Annia Cornificia Faustina Minor

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Annia Cornificia Faustina Minor (Minor Latin for the younger, 160–212) was a Roman princess and daughter of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius and Roman Empress Faustina the Younger. She was 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. She was named in honor of her late paternal aunt Annia Cornificia Faustina. She was born and raised in Rome.

Cornificia Faustina had married the African Roman politician Marcus Petronius Sura Mamertinus who served as consul in 182. After 173, Cornificia Faustina bore Mamertinus a son called Petronius Antoninus. Cornificia Faustina with her family could have been at the winter camp of Marcus Aurelius in early 180.

In 180 Marcus Aurelius had died and her brother Commodus succeeded her father as Roman Emperor. Sometime in 190-192, Commodus ordered the deaths of her husband, her son, her brother-in-law and her sister-in-law’s family.

Cornificia Faustina survived the political executions of Commodus and later married Lucius Didius Marinus. Didius Marinus was a powerful Roman noble of Equestrian order who served as Procurator in various provinces throughout the Roman Empire, who later became a tax collector and Tribune of the first Praetorian cohort.

During the brief reign of Pertinax (193), she was involved in an affair with the Roman Emperor. In 212, when she was in her fifties, Roman Emperor Caracalla ordered her death. With her death, she was the last surviving child of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina the Younger. Historian Cassius Dio recorded the manner of her death:

"Her last words were 'My poor, unhappy soul, trapped in an unworthy body, go forth, be free, show them that you are the daughter of Marcus Aurelius!' Then she took off her ornaments, composed herself, opened her veins, and died."

Sources

• http://jasperburns.com/gasfaust.html
• http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0866.html
• http://www.livius.org/fa-fn/faustina/faustina_ii.html
• Septimius Severus: the African emperor, By Anthony Richard Birley Edition: 2 – 1999
• Roman social history: a sourcebook By Tim G. Parkin, Arthur John Pomeroy 2007
• A commentary on the Letters of M. Cornelius Fronto, By Michael Petrus Josephus van den Hout, Marcus Cornelius Fronto 1999
• From Tiberius to the Antonines: a history of the Roman Empire AD 14-192, by Albino Garzetti, 1974.
• Stefan Priwitzer, Faustina minor - Ehefrau eines Idealkaisers und Mutter eines Tyrannen quellenkritische Untersuchungen zum dynastischen Potential, zur Darstellung und zu Handlungsspielraeumen von Kaiserfrauen im Prinzipat (Bonn: Dr. Rudolf Habelt, 2008) (Tuebinger althistorische Studien, 6).