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| Annia Aurelia Faustina | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Augusta | |||||||||
Portrait of Annia Aurelia Faustina | |||||||||
| Roman empress | |||||||||
| Tenure | AD 221 | ||||||||
| Spouse | Pomponius Bassus Elagabalus | ||||||||
| Issue | Pomponia Ummidia Pomponius Bassus (consul 259) | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Father | Tiberius Claudius Severus Proculus | ||||||||
| Mother | Annia Faustina | ||||||||
Annia Aurelia Faustina (fl.c. 201 – c. 222 CE) was anAnatolian Roman noblewoman. She was briefly married to theRoman emperorElagabalus in 221 CE and thus was aRoman empress.[1] She was Elagabalus' third wife.[2][3]
Faustina was of noble descent, the daughter and only child of the wealthy heiressAnnia Faustina and theRoman Senator, consulTiberius Claudius Severus Proculus. Her parents were maternal second-cousins.
Her paternal grandparents were thePontian GreekRoman Senator andPeripatetic Philosopher,Gnaeus Claudius Severus and his second wife, the Roman PrincessAnnia Galeria Aurelia Faustina. Her maternal grandparents were wealthy Roman heiressUmmidia Cornificia Faustina and aRoman senator whose name is unknown. Her paternal half-uncle was Marcus Claudius Ummidius Quadratus, who had been adopted by the Roman ConsulMarcus Ummidius Quadratus Annianus, the nephew of theRoman EmperorMarcus Aurelius. She was aRoman citizen ofPontic Greek andItalian ancestry.
Her paternal great-grandparents were the Roman emperorMarcus Aurelius; Roman empressFaustina the Younger; the Roman senator, philosopherGnaeus Claudius Severus Arabianus and his wife, whose name is unknown. Her maternal great-grandparents were Marcus Aurelius’ sister, the noblewomanAnnia Cornificia Faustina and Gaius Ummidius Quadratus Annianus Verus, aRoman Senator who served as a suffect consul in 146. Thus she was a descendant of the former rulingNerva–Antonine dynasty of theRoman Empire. Although by birth, Annia Aurelia Faustina was of thegens Claudia, she was not named after her father; instead she was named in honor of her parents' relations to thegens Aurelia, thegens Annia and theNerva–Antonine dynasty.
Annia Aurelia Faustina was born and raised on her mother's estate inPisidia, one of a number in that area called the "Cyllanian Estates". These estates were very large properties, established from the time of thedictator of theRoman Republic,Lucius Cornelius Sulla (c. 138-78 BC).
About 216, her father may have made a political alliance with a Roman Senator who was a member of thegens Pomponia that resulted in her marryingPomponius Bassus.
Upon her marriage, they settled at her Pisidian estates. Pomponius treated Annia well and they both lived in domestic tranquility. She bore at least two known children during her marriage: a daughter,Pomponia Ummidia (born 219), and a son,Pomponius Bassus (born 220).
By 218, her parents had died and Annia inherited her mother's estate and their fortune, becoming 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.
In the year 221,Roman EmperorElagabalus was induced to end his highly controversial and politically damaging marriage to theVestal VirginAquilia Severa by high-ranking courtiers and senior camp generals, led by his grandmotherJulia Maesa. In its place he was advised to marry Annia Aurelia Faustina, to secure an alliance with the powerful clan represented by her blood connections to Marcus Aurelius (he was her great-grandfather) and the priorNerva–Antonine dynasty.[4][5] Annia Aurelia Faustina was recently widowed as her husband, Pomponius Bassus, had been executed for subversion and treason. The senatorial Roman ruling class was more receptive of this imperial marriage than the previous one.
Annia became Empress, and it seemed for a time that theNerva–Antonine dynasty rule had returned to Rome. Elagabalus gave her the title ofAugusta. Supporters ofElagabalus had hoped that Annia, the mother of two small children, would bear him a natural heir; however, they had no children. In the end of 221, Elagabalus divorced Annia and remarried Julia Aquilia Severa.[2] Due to the brevity of the marriage, there are no surviving sources describing Annia Aurelia Faustina's rule as a Roman empress.
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 daughterPomponia Ummidia inherited the estate, and her descendants had become various distinguished nobles and politicians in Roman Society.
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| Preceded by | Empress of Rome 221 | Succeeded by |