Saturday, May 26, 2012
RANDOM ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA
FAUSTINA, ANNIA- wife of marcus aurelius, daughter of antonius pius + the empress annia gateria faustina augusta, her husband, whose original name was marcus annius verus, was the son of her maternal uncle, annius veus; + both thru their grandfather annius verus, consul for the 3rd time in 126 ad traced their decent from numa pompilius. besides commodus, f had 6 children whose names are known, annius verus, annia lucilla august a, vibia aurelia, sabina, domitia faustina, fadilla, but supposed to have 11. f was either one of the most profligate or the most maligned of women. welnd appears to be her few apologists; in her own day(if we accept the testimony of her contemporaries) the only ma who belived in her virtue + goodness was her great + wise husband, who ought to outweigh the gossip of dion cassius. on the other hand, but her husband might be wrong about her as he was about his son commodus, the buffoon of the imperial purple(georgee! + does that make faustina bar?!?). the empress impunity amid her alleged vices + the emp's patronage of her supposed paramours, have been deemed unfavorable to the reputation for judgement + sincerety of one of the noblest men of antiquity. f died in 175 in halalac cappadocia, whither she had accompanied marcus on his expedition against the rebel avidius cassius. aurelius, in her memory raised the obscure village to the rank of city, w/ nme faustinoppollis, also founded charitable schools for orphan girls-similar to those that antonius had established in honor of his wife, the elder faustina . the title mater castrorum 1st appeared on the wins of the younger faustina. marcus aurelius placed his wife's statue in the templeof venus, + f was numbered among the guardian deities of rome.
