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Faustina Friday – Concordia and the Birth of Lucilla
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<p>[QUOTE="curtislclay, post: 7869563, member: 89514"]It seems unwise, however, to follow the ideas of Ameling, Levick, and Beckmann, given that all three of them were unaware of my proposal, since I haven't published it except online, which considerably changes our picture of the birth and death dates of the three earliest children of Marcus and Faustina.</p><p><br /></p><p>It is clear from the type and legend sequence of Antoninus' and Marcus' coinage that Marcus refused to advance his tribunician number between sometime in the course of 149 and March 151. Since he had received the TR P for the birth of his first child, a daughter, on 30 Nov. 147, and since he was always reluctant to accept titles or honors that he felt he didn't deserve, doesn't it seem highly likely that his reason for resigning the TR P in 149 was the death of the two children that he and Faustina had had up to then, and that he agreed to resume that power in March 151 because Faustina had given birth to another child, who can only have been Lucilla, born on 7 March 151? Can you think of any other plausible reason why Marcus might have renounced the TR P in 149 but then taken it up again in March 151? It is hardly convincing to plead that there might have been another reason which we however don't know about, when the apparently correct answer, two years of childlessness for Marcus, is so fitting and so obvious.</p><p><br /></p><p>What we know or can deduce about the birth and death dates of the first four children of Marcus and Faustina, then, would be as follows. Many of the relevant coin types have already been illustrated above by [USER=75937]@Roman Collector[/USER] .</p><p><br /></p><p>Child one, a daughter, born 30 Nov. 147, as attested by the Ostian Fasti. Commemorated on Faustina's aurei by the three types IVNONI LVCINAE, LAETITIAE PVBLICAE, and VENERI GENETRICI, as Beckmann's die links suggest. I don't think that there are any coin types showing Faustina or a goddess accompanied by just one child which relate to this first childbirth, however.</p><p><br /></p><p>Child 2. Birth after March 149, since commemorated both on TR P XII bronze coins and aurei of Antoninus Pius, type TEMPORVM FELICITAS, crossed cornucopias surmounted by the busts of two children; and on PIETAS TR POT III bronze coins and aurei of Marcus Caesar, type Pietas standing, young girl at feet and a second child in arms. Rare undated coins of Faustina II seem to commemorate the same event: aurei with type IVNO, Juno seated, while girl at her feet reaches grain ears to second child seated on her lap; sestertii with type PVDICITIA, similar type of Pudicitia seated, while girl stands before her and a second child sits on her knees. The sex of this second child of Marcus and Faustina still needs to be established; I tend to think male, since his birth was celebrated above all on quite common sestertii of Antoninus Pius, whose coinage had paid no attention at all to the birth of his first grandchild in Nov. 147, since that was a girl who could never become emperor. Both of these first two children had already died, however, before March 150, since by that time Marcus was no longer advancing his tribunician number.</p><p><br /></p><p>Child 3: Lucilla, born 7 March 151. At about the same time Marcus resumed the tribunician power and allowed his TR P number to advance first from TR POT III to TR POT IIII, then soon thereafter from TR POT IIII to TR POT VI, the number he would have reached without the interruption of his two years of childlessness. Lucilla's birth was apparently commemorated by the Ceres and Proserpina type, with legend LAETITIA, on aurei of Antoninus Pius dated TR P XIII and TR P XIIII.</p><p><br /></p><p>Child 4: A boy, his name missing in the fragmentary inscription, who was both born but then also died in 152, according to Strack's restoration (pp. 117-8) of the text of the Ostian Fasti for that year. No coin types seem to commemorate this birth, suggesting that the baby didn't live more than a week or two, or that he was born so sickly that his survival immediately came into doubt.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="curtislclay, post: 7869563, member: 89514"]It seems unwise, however, to follow the ideas of Ameling, Levick, and Beckmann, given that all three of them were unaware of my proposal, since I haven't published it except online, which considerably changes our picture of the birth and death dates of the three earliest children of Marcus and Faustina. It is clear from the type and legend sequence of Antoninus' and Marcus' coinage that Marcus refused to advance his tribunician number between sometime in the course of 149 and March 151. Since he had received the TR P for the birth of his first child, a daughter, on 30 Nov. 147, and since he was always reluctant to accept titles or honors that he felt he didn't deserve, doesn't it seem highly likely that his reason for resigning the TR P in 149 was the death of the two children that he and Faustina had had up to then, and that he agreed to resume that power in March 151 because Faustina had given birth to another child, who can only have been Lucilla, born on 7 March 151? Can you think of any other plausible reason why Marcus might have renounced the TR P in 149 but then taken it up again in March 151? It is hardly convincing to plead that there might have been another reason which we however don't know about, when the apparently correct answer, two years of childlessness for Marcus, is so fitting and so obvious. What we know or can deduce about the birth and death dates of the first four children of Marcus and Faustina, then, would be as follows. Many of the relevant coin types have already been illustrated above by [USER=75937]@Roman Collector[/USER] . Child one, a daughter, born 30 Nov. 147, as attested by the Ostian Fasti. Commemorated on Faustina's aurei by the three types IVNONI LVCINAE, LAETITIAE PVBLICAE, and VENERI GENETRICI, as Beckmann's die links suggest. I don't think that there are any coin types showing Faustina or a goddess accompanied by just one child which relate to this first childbirth, however. Child 2. Birth after March 149, since commemorated both on TR P XII bronze coins and aurei of Antoninus Pius, type TEMPORVM FELICITAS, crossed cornucopias surmounted by the busts of two children; and on PIETAS TR POT III bronze coins and aurei of Marcus Caesar, type Pietas standing, young girl at feet and a second child in arms. Rare undated coins of Faustina II seem to commemorate the same event: aurei with type IVNO, Juno seated, while girl at her feet reaches grain ears to second child seated on her lap; sestertii with type PVDICITIA, similar type of Pudicitia seated, while girl stands before her and a second child sits on her knees. The sex of this second child of Marcus and Faustina still needs to be established; I tend to think male, since his birth was celebrated above all on quite common sestertii of Antoninus Pius, whose coinage had paid no attention at all to the birth of his first grandchild in Nov. 147, since that was a girl who could never become emperor. Both of these first two children had already died, however, before March 150, since by that time Marcus was no longer advancing his tribunician number. Child 3: Lucilla, born 7 March 151. At about the same time Marcus resumed the tribunician power and allowed his TR P number to advance first from TR POT III to TR POT IIII, then soon thereafter from TR POT IIII to TR POT VI, the number he would have reached without the interruption of his two years of childlessness. Lucilla's birth was apparently commemorated by the Ceres and Proserpina type, with legend LAETITIA, on aurei of Antoninus Pius dated TR P XIII and TR P XIIII. Child 4: A boy, his name missing in the fragmentary inscription, who was both born but then also died in 152, according to Strack's restoration (pp. 117-8) of the text of the Ostian Fasti for that year. No coin types seem to commemorate this birth, suggesting that the baby didn't live more than a week or two, or that he was born so sickly that his survival immediately came into doubt.[/QUOTE]
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