Roman scholarship needs more biographies of the kind L. has produced over the years. Her works on Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius, Vespasian and Julia Domna provide a good and extensive overview of the periods discussed and are useful for all scholars and students interested in Roman history.Footnote 1 L.'s newest book on the Faustinas and the Antonine period is a welcome addition to this list. Both Faustina I and II, as L. calls them, were married to an emperor, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius respectively. In contrast to the barren marriages of their predecessors, Trajan and Hadrian, which forced Roman emperorship into a succession of emperors being adopted by their predecessors, the marriages of Pius and Marcus Aurelius were fecund. Yet, L.'s book does more than explore the maternal achievements of these women. She also focuses on their roles as mediators, their involvement in palace politics and their public role during their lifetime as well as after their death. In her analysis, L. frequently compares the position of the Faustinae with the position of the imperial women who preceded and succeeded them, such as Matidia, Plotina, Sabina and Julia Domna, but she also expands this to the position of Roman women in general. By doing so, L. assesses the roles of the Faustinas as wives, mothers and empresses in a broader perspective.
Although the period in which the Faustinae lived is often denoted as Rome's golden age – hence the subtitle of the book – sources are quite scarce and often disingenuous, a problem that L. mentions in her introduction. To overcome this obstacle she employs an array of sources, including literary and legal texts, imperial and provincial coins, inscriptions and papyri. Chapter 1 is an introductory chapter, which focuses again on the sources. L. reminds us that the Faustinae did not figure prominently in literary or legal documents, making her choice to include other sources even more self-evident.
After the introduction the book is divided into six chapters exploring the ‘power’ of the Faustinae and of other upper-class women (2), the imperial succession following Hadrian (3), the public and private roles of empresses (4–5), the deification of the Faustinae (6) and the descendants of the Faustinae under Commodus and later emperors (7).
Chapter 2 starts with the question what ‘power’ the Faustinae could have possessed in male dominated Roman society. To answer her question L. explores the positions and privileges of the imperial women who preceded the Faustinae, but also draws examples of Roman upper-class women. L. observes that a woman's wealth, and in particular the control over her own money and property (slave and goods), gave her power. The Faustinae enjoyed a great fortune, but had also received a proper education, and possessed intellect, beauty and social connections. Additionally, Faustina II offered her husband a link to the former emperors. L. considers this last element as a ‘bonus’, for she states that ‘an emperor with heirs needed no wife’. Furthermore, the position of empress was an unofficial one and, except for Faustina II who was honoured with the title of ‘mother of the camps’ at the end of her life, an empress never got a role in military affairs, which was one of the pillars of imperial government. L. continues by exploring the honours that imperial women enjoyed, such as the title of Augusta, their residence at the Palatine and the inclusion of their portraits on imperial coinage. Yet, despite all their qualifications, wealth and privileges, even imperial women remained dependent on men, L. sighs.
Following Chapter 3, that briefly deals with Hadrian's various succession plans and the career of Pius before he became emperor, Chapter 4 focuses on the Faustinae as empresses, starting with Pius' adoption in 138 to the death of Faustina II in 175. L. discusses Faustina I, her honours, her early death and her deification. In addition, L. demonstrates how her marriage to Pius played a pivotal role in her husband's attempts to create an imperial dynasty within one house. L. believes that we should not doubt Pius' devotion to his wife. Her surviving daughter Faustina II played an even more important role in Pius' and later Marcus Aurelius' dynasty. Her unprecedented position as imperial daughter and later as imperial wife, in addition to her prolific fertility (she gave birth to a least thirteen, perhaps fourteen children) which provided the Empire with an imperial heir, enhanced her status. In this chapter L. also focuses on Faustina II's numerous honours, such as her portraits and coins. A separate section is devoted to her recognition as ‘mother of the camps’. The abundant stories about Faustina II's adultery, her attempts at poisoning and her part in Cassius' revolt were probably fed by her overall public presence, as L. argues. Furthermore, they could explain the bad reputation of her son Commodus as it was hard to see this man as a son of the virtuous Marcus Aurelius. Finally, L. elaborates on the life of Lucius Verus, who as ‘second’ adopted son of Pius, shared the imperium with Marcus after he married Marcus' eldest daughter Lucilla. Later, L. argues, when Lucius celebrated his Parthian triumph and his wife's fertility was proven, supporters of the imperial family started to be divided between Marcus' and Lucius' families. However, this division seems not of the same magnitude as the feud between the families of Germanicus and Drusus, as Lucius died soon after.
Chapter 5 elaborates further on the public and private roles of the Faustinae within the Antonine dynasty. Much of this chapter deals with their marriages and their fecundity, through which they obtained a pivotal role in the Antonine dynasty, as mentioned above. Additionally, the empresses' private conduct also played a part in the creation of the outward appearance of the Antonine dynasty. In several short sections, L. analyses how the empresses represented various ideals and role models, and how these were embodied in their public representation, recognition, coinage, public activities and travels. The institution of the alimentary programme for poor girls after the death of Faustina I, the so-called Faustinian Girls, continued Faustina's theatrical performance as ideal benefactress in Roman politics and society.
Chapter 6 analyses the public role of the deceased Faustina I and the divine role of Faustina II during her life and after her death. L. demonstrates that the dynastic role of Faustina I did not end after her death. Not only her temple in the forum Romanum, but also coinage,Footnote 2 priestly colleges (mainly in the eastern provinces) and many other honours enhanced her divine status. The chapter continues with an analysis of the empresses' association and assimilation with several deities, of which Ceres is the most prominent.
The final chapter focuses on the aftermath of the Antonine dynasty during the reign of its last member Commodus, and during the Severan dynasty and beyond. The survival of the daughters of Faustina II during Commodus' reign is briefly discussed, followed by a section on the Faustinas as paragons for the Severan dynasty, in particular for its imperial women. Finally, L. explores briefly the survival of the name Faustina during different periods of Western civilisation until the twenty-first century.
L.'s book is well written, but the wide range of persons, officials, priestly colleges, guilds and various sources that are discussed, can be overwhelming. L. has partly overcome this problem by a series of appendices, including a ‘who is who?’ list and several stemmata. Throughout L. mentions many discussions and controversial theories, but unfortunately hardly offers any explanations or interpretations. This means that readers need to explore these theories on their own if they want to know more. Therefore, the book is more useful as a sourcebook for the Antonine period but, as mentioned above, Roman scholarship needs more of these.
