Faustina the Elder was of noble blood; Trajan was her great-great-great uncle. Her marriage to Antoninus Pius helped legitimize his claim to the throne one of many examples of Rome s matrilineal lines of succession. Their marriage was a happy one, especially by standards of royal families. When she died in 140 at the age of 40, the devastated Emperor ordered her deified; hence the inscription DIVA FAVSTINA on the coins made in her honor (diva means divine).
Born in Spain in 76 CE, Hadrian ascended to the throne upon the death of his adoptive father Trajan. In Rome, he re-built the famed Pantheon, with its distinctively Hellenistic look, and in Britain,...
Assuming the throne at the tender age of 14, after a palace coup, Elagabalus was anything but the innocent child. Uninterested in the military or affairs of state, the young emperor made use of his...
The son of Septimius Severus and Julia Domna, Caracalla assumed sole control of Rome after murdering his brother Geta in 211. A year later, he issued the famous Edict of Caracalla, granting full...
Lucius Verus was an adopted heir of the emperor Antoninus Pius, who became co-empeor with Marcus Aurelius in 161 CE. He was married to Lucilla, the daughter of Marcus Aurelius. Said to be a weak man...
The reign of Trajan marks the zenith of Roman civilization. The borders were never as vast, the economy never as booming, the culture never as high. In an era of almost constant warfare, plague, and...