Faustina Junior – Wife

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Faustina Junior

Daughter of Antoninus Pius
Unfaithful Wife of Marcus Aurelius
Mother of Emperor Commodus

Annia Galeria Faustina Junior was the younger daughter of Antoninus Pius and Faustina Senior. Her second cousin, Hadrian, had proposed that she be married to Lucius Verus. His father was Aelius, but when he died, Hadrian then chose Antoninus Pius to succeed him. Faustina was then married to Marcus Aurelius in April-May of 145 AD when she was only 15 years old. She bore 14 children with Marcus, but only six lived to adulthood, four surviving their father.

Faustina was given the title of Augusta by the Senate on the birth of her first child in 146 AD – Domitia Faustina. She gained quite a reputation for adultery, reportedly taking many lovers, including gladiators. These accounts come to us from the historian Cassius Dio and the Historia Augusta. Indeed, Faustina is said to have ordered deaths by poison and execution. There was a rumor that Marcus Aurelius had died, and Faustina sought to retain power and instigated the revolt of Avidius Cassius against Marcus.

The Historia Augusta, which has been proven accurate with the discovery of coins from rivals the academic had never heard of and discounted its veracity, mentions adultery with sailors, gladiators, and men of low rank. It was rumored that Faustina was given poison on the orders of her husband when it became obvious that she had instigated this revolt by Cassius. Because of the persistent rumors of her INFIDELITY, one rumor proposed that their son Commodus, who loved playing a gladiator, was, in fact, a child of one of her many affairs – not truly a son of Marcus Aurelius.