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Faustina II
–
Roman Empress
& Wife of
Emperor
Marcus Aurelius
–
161-175 A.D. –
Bronze 25mm (12.16 grams) of
Philippopolis
in
Thrace
Reference: Varbanov 886 (R5)
ΦΑVCΤΕΙΝΑ CEBACTH, draped bust right.
ΦIΛIΠΠΟΠΟΛΕΙΤΩΝ,
Demeter
standing left, holding two
torches.
You
are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a
Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of
Authenticity.
In
Greek mythology
,
Demeter
was the goddess of the harvest, who presided over
grains
, the
fertility
of the earth,
the
seasons
(personified by
the
Hours
), and the
harvest
. One of her
surnames is Sito (σίτος:
wheat) as the giver of food or corn. Though Demeter is
often described simply as the goddess of the harvest,
she presided also over the sanctity of
marriage
, the
sacred law
, and the
cycle of
life and death
. She and
her daughter
Persephone
were the
central figures of the
Eleusinian Mysteries
that also predated the Olympian pantheon.
Her
Roman
cognate is
Ceres
.
Annia
Galeria Faustina Minor (Minor Latin for
the younger), Faustina Minor or Faustina
the Younger
(February
16 between 125 and 130-175) 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
. Though Roman sources give a
generally negative view of her character, she was held
in high esteem by soldiers and her own husband and was
given divine honours after her death.
//
Biography
Faustina, named after her mother, was
her parents’ fourth and youngest child and their second
daughter; she was also their only child to survive to
adulthood. She was born and raised in
Rome
.
Her great uncle, the Emperor
Hadrian
, had arranged with her father for Faustina
to marry
Lucius Verus
. On February 25, 138, she and Verus
were betrothed.
Verus’ father
was Hadrian’s first adopted son and
his intended heir. However when Verus’ father died,
Hadrian chose Faustina’s father to be his second adopted
son, and eventually, he became Hadrian’s successor.
Faustina’s father ended the engagement between his
daughter and Verus and arranged for Faustina’s betrothal
to her maternal cousin,
Marcus Aurelius
; Aurelius was also adopted by her
father. On May 13, 145, Faustina and Marcus Aurelius
were married. When her father died on March 7, 161, her
husband and Lucius Verus succeeded to her father’s
throne and became co-rulers. Faustina was given the
title of
Augusta
and became Empress.
Unfortunately, not much has survived
from the Roman sources regarding Faustina’s life, but
what is available does not give a good report.
Cassius Dio
and the
Augustan History
accuse Faustina of ordering
deaths by poison and execution; she has also been
accused of instigating the revolt of
Avidius Cassius
against her husband. The Augustan
History mentions adultery with sailors, gladiators,
and men of rank. However, Faustina and Aurelius seem to
have been very close and mutually devoted. Her husband
trusted her and defended her vigorously against
detractors.
Faustina accompanied her husband on
various military campaigns and enjoyed the love and
reverence of Roman soldiers. Aurelius gave her the title
of Mater Castrorum or Mother of the Camp.
Between 170-174, she was in the north, and in 175, she
accompanied Aurelius to the east. However, these
experiences took their toll on Faustina, who died in the
winter of 175, after an accident, at the military camp
in Halala (a city in the
Taurus Mountains
in
Cappadocia
).
Aurelius grieved much for his wife
and buried her in the Mausoleum of Hadrian in Rome. She
was deified: her statue was placed in the Temple of
Venus in Rome and a temple was dedicated to her in her
honor. Halala’s name was changed to Faustinopolis
and Aurelius opened charity schools for orphan girls
called Puellae Faustinianae or ‘Girls of
Faustina’.[1]
The Baths of Faustina in
Miletus
are named after her.
In their thirty years of marriage,
Faustina bore Marcus Aurelius thirteen children:
-
Annia Aurelia Galeria Faustina
(147-after 165)
-
Gemellus Lucillae (died around
150), twin brother of Lucilla
-
Annia Aurelia Galeria
Lucilla
(148/50-182), twin sister of Gemellus,
married her father’s co-ruler
Lucius Verus
-
Titus Aelius Antoninus (born
after 150, died before 7 March 161)
-
Titus Aelius Aurelius (born after
150, died before 7 March 161)
-
Hadrianus (152-157)
-
Domitia Faustina (born after 150,
died before 7 March 161)
-
Fadilla
(159-after 211)
-
Annia Cornificia Faustina Minor
(160-after 211)
-
Titus Aurelius Fulvus Antoninus
(161-165), twin brother of Commodus
-
Commodus
(161-192), twin brother of Titus
Aurelius Fulvus Antoninus, later emperor
-
Marcus Annius Verus Caesar
(162-169)
- Vibia Aurelia Sabina (170-died before 217)
The sestertius, or sesterce, (pl.
sestertii) was an
ancient Roman
coin
. During the
Roman Republic
it was a
small,
silver
coin issued only
on rare occasions. During the
Roman Empire
it was a
large
brass
coin.
Helmed Roma head right, IIS behind
Dioscuri
riding right,
ROMA in linear frame below. RSC4, C44/7, BMC13.
The name sestertius (originally
semis-tertius) means “2 ½”, the coin’s original
value in
asses
, and is a
combination of semis “half” and tertius
“third”, that is, “the third half” (0 ½ being the
first half and 1 ½ the second half) or “half
the third” (two units plus half the third unit,
or halfway between the second unit and the
third). Parallel constructions exist in
Danish
with
halvanden (1 ½), halvtredje (2 ½) and
halvfjerde (3 ½). The form sesterce, derived
from
French
, was once used
in preference to the Latin form, but is now considered
old-fashioned.
It is abbreviated as (originally IIS).
Example of a detailed portrait of
Hadrian
117
to 138
History
The sestertius was introduced c. 211 BC as a small
silver
coin valued at
one-quarter of a
denarius
(and thus one
hundredth of an
aureus
). A silver
denarius was supposed to weigh about 4.5 grams, valued
at ten grams, with the silver sestertius valued at two
and one-half grams. In practice, the coins were usually
underweight.
When the denarius was retariffed to sixteen asses
(due to the gradual reduction in the size of bronze
denominations), the sestertius was accordingly revalued
to four asses, still equal to one quarter of a denarius.
It was produced sporadically, far less often than the
denarius, through 44 BC.
Hostilian
under
Trajan Decius
250 AD
In or about 23 BC, with the coinage reform of
Augustus
, the
denomination of sestertius was introduced as the large
brass denomination. Augustus tariffed the value of the
sestertius as 1/100
Aureus
. The sestertius
was produced as the largest
brass
denomination
until the late 3rd century AD. Most were struck in the
mint of
Rome
but from AD 64
during the reign of
Nero
(AD 54–68) and
Vespasian
(AD 69–79),
the mint of
Lyon
(Lugdunum),
supplemented production. Lyon sestertii can be
recognised by a small globe, or legend stop), beneath
the bust.[citation
needed]
The brass sestertius typically weighs in the region
of 25 to 28 grammes, is around 32–34 mm in diameter and
about 4 mm thick. The distinction between
bronze
and brass was
important to the Romans. Their name for
brass
was
orichalcum
, a word
sometimes also spelled aurichalcum (echoing the
word for a gold coin, aureus), meaning ‘gold-copper’,
because of its shiny, gold-like appearance when the
coins were newly struck (see, for example
Pliny the Elder
in his
Natural History Book 34.4).
Orichalcum
was
considered, by weight, to be worth about double that of
bronze. This is why the half-sestertius, the
dupondius
, was around
the same size and weight as the bronze as, but was worth
two asses.
Sestertii continued to be struck until the late 3rd
century, although there was a marked deterioration in
the quality of the metal used and the striking even
though portraiture remained strong. Later emperors
increasingly relied on melting down older sestertii, a
process which led to the zinc component being gradually
lost as it burned off in the high temperatures needed to
melt copper (Zinc
melts at 419 °C,
Copper
at 1085 °C). The
shortfall was made up with bronze and even lead. Later
sestertii tend to be darker in appearance as a result
and are made from more crudely prepared blanks (see the
Hostilian
coin on this
page).
The gradual impact of
inflation
caused by
debasement
of the
silver currency meant that the purchasing power of the
sestertius and smaller denominations like the dupondius
and as was steadily reduced. In the 1st century AD,
everyday small change was dominated by the dupondius and
as, but in the 2nd century, as inflation bit, the
sestertius became the dominant small change. In the 3rd
century silver coinage contained less and less silver,
and more and more copper or bronze. By the 260s and 270s
the main unit was the double-denarius, the
antoninianus
, but by
then these small coins were almost all bronze. Although
these coins were theoretically worth eight sestertii,
the average sestertius was worth far more in plain terms
of the metal they contained.
Some of the last sestertii were struck by
Aurelian
(270–275 AD).
During the end of its issue, when sestertii were reduced
in size and quality, the
double sestertius
was
issued first by
Trajan Decius
(249–251
AD) and later in large quantity by the ruler of a
breakaway regime in the West called
Postumus
(259–268 AD),
who often used worn old sestertii to
overstrike
his image
and legends on. The double sestertius was distinguished
from the sestertius by the
radiate crown
worn by
the emperor, a device used to distinguish the dupondius
from the as and the antoninianus from the denarius.
Eventually, the inevitable happened. Many sestertii
were withdrawn by the state and by forgers, to melt down
to make the debased antoninianus, which made inflation
worse. In the coinage reforms of the 4th century, the
sestertius played no part and passed into history.
Sestertius of
Hadrian
,
dupondius of
Antoninus Pius
,
and as of
Marcus Aurelius
As a unit of account
The sestertius was also used as a standard unit of
account, represented on inscriptions with the monogram
HS. Large values were recorded in terms of sestertium
milia, thousands of sestertii, with the milia
often omitted and implied. The hyper-wealthy general and
politician of the late Roman Republic,
Crassus
(who fought in
the war to defeat
Spartacus
), was said by
Pliny the Elder to have had ‘estates worth 200 million
sesterces’.
A loaf of bread cost roughly half a sestertius, and a
sextarius
(~0.5 liter)
of
wine
anywhere from less
than half to more than 1 sestertius. One
modius
(6.67 kg) of
wheat
in 79 AD
Pompeii
cost 7
sestertii, of
rye
3 sestertii, a
bucket 2 sestertii, a tunic 15 sestertii, a donkey 500
sestertii.
Records from
Pompeii
show a
slave
being sold at
auction for 6,252 sestertii. A writing tablet from
Londinium
(Roman
London
), dated to c.
75–125 AD, records the sale of a
Gallic
slave girl
called Fortunata for 600 denarii, equal to 2,400
sestertii, to a man called Vegetus. It is difficult to
make any comparisons with modern coinage or prices, but
for most of the 1st century AD the ordinary
legionary
was paid 900
sestertii per annum, rising to 1,200 under
Domitian
(81-96 AD),
the equivalent of 3.3 sestertii per day. Half of this
was deducted for living costs, leaving the soldier (if
he was lucky enough actually to get paid) with about
1.65 sestertii per day.
Perhaps a more useful comparison is a modern salary:
in 2010 a private soldier in the US Army (grade E-2)
earned about $20,000 a year.
Numismatic value
A sestertius of
Nero
,
struck at
Rome
in 64
AD. The reverse depicts the emperor on
horseback with a companion. The legend reads
DECVRSIO, ‘a military exercise’. Diameter
35mm
Sestertii are highly valued by
numismatists
, since
their large size gave caelatores (engravers) a
large area in which to produce detailed portraits and
reverse types. The most celebrated are those produced
for
Nero
(54-68 AD) between
the years 64 and 68 AD, created by some of the most
accomplished coin engravers in history. The brutally
realistic portraits of this emperor, and the elegant
reverse designs, greatly impressed and influenced the
artists of the
Renaissance
. The series
issued by
Hadrian
(117-138 AD),
recording his travels around the Roman Empire,
brilliantly depicts the Empire at its height, and
included the first representation on a coin of the
figure of
Britannia
; it was
revived by
Charles II
, and was a
feature of
United Kingdom
coinage
until the
2008 redesign
.
Very high quality examples can sell for over a
million
dollars
at auction as
of 2008, but the coins were produced in such colossal
abundance that millions survive.
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