Faustina the Younger
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Annia Galeria Faustina, "the Younger", (c. 125/130 - 175) was the younger daughter of the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius and Faustina the Elder, wife of his successor Marcus Aurelius, and mother of twins Commodus and Antoninus, and Lucilla and ten other children.
[edit] Life
Originally promised by Hadrian to Lucius Verus, Antoninus 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 new alimenta (charity) in her name: the second Puellae Faustinianae (a first one of that name was founded by Antoninus Pius in remembrance of Faustina the Elder).
The Baths of Faustina in Miletus are named after her.
[edit] Issue
During her 30-year marriage Faustina bore thirteen children, only one son and four daughters of which outlived their father:
- Annia Aurelia Galeria Faustina (147-?)
- Annia Aurelia Galeria Lucilla (148/49/50-182), wed later to Lucius Verus to solidify his alliance with Marcus Aurelius
- Gemellus Lucillae (daughter, twin of Lucilla) (149-?)
- Titus Aelius Antoninus
- Titus Aelius Aurelius
- Hadrianus
- Domitia Faustina
- Fadilla (159-?)
- Cornificia (?160-?)
- Titus Aurelius Fulvius Antoninus (161-166) - Commodus' twin brother
- Commodus (161-192), later emperor
- Marcus Annius Verus Caesar (162-169)
- Vibia Aurelia Sabina (?-?)
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