FAUSTINA I wife of ANTONINUS PIUS Sardes Lydia Aphrodite Rare Roman Coin i52342

Sardis or Sardes was an ancient city at the location of modern
Sart (Sartmahmut before 19 October 2005) in
Turkey
‘s
Manisa Province
. Sardis was the capital of the ancient kingdom of
Lydia
,
one of the important cities of the
Persian Empire
, the seat of a
proconsul

under the
Roman
Empire
, and the metropolis of the province Lydia in later Roman and
Byzantine
times. As one of the
Seven churches of Asia
, it was addressed by the author John of the
Book of Revelation
in the Holy Bible in terms which seem to imply that its
population was notoriously soft and fainthearted. Its importance was due, first
to its military strength, secondly to its situation on an important highway
leading from the interior to the
Aegean

coast, and thirdly to its commanding the wide and fertile plain of the
Hermus
..

Geography

Sardis was situated in the middle of
Hermus

valley, at the foot of
Mount Tmolus
, a steep and lofty spur which formed the citadel. It was about
4 kilometres (2.5 mi) south of the Hermus. Today, the site is located by the
present day village of Sart, near
Salihli
in
the Manisa province of Turkey, close to the
Ankara
–
İzmir
highway
(approximately 72 kilometres (45 mi) from
İzmir
). The part
of remains including the bath-gymnasium complex, synagogue and Byzantine shops
is open to visitors year-round.

History

The earliest reference to Sardis is in the
The
Persians
of
Aeschylus

(472 BC); in the Iliad
, the name Hyde seems to be given to the city of the
Maeonian
(i.e.
Lydian
)
chiefs, and in later times Hyde was said to be the older name of Sardis, or the
name of its citadel
. It is, however, more probable that Sardis was not the original
capital of the Maeonians, but that it became so amid the changes which produced
the powerful
Lydian empire
of the 8th century BC.

The city was captured by the
Cimmerians

in the 7th century BC, by the
Persians
in the 6th, by the
Athenians
in
the 5th, and by
Antiochus III the Great
at the end of the 3rd century BC. In the Persian
era, Sardis was conquered by
Cyrus the Great
and formed the end station for the Persian
Royal Road

which began in
Persepolis
,
capital of
Persia
. During the
Ionian Revolt
, the
Athenians
burnt down the city. Sardis remained under Persian domination
until it surrendered to
Alexander the Great
in 334 BC.

The early Lydian kingdom was very advanced in the industrial arts and Sardis
was the chief seat of its manufactures. The most important of these trades was
the manufacture and dyeing of delicate woolen stuffs and carpets. The stream
Pactolus

which flowed through the market-place “carried golden sands” in early antiquity,
which was in reality gold dust out of
Mount Tmolus
. It was during the reign of King
Croesus
that
the
metallurgists
of Sardis discovered the secret of separating
gold from
silver
, thereby
producing both metals of a purity never known before. This was an economic
revolution, for while gold nuggets panned or mined were used as currency, their
purity was always suspect and a hindrance to trade. Such nuggets or coinage were
naturally occurring alloys of gold and silver known as
electrum

and one could never know how much of it was gold and how much was silver. Sardis
now could mint nearly pure silver and gold coins, the value of which could
be—and was—trusted throughout the known world. This revolution made Sardis rich
and Croesus
‘
name synonymous with wealth itself. For this reason, Sardis is famed in history
as the place where modern
currency

was invented.

Disaster came to the great city under the reign of the emperor
Tiberius
,
when in
AD 17, Sardis was destroyed by an earthquake
, but it was rebuilt. It was one
of the great cities of western
Asia Minor
until the later
Byzantine
period.

Later, trade and the organization of commerce continued to be sources of
great wealth. After
Constantinople
became the capital of the East, a new road system grew up
connecting the provinces with the capital. Sardis then lay rather apart from the
great lines of communication and lost some of its importance. It still, however,
retained its titular supremacy and continued to be the seat of the
metropolitan bishop
of the province of Lydia, formed in AD 295. It was
enumerated as third, after
Ephesus
and

, in the
list of cities of the Thracesion
thema
given by
Constantine Porphyrogenitus
in the 10th century. However, over the next four
centuries it was in the shadow of the provinces of Magnesia-upon-Sipylum and
Philadelphia, which retained their importance in the region.

After 1071 the Hermus valley began to suffer from the inroads of the
Seljuk Turks
but the Byzantine general
John Doukas
reconquered the city in 1097, the successes of the general
Philokales in 1118 relieved the district from later Turkish pressure and the
ability of the Comneni
dynasty together with the gradual decay of the
Seljuk Sultanate of Rum
meant that it remained under Byzantine dominion.
When
Constantinople
was taken by the
Venetians
and Franks
in 1204 Sardis came under the rule of the Byzantine
Empire of Nicea
. However once the Byzantines retook Constantinople in 1261,
Sardis with the entire
Asia Minor
was neglected and the region eventually fell under the control of
Ghazi (Ghazw)
emirs, the
Cayster
valleys and a fort on the citadel of Sardis was handed over to them
by treaty in 1306. The city continued its decline until its capture (and
probable destruction) by the
Mongol
warlord Timur
in 1402.

Annia

Galeria Faustina, more familiarly referred to as Faustina the Elder (Latin:

Faustina Major; born

September 21

about 100, died October or November 140), was a Roman Empress and wife of

Roman

Emperor

Antoninus Pius

.

Faustina was the only known daughter of consul and prefect

Marcus Annius Verus

and

Rupilia

Faustina. Her brothers were consul

Marcus Annius Libo

and

praetor

Marcus Annius Verus

. Her maternal aunts perhaps were Roman Empress

Vibia

Sabina
,

Matidia Minor

. Her paternal grandfather had the same name as her father and

her maternal grandparents possibly were

Salonina Matidia

(niece of Roman Emperor

Trajan
) and

suffect consul

Lucius Scribonius Libo Rupilius Frugi Bonus

. Faustina was born and raised in

Rome.

As a private citizen, she married Antoninus Pius between 110

and 115. Faustina and Antoninus had a very happy marriage. Faustina bore

Antoninus four children, two sons and two daughters. They were:

• Marcus Aurelius Fulvius Antoninus (died before 138); his

  sepulchral inscription has been found at the Mausoleum of Hadrian in Rome.

• Marcus Galerius Aurelius Antoninus (died before 138); his

  sepulchral inscription has been found at the Mausoleum of Hadrian in Rome.

  His name appears on a Greek Imperial coin.

• Aurelia Fadilla (died in 135); she married Aelius Lamia

  Silvanus or Syllanus. She appears to have had no children with her husband

  and her sepulchral inscription has been found in

  Italyy

• Annia Galeria Faustina Minor or

  Faustina the Younger

  (between 125-130-175), a future Roman Empress; she

  married her maternal cousin, future Roman Emperor

  Marcus Aurelius

  . She was the only child who survived to adulthood.

On

July 10
,

138, her uncle

emperor Hadrian

had died and her husband became the new emperor. Antoninus was Hadrian’s adopted

son and heir. Faustina became Roman Empress and the senate accorded her the

title of

. Faustina as an empress was well respected and this beautiful

woman was renowned for her wisdom. The

impugned her character, criticizing her as having

“excessive frankness” and “levity”. However, this doesn’t appear to be the case

with her character. Throughout her life, Faustina as a private citizen and an

empress was involved in assisting with charities, assisting the poor and

sponsoring and assisting in the education of Roman children, particularly of

Roman girls.

She can be viewed as one of the most moral, stable and

respected empresses in the history of the

. When Faustina died, Antoninus was in complete mourning for Faustina.

Antoninus did the following in memory of his loving wife:

• Deified her

  as a goddess (her apotheosis was portrayed on an

  honorary column

  )

• Had

  a temple

  built in the

  Roman

  Forum
  in her name, with priestesses in the temple.

• Had various coins with her portrait struck in her honor.

  These coins were inscribed DIVA FAVSTINA (“Divine Faustina”)

  and were elaborately decorated.

• Founded a charity called Puellae Faustinianae or

  Girls of Faustina, which assisted orphaned girls.

• Created a new alimenta (see

  Grain supply to the city of Rome

  ).

In 2008, archaeologists digging at the ancient site of

Sagalassos

in Turkey

discovered a colossal marble head which is believed to be that of Faustina.