Vibia Aurelia Sabina

Vibia Aurelia Sabina (170 AD – before 217 AD) was the youngest daughter and child born to Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius and Roman Empress Faustina the Younger. She was a sister to Roman Empress Lucilla and Roman Emperor Commodus. Her maternal grandparents were Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius and Roman Empress Faustina the Elder and her paternal grandparents were Domitia Lucilla and praetor Marcus Annius Verus.

Bust of Vibia Sabina. Vibia Aurelia Sabina was named in honor of Hadrian's wife, Vibia Sabina.

Life

Aurelia Sabina could have been born in Sirmium, Pannonia. In the year of her birth, her parents were preparing war expeditions at Sirmium. Aurelia Sabina was named in honor of the late Roman Empress Vibia Sabina, who was the wife of the Roman Emperor Hadrian and her late father the distinguished suffect consul Lucius Vibius Sabinus. Vibia Sabina was a relative of Aurelia Sabina's parents, as a great aunt to Aurelia Sabina's parents, as half maternal sister to Rupilia Faustina. Rupilia Faustina was the paternal grandmother of Marcus Aurelius and the maternal grandmother of Faustina the Younger.

Throughout her childhood, Aurelia Sabina had travelled extensively with her parents throughout the Roman Empire. Sometime before her father died in 180 AD, Aurelia Sabina was betrothed to the African Roman Senator Lucius Antistius Burrus who came from Thibilis, a town near Hippo Regius in the Africa Province, whom she later married.

When her parents died, her older brother Commodus succeeded her father as Roman Emperor in 180 AD. After Aurelia Sabina married Antistius Burrus in Rome, they returned and settled in Thibilis. In 181 AD, her husband served as an ordinary consul there. In 188 AD, Antistius Burrus was involved in a conspiracy against Commodus.

He was one of various Roman Senators in this conspiracy.[1] When this conspiracy was uncovered, Antistius Burrus was put to death.

Prominent Italian resident in Roman Africa

Aurelia Sabina was not involved in the conspiracy and survived her brother's persecutions, remaining to live in Roman Africa.

After her first husband had died, Aurelia Sabina married Lucius Aurelius Agaclytus, a Romano-Greek Freedman who was of Equestrian rank. Aurelia Sabina spent her remaining years in Thibilis. It appears from her marriages that she had no children.

Due to her status; the status of her family and her connections, Aurelia Sabina became a prominent Italian resident in North Africa. According to surviving inscriptions found in Thibilis, Aurelia Sabina became an important "patrona" in Thibilis and the citizens of Thibilis made Aurelia Sabina an honorary citizen. Even the nearby Romano-berber city of Calama ([2]) was promoted to Roman colonia, while sponsored by Vibia Aurelia Sabina, sister of the Emperor Commodus. She was the official Roman Patrona of Calama.[3]

Nerva–Antonine family tree

Q. Marcius Barea Soranus

Q. Marcius Barea Sura

Antonia Furnilla

M. Cocceius Nerva

Sergia Plautilla

P. Aelius Hadrianus

Titus
(r. 79–81)

Marcia Furnilla

Nerva
(r. 96–98)

Ulpia[lower-roman 1]

Aelius Hadrianus Marullinus

Julia Flavia[lower-roman 2]

Marciana[lower-roman 3]

C. Salonius Matidius[lower-roman 4]

Trajan
(r. 98–117)

P. Acilius Attianus

P. Aelius Afer[lower-roman 5]

Paulina Major[lower-roman 6]

Lucius Mindius
(2)

Libo Rupilius Frugi
(3)

Matidia[lower-roman 7]

L. Vibius Sabinus
(1)[lower-roman 8]

Paulina Minor[lower-roman 6]

L. Julius Ursus Servianus[lower-roman 9]

Matidia Minor[lower-roman 7]

Suetonius?[lower-roman 10]

Sabina[lower-roman 3]

Hadrian[lower-roman 5][lower-roman 11][lower-roman 6] (r. 117–138)

Antinous[lower-roman 12]

Julia Balbilla?[lower-roman 13]

C. Fuscus Salinator I

Julia Serviana Paulina

M. Annius Verus[lower-roman 14]

Rupilia Faustina[lower-roman 15]

Boionia Procilla

Cn. Arrius Antoninus

L. Ceionius Commodus

Appia Severa

C. Fuscus Salinator II

L. Caesennius Paetus

Arria Antonina

Arria Fadilla[lower-roman 16]

T. Aurelius Fulvus

L. Caesennius Antoninus

L. Commodus

Fundania Plautia

ignota[lower-roman 17]

C. Avidius Nigrinus

M. Annius Verus[lower-roman 15]

Domitia Calvilla[lower-roman 18]

Fundania[lower-roman 19]

M. Annius Libo[lower-roman 15]

FAUSTINA[lower-roman 16]

Antoninus Pius
(r. 138–161)[lower-roman 16]

L. Aelius Caesar[lower-roman 17]

Avidia Plautia[lower-roman 17]

Cornificia[lower-roman 15]

MARCUS AURELIUS
(r. 161–180)[lower-roman 20]

FAUSTINA Minor[lower-roman 20]

C. Avidius Cassius[lower-roman 21]

Aurelia Fadilla[lower-roman 16]

LUCIUS VERUS
(r. 161–169)[lower-roman 17]
(1)

Ceionia Fabia[lower-roman 17]

Plautius Quintillus[lower-roman 22]

Q. Servilius Pudens

Ceionia Plautia[lower-roman 17]

Cornificia Minor[lower-roman 23]

M. Petronius Sura

COMMODUS
(r. 177–192)[lower-roman 20]

Fadilla[lower-roman 23]

M. Annius Verus Caesar[lower-roman 20]

Ti. Claudius Pompeianus
(2)

Lucilla[lower-roman 20]

M. Plautius Quintillus[lower-roman 17]

Junius Licinius Balbus

Servilia Ceionia

Petronius Antoninus

L. Aurelius Agaclytus
(2)

Aurelia Sabina[lower-roman 23]

L. Antistius Burrus
(1)

Plautius Quintillus

Plautia Servilla

C. Furius Sabinus Timesitheus

Antonia Gordiana

Junius Licinius Balbus?

Furia Sabina Tranquillina

GORDIAN III
(r. 238–244)

(1) = 1st spouse
(2) = 2nd spouse
(3) = 3rd spouse
  Reddish purple indicates emperor of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty

  lighter purple indicates designated imperial heir of said dynasty who never reigned

  grey indicates unsuccessful imperial aspirants

  bluish purple indicates emperors of other dynasties
dashed lines indicate adoption; dotted lines indicate love affairs/unmarried relationships
small caps = posthumously deified (Augusti, Augustae, or other)

Notes:

Except where otherwise noted, the notes below indicate that an individual's parentage is as shown in the above family tree.

Sister of Trajan's father: Giacosa (1977), p. 7.
Giacosa (1977), p. 8.
Levick (2014), p. 161.
Husband of Ulpia Marciana: Levick (2014), p. 161.
Giacosa (1977), p. 7.
DIR contributor (Herbert W. Benario, 2000), "Hadrian".
Giacosa (1977), p. 9.
Husband of Salonia Matidia: Levick (2014), p. 161.
Smith (1870), "Julius Servianus".
Suetonius a possible lover of Sabina: One interpretation of HA Hadrianus 11:3
Smith (1870), "Hadrian", pp. 319–322.
Lover of Hadrian: Lambert (1984), p. 99 and passim; deification: Lamber (1984), pp. 2–5, etc.
Julia Balbilla a possible lover of Sabina: A. R. Birley (1997), Hadrian, the Restless Emperor, p. 251, cited in Levick (2014), p. 30, who is sceptical of this suggestion.
Husband of Rupilia Faustina: Levick (2014), p. 163.
Levick (2014), p. 163.
Levick (2014), p. 162.
Levick (2014), p. 164.
Wife of M. Annius Verus: Giacosa (1977), p. 10.
Wife of M. Annius Libo: Levick (2014), p. 163.
Giacosa (1977), p. 10.
The epitomator of Cassius Dio (72.22) gives the story that Faustina the Elder promised to marry Avidius Cassius. This is also echoed in HA "Marcus Aurelius" 24.
Husband of Ceionia Fabia: Levick (2014), p. 164.
Levick (2014), p. 117.

References:

DIR contributors (2000). "De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and Their Families". Retrieved 2015-04-14.
Giacosa, Giorgio (1977). Women of the Caesars: Their Lives and Portraits on Coins. Translated by R. Ross Holloway. Milan: Edizioni Arte e Moneta. ISBN 0-8390-0193-2.
Lambert, Royston (1984). Beloved and God: The Story of Hadrian and Antinous. New York: Viking. ISBN 0-670-15708-2.
Levick, Barbara (2014). Faustina I and II: Imperial Women of the Golden Age. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-537941-9.
William Smith, ed. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

See also

References

Septimius conspiracy
"Guelma-Calama" Encyclopædia Britannica
Vibia, Patrona of Calama

Sources

From Tiberius to the Antonines: a history of the Roman Empire AD 14-192, by Albino Garzetti, 1974
The Roman Government of Britain, by Anthony R. Birley, Oxford University Press, 2005
Marcus Aurelius, by Anthony Richard Birley, Routledge, 2000

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