Description
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).
