page_title: Faustina the Elder
section_title: Death and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Faustina the Elder / Death and legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Diva Faustina Senior. Died AD 140/1. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.40 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck under Antoninus Pius, AD 146-161. Draped bust right Hexastyle temple in which is a seated figure of Faustina Senior. RIC III 343 (Pius); RSC 1.
context_page_description: Annia Galeria Faustina, sometimes referred to as Faustina I, was a Roman empress and wife of the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius. The emperor Marcus Aurelius was her nephew and later became her adopted son, along with Emperor Lucius Verus. She died early in the principate of Antoninus Pius, but continued to be prominently commemorated as a diva, posthumously playing a prominent symbolic role during his reign.
context_section_description: Faustina died near Rome in 140, perhaps at Antoninus Pius' estate at Lorium. Antoninus was devastated at Faustina's death and took several steps to honor her memory. He had the Senate deify her (her apotheosis was portrayed on an honorary column) and dedicate the Temple of Faustina to her in the Roman Forum. Because of this, Faustina was the first Roman empress with a permanent presence in the Forum Romanum. The Senate authorized gold and silver statues of her, including an image to appear in the circus, where it might be displayed in a carpentum (a kind of covered waggon) or currus elephantorum (a cart drawn by elephants). Antoninus also ordered various coins with her portrait struck, inscribed DIVA FAVSTINA ("Divine Faustina") and elaborately decorated. He also established a charity called Puellae Faustinianae ("Girls of Faustina") to assist orphaned Roman girls and created a new alimenta (see Grain supply to the city of Rome). Her remains were interred in the Mausoleum of Hadrian. Certain cities struck coin issues in honour of the "divine Faustina" (Ancient Greek: ΘΕΑ ΦΑΥϹΤΕΙΝΑ); the most notable such cities were Delphi, Alexandria, Bostra, and Nicopolis. Martin Beckmann suggests that the coins of Nicopolis might have been minted at Rome and given out as imperial largesse at the Actian Games. The coins issued in the wake of Faustina's funeral illustrate her elaborate funeral pyre, which may have influenced the design of later private mausolea; the deities Pietas and Aeternitas, among others; and an eagle (or less often a winged genius) bearing a figure aloft, with the legend CONSECRATIO (i.e. Faustina's ascension into heaven). Coins of Faustina were sometimes incorporated into jewellery and worn as amulets.
  The posthumous cult of Faustina was exceptionally widespread, and Faustina's image continued to be omnipresent throughout Antoninus Pius' principate. A colossal marble head, believed to be that of Faustina and discovered in 2008, figured as one of several monumental imperial statues at the ancient site of Sagalassos in today's Turkey. In Olympia, Herodes Atticus dedicated a nymphaeum that displayed statues of Faustina and other Antonines as well as his own ancestors. Faustina also appears on the Parthian Monument at Ephesus commemorating members of the imperial family. Bergmann and Watson have characterized the commemoration of Faustina as central to Antoninus Pius' political persona. One larger-than-life statue, discovered in situ near the Termini railway station at Rome, appears to depict Faustina as Concordia, with a patera and cornucopia; it would have been displayed alongside statues of Diana Lucifera and Apollo-Sol in baths privately owned but available to the public.
  Antoninus and Faustina were officially held up as such exemplars of conjugal harmony that newlyweds were directed to pray at an altar of Antoninus and Faustina that they might live up to their example. This was evidently the case in Ostia, and probably so in Rome.
  The Temple of Faustina is thought to have been dedicated in 144 CE. It is a grand hexastyle structure with Corinthian columns, possibly designed originally to be a temple of Ceres. Depictions on coins appear to show a cult image of Faustina seated on a throne and holding a tall staff in her left hand. Faustina's portrait on coins from this period is often crowned as well as veiled, which may also recall a feature of Faustina's cult image from the temple.
  The deified Faustina was associated particularly closely with Ceres, who featured prominently on coins of Faustina; for some years, the torch-bearing Ceres was the dominant motif in her gold coinage. Herodes Atticus venerated Faustina as the “new Demeter” (the Greek equivalent of Ceres) at a private sanctuary he established outside Rome, now the church of Sant'Urbano. In addition to Ceres, Vesta and Juno feature prominently in Faustina's coinage. She was also associated with the Magna Mater and at Cyrene with Isis; at Sardis she was worshipped conjointly with Artemis.
  Ten years after Faustina's death, a new commemorative coinage was in
caption: A denarius struck in honour of Faustina Major, depicting her temple with the abbreviated legend AED DIV FAVSTINAE (‘temple of the divine Faustina’)
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