Roman Imperial: Faustina Junior (AD 147-175/176). AV aureus (19mm, 7.21 gm, 5h). NGC MS 5/5 - 4/5, Fine Style....

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Beautiful "Mother of the Camp"

Faustina Junior (AD 147-175/176). AV aureus (19mm, 7.21 gm, 5h). NGC MS 5/5 - 4/5, Fine Style. Rome. FAVSTINA AVG-PII AVG FIL, draped bust of Faustina Junior left, seen from front, hair in multiple parallel waves and gathered in chignon at nape of neck, seen from front / CONCORDIA, dove standing right, wings closed, on ground line. Calicó 2044a (same dies). RIC III (Antoninus Pius) 503b. Great eye appeal with shimmering fields and Fine Style devices.

From The Mirabilis Collection. Ex Altstetten Collection (Roma Numismatics, Auction XXIII, 24 March 2022), lot 1001; kept in the vault of Crédit Suisse Geneva since 26 November 1969.

Annia Galeria Faustina the Younger was born in about AD 129 to Antoninus Pius and his wife, Faustina the Elder. When Antoninus was adopted by Hadrian as his successor in AD 138, the emperor arranged for her betrothal to Lucius Verus, also about eight, the son of the "heir consumptive" Aelius Caesar, who had died the same year. When Antoninus inherited the throne, he broke the engagement and instead betrothed her to his nephew (and adoptive son) Marcus Aurelius. They were wed in AD 145 to great rejoicing and went on to produce at least 13 children, of which only three or four survived to adulthood, among them the future emperor Commodus. Faustina seems to have been a free, fun-loving spirit in the mold of her mother, which earned the disapproval of staid Roman historians. Marcus Aurelius, after he became emperor in AD 161, spent long years on campaign, which must have strained the relationship. Faustina accompanied him on some of these and was given the honorific title "Mater Castrorum," or "Mother of the Camp." Nevertheless, there were rumors of adulteries with soldiers, sailors and gladiators, which do not seem to have altered her husband's devotion to her. More serious are allegations that she had some part in the abortive rebellion of the eastern general Avidius Cassius in AD 175. Whatever the truth, she died soon thereafter, either of illness or as the result of an accident. Reputation or no, Marcus grieved greatly and ordered her deification. The lifetime coinage of Faustina started at the time of her marriage and continued over 30 years, showing her from a fresh-faced princess to a mature matron, and providing a pageant of Roman feminine hairstyles over that span.

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