Roman Governor of Arabia Petraea, Gaius Claudius Severus by an unnamed mother. Severus was of Pontian Greek descent...
and his unnamed wife. Her maternal great-grandparents were Marcus Aurelius’ sister, the noblewoman Annia Cornificia Faustina
Annia Cornificia Faustina
Annia Cornificia Faustina was the youngest child and only daughter to Praetor Marcus Annius Verus and Domitia Lucilla. The parents of Cornificia came from wealthy senatorial families who were of consular rank. She was born and raised in Rome. The brother of Cornificia was the future Roman Emperor...
and Gaius Ummidius Quadratus Annianus Verus a Roman Senator
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
who served as a suffect consul in 146. Thus she was a descendant of the former ruling Nerva–Antonine dynasty of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. Although by birth, Annia Aurelia Faustina was of the Claudia (gens), she was not named after her father; instead she was named in honor of her parent’s relations to the gens Aurelia, the gens Annia
Annia (gens)
The gens Annia was a plebeian family of considerable antiquity at Rome. The first person of this name whom Titus Livius mentions is the Latin praetor Lucius Annius of Setia, a Roman colony in 340 BC. By the time of the Second Punic War, the Annii were obtaining minor magistracies at Rome, and in...
and the Nerva–Antonine dynasty.
Early Life
Annia Aurelia Faustina was born and raised on her mother’s estate in PisidiaPisidia
Pisidia was a region of ancient Asia Minor located north of Lycia, and bordering Caria, Lydia, Phrygia and Pamphylia. It corresponds roughly to the modern-day province of Antalya in Turkey...
, one of a number in that area called the Cyllanian Estates. These estates were very large properties, established from the time of the Roman Dictator of the Roman Republic
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
, Lucius Cornelius Sulla
Lucius Cornelius Sulla
Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix , known commonly as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman. He had the rare distinction of holding the office of consul twice, as well as that of dictator...
(c. 138 BC
138 BC
Year 138 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Serapio and Callaicus...
-78 BC
78 BC
Year 78 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Lepidus and Catulus...
).
By 218, her parents had died. Annia Aurelia Faustina had inherited her mother’s estate and the fortune of both parents; she had become a very wealthy heiress. On the site of the estate inscriptions have survived proclaiming her inheritance of the property from her parents and that she was its owner.
About 216, her father may have made a political alliance with a Roman Senator who was a member of the Pomponia (gens)
Pomponia (gens)
The gens Pomponia was a plebeian family at Rome throughout the period of the Republic and into imperial times. The first of the gens to achieve prominence was Marcus Pomponius, tribune of the plebs in 449 BC; the first who obtained the consulship was Manius Pomponius Matho in 233 BC.-Origin of the...
. This resulted in her marrying the Roman Politician Pomponius Bassus
Pomponius Bassus (consul 211)
Pomponius Bassus was a Roman Senator that lived in the Roman Empire.The father of Pomponius Bassus was probably Gaius Pomponius Bassus Terentianus , who served as a suffect consul around 193 and the name of his mother is unknown....
.
First Marriage
Between 216-218, Annia Aurelia Faustina married the Roman Politician Pomponius BassusPomponius Bassus (consul 211)
Pomponius Bassus was a Roman Senator that lived in the Roman Empire.The father of Pomponius Bassus was probably Gaius Pomponius Bassus Terentianus , who served as a suffect consul around 193 and the name of his mother is unknown....
. Upon her marriage, they settled at her Pisidian Estate. Pomponius Bassus treated Annia Aurelia Faustina well and they both lived in domestic tranquility. She bore him at least two known children; a daughter Pomponia Ummidia
Pomponia Ummidia
Pomponia Ummidia was Anatolian Roman noblewoman and was a prominent figure in Rome during the reigns of the Roman Emperors Gallienus, Claudius Gothicus, Quintillus and Aurelian. She lived in the period the Crisis of the Third Century in the Roman Empire.Pomponia Ummidia came from a distinguished...
(born 219) and a son, Pomponius Bassus
Pomponius Bassus (consul 259 & 271)
Pomponius Bassus was a Roman Senator of Anatolian descent who lived in the Roman Empire.Bassus was of Italian Roman, Pontian Greek ancestry, who came from a distinguished senatorial family...
(born 220).
Second Marriage to Elagabalus
In the year 221, Roman EmperorRoman Emperor
The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...
Elagabalus
Elagabalus
Elagabalus , also known as Heliogabalus, was Roman Emperor from 218 to 222. A member of the Severan Dynasty, he was Syrian on his mother's side, the son of Julia Soaemias and Sextus Varius Marcellus. Early in his youth he served as a priest of the god El-Gabal at his hometown, Emesa...
desired Annia Aurelia Faustina to be his wife. It was her beauty and her high prominent imperial ancestry that attracted the Roman Emperor Elagabalus
Elagabalus
Elagabalus , also known as Heliogabalus, was Roman Emperor from 218 to 222. A member of the Severan Dynasty, he was Syrian on his mother's side, the son of Julia Soaemias and Sextus Varius Marcellus. Early in his youth he served as a priest of the god El-Gabal at his hometown, Emesa...
to her. In order to marry her, he ordered the execution of Pomponius Bassus. After the death of Pomponius Bassus, Elagabalus forbade her to mourn her first husband. In July 221, Elagabalus took Annia Aurelia Faustina as his third wife (her second marriage). Roman society was more accepting of his marriage to her than of his second marriage to the Vestal Virgin Julia Aquilia Severa
Aquilia Severa
Iulia Aquilia Severa was the second and fourth wife of Emperor Elagabalus. She was the daughter of Quintus Aquilius, twice consul under Caracalla. The praenomen of Julia was given to her after becoming an empress.Severa was a Vestal Virgin...
.
Through her marriage to Elagabalus, she became Empress of Rome. Annia Aurelia Faustina through her humble, high born noble descent was is her own right a Roman Princess and could have claimed the Roman throne for herself. When she married Elagabalus, it seemed for a time that the Nerva–Antonine dynasty rule had returned to Rome.
He gave her the title of Annia Faustina Augusta and added the Latin name Julia to her name. Numismatic and other evidence that have survived of her, date from her second, brief marriage, to Elagabalus.
Elagabalus had hoped she would bear him an heir, so that his maternal cousin Alexander Severus
Alexander Severus
Severus Alexander was Roman Emperor from 222 to 235. Alexander was the last emperor of the Severan dynasty. He succeeded his cousin Elagabalus upon the latter's assassination in 222, and was ultimately assassinated himself, marking the epoch event for the Crisis of the Third Century — nearly fifty...
, would not inherit the throne; however, she bore him no children. Towards the end of 221, Elagabalus divorced her; it is not known why. Due to her second brief marriage, there are no surviving sources stating how Annia Aurelia Faustina ruled when she was a Roman Empress. Elagabalus returned to Julia Aquilia Severa and re-married her, as his fourth wife.
Life After Elagabalus
When her marriage to Elagabalus ended, Annia Aurelia Faustina returned with her children to the Pisidian Estate. She spent the final years of her life there. When she died, her daughter Pomponia UmmidiaPomponia Ummidia
Pomponia Ummidia was Anatolian Roman noblewoman and was a prominent figure in Rome during the reigns of the Roman Emperors Gallienus, Claudius Gothicus, Quintillus and Aurelian. She lived in the period the Crisis of the Third Century in the Roman Empire.Pomponia Ummidia came from a distinguished...
inherited the estate. After her death, her descendants had become various distinguished nobles and politicians in Roman Society.
External Link
Sources
- Descriptive catalogue of a cabinet of Roman imperial large-brass medals By William Henry Smyth, 1834
- Septimius Severus: the African emperor, by Anthony Richard Birley Edition: 2, Routledge, 1999
- Marcus Aurelius, by Anthony Richard Birley, Routledge, 2000
- The Cities and Bishoprics of Phyrgia: Being an Essay of the Local History of Phrygia from the Earliest Times to the Turkish Conquest Volume One, Part One, By William M. Ramsay, 2004
- http://www.roman-emperor.org/elagabal.htm
- http://www.dirtyoldcoins.com/natto/id/annia.htm
- http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/1249.html
- http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0482.html
- http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Annia%20Faustina