Who are these rugrats and when was this coin issued?

This coin, the reverse of which is translated "to the fecundity of the empress," celebrates Faustina II's jaw-dropping fecundity! She had twelve or thirteen children in ten pregnancies (two or three sets of twins). This coin depicts just four of her brood!


Faustina Junior, Augusta AD 147-176
Roman AR denarius, 3.41 g, 18.1 mm, 12:00
Rome, December, AD 160.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: FECVND AVGVSTAE, Faustina (as Fecunditas) facing, head left, between two children (thought to represent Faustina III and Lucilla), holding two more in hand (thought to represent Fadilla and Cornificia).
Refs: RIC 676; BMCRE 89; Cohen 95; Strack 520e; RCV 5251; CRE 178; Dinsdale 005120.

With those children at her feet on the coin's reverse, it reminds me of this Beatles ditty ...



... though I'm sure that she and Marcus had no trouble making ends meet.

Claire Franklin spoofed this coin in her April 4, 2019 "Franklin's World" comic in Coins Weekly:



The identity of the children on the reverse of this are not known with absolute certainty -- and it's possible they are simply the attributes of the personification of Fecunditas and not intended to represent actual members of the imperial family -- but they are thought by some numismatists to represent (from oldest to youngest) Faustina III, Lucilla, Fadilla, and newborn Cornificia.[1]

How do we know this? First of all, we have to know when the coin was issued. In the absence of titulature beyond AVGVSTA, we have to turn to the parallel issues of her father and husband, who also issued coins with this motif on the reverse.


Antoninus Pius, AD 138-161.
Roman AR denarius, 3.15 g, 18.1 mm, 11 h.
Rome, December, AD 160- March, AD 161.
Obv: ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P TR P XXIIII, laureate head, right.
Rev: PIETATI AVG COS IIII, Faustina II (as Pietas) standing left, holding a child on each arm; at each side of her, a child standing looking towards her and raising hand.
Refs: RIC 313c; BMCRE 1013-14; Cohen 631; Strack 384; RCV 4098.


Marcus Aurelius as Caesar, AD 139-161.
Roman AV aureus, 6.81 g.
Rome, 10 December - 31 December, AD 160.
Obv: AVRELIVS CAESAR AVG PII F, bareheaded, draped and cuirassed bust of Marcus right.
Rev: TR POT XV COS II DESIG III, Faustina standing facing, head left, holding two infants in each arm, two small children standing at her feet.
Refs: RIC (Pius) 487b. Calico 1979.
Photo: Ira & Larry Goldberg auction 104, lot 3322, 12 June 2018.

Given the similarity in reverse motif, I think it is highly likely that these coins were issued simultaneously and to commemorate an actual event, the birth of Princess Cornificia.[2] Moreover, I believe it likely that the reverse figure is Faustina II herself and that the reverse inscriptions FECVND AVGVSTAE and PIETATI AVG refer not to the figure depicted on the reverse, but the attributes of the person on the obverse: the fecundity of the Augusta and the piety of the Augustus. Note that the aureus of Marcus Aurelius does not identify the female figure as either Fecunditas or Pietas. I think that's because her identity would have been obvious to the Roman people: Faustina II.

We can date these coins to the last three weeks of AD 160, for the combination of titles on the coins of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius was only possible from 10 December through 31 December, 160.

Having established that the coin depicts Faustina II and was issued in December, AD 160, we can set out on the task of identifying the children. Although there is some uncertainty about the birth dates of some of her children, and it's not clear whether a boy known as Gemellus Lucillae (which literally means "twin (masc.) of Lucilla") actually existed, here's what we know about Faustina and Marcus' children:

• Her first child was a daughter, Annia Aurelia Galeria Faustina (called Faustina III; some sources call her Domitia Faustina. It's confusing), born November 30, 147 AD.
• Titus Aurelius Antoninus ("Antoninus" #2) and his twin brother Titus Aelius Aurelius ("Aelius" #3) were her second and third children. The birth of the two boys in AD 149 was commemorated on coins with the legend temporum felicitas ("happiness of these times"), because their birth meant that dynastic continuity was guaranteed. In ancient Rome, that was another way of saying that a civil war was averted. Antoninus must have been the elder of the two, because Marcus Aurelius gave this name to the son who he believed would be his successor. However, Aelius died within a year, and Antoninus appears to have died soon after. The evidence is, again, coinage: there is a coin that shows Faustina III and Antoninus; the next coin shows Faustina III alone. There is nothing exceptional to this: infant mortality was high in pre-industrial societies. Aelius and Antoninus were buried in the Mausoleum of Hadrian.
• Gemellus Lucillae (#4) and his younger twin sister Lucilla (#5) were born in March, AD 150 or AD 151; he died later that year.
• Titus Aelius Antoninus (#6) was born and died in 152.
• Annia Aurelia Fadilla, most commonly known as Fadilla (#7), was born in AD 159.
• Annia Cornificia Faustina Minor (#8), was born in AD 160.
• Of the twins born in 162, the elder (#9) was called Titus Aurelius Fulvius Antoninus and the younger (#10) Lucius Aurelius Commodus. Titus died in AD 165.
• Marcus Annius Verus (#11) was born in late AD 162.
• Hadrianus, the youngest son (#12), was born about AD 165.
• Vibia Aurelia Sabina was the youngest child (#13), a daughter, born in AD 170.

That's THREE SETS OF TWINS in TEN PREGNANCIES. The "fecundity of the empress," indeed!

Having established a date of December, 160 for these coins, and proposing that the figure on the reverse is the empress herself and not simply a personification of Fecunditas or Pietas, let's try to identify which children the reverse may depict. At the time of the coin's issue, the following children had already died: Twin boys Antoninus and Aelius, Gemellus Lucillae, and Titus Aelius Antoninus. This left only the four daughters, Faustina III, Lucilla, Fadilla, and Cornificia.

Four children were alive (all girls) at the time this coin was issued, two were older (middle-school age) and two were very young, no more than two and one years of age, respectively. The coin depicts four children, two old enough to stand and two young enough to be held in an arm. Although the children at the reverse figure's feet are preschooler size, not tween size, I consider this an artistic convention, similar to the way barbarian captives are rendered tiny compared to Roman soldiers on many issues.

Additional evidence that the reverse depicts Faustina and her four living children in AD 160 is that coins issued by Pius the previous year, such as this example in the British Museum (BMCRE 983, RIC 302b) with the titles TR P XXIII and COS IIII, and dated to AD 159 depict a similar reverse motif but with only three children. One quite naturally concludes that this coin was issued to commemorate the birth of Fadilla in that year,[3] with Faustina III and Lucilla being the older children standing at her feet.


For these reasons, I believe the coins of Faustina II with the FECVND AVGVSTAE reverse legend and the parallel issues of her father and husband were issued starting in mid- to late-December, AD 160 to commemorate the birth of Cornificia, and depict Faustina II herself on the reverse, along with her four children, Faustina III, Lucilla, Fadilla, and Cornificia.

~~~

1. Strack, Paul L. Untersuchungen Zur Romischen Reichspragung Des Zweiten Jahrhunderts. Kohlhammer, 1937, pp. 113-18.

2. So too Mattingly, Harold, Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, vol. IV: Antoninus Pius to Commodus. Introduction, indexes and plates. London, BMP, 1968, p. lxxv.

3. So Mattingly, op. cit., p. lxxiv.

 

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Very interesting article as usual. She must have been perpetually pregnant. That poor over worked womb.

 

It always amazes me that even for possibly the most powerful couple in the world, the mortality rates were so high that very few of the children survived to adulthood.

Nice article RC.

 

Yes, even with the great Galen as their physician.

 

Fantastic work, RC! What an enjoyable post .

 

Super write up as always RC!....Found it really interesting and shed a new light on my AP Sestertius.....I think I've got the reverse description correct now..Thanks.
ANTONINUS PIUS. 138-161 AD. Æ Sestertius (33mm, 26.75 g.)
Struck 159/160 AD.
Obverse..ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P TR P XXIII, laureate head right
Rev. PIETATI AVG COS IIII SC, Pietas standing left holding globe, Faustina Junior as Pietas standing left, between Faustina Minima, Lucilla & holding baby Fadilla.
RIC III 1031