Vibia Sabina

Roman imperial dynasties
Nervo-Trajanic Dynasty

Nerva
Bust of Vibia Sabina (Prado, Madrid) Statue of Vibia Sabina (Villa Adriana, Tivoli)
Children
Natural - (none)
Adoptive - Trajan
Trajan
Children
Natural - (none)
Adoptive - Hadrian
Hadrian
Children
Natural - (none)
Adoptive - Lucius Aelius
Adoptive - Antoninus Pius

Vibia Sabina (83–136/137) was a Roman Empress, wife and second cousin once removed to Roman Emperor Hadrian. She was the daughter of Matidia (niece of Roman Emperor Trajan) and suffect consul Lucius Vibius Sabinus. After her father's death in 84, Sabina, along with her half-sister Matidia Minor, went to live with their mother's mother, Marciana. They were raised in the household of Trajan and his wife Plotina.

Sabina married Hadrian in 100, at the empress Plotina's request. Hadrian succeeded her great uncle in 117. Sabina's mother Matidia (Hadrian's second cousin) was also fond of Hadrian and allowed him to marry her daughter.

Suetonius

Sabina is rumored to have had an affair with Suetonius, a historian who was Hadrian's secretary, in the year 119,^[1] which resulted in his dismissal as the Emperor's secretary.^[2] Meanwhile, her husband was thought to be more sexually interested in his favourite Antinous and other male lovers, and he and Sabina had no children. In 128, she was awarded the title of Augusta. Vibia Sabina died before her husband, some time in 136 or early 137.^[3] Hadrian's stone elegy for his wife "depicts the apotheosis, or divine ascent of Sabina in accordance with her posthumous deification on the order of Hadrian."^[4]

Namesake

Denarius of Sabina

Vibia Aurelia Sabina (170-died before 217), daughter and youngest child of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius and Roman Empress Faustina the Younger was a great-greatniece to Vibia Sabina. Her name was bestowed in honor of Sabina and her father.

Nerva–Antonine family tree

Royal titles
Preceded by Pompeia Plotina	Empress of Rome 117–136	Succeeded by Annia Galeria Faustina

Notes

↑ Historia Augusta 11.3
↑ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Suetonius Tranquillus, Gaius". Encyclopædia Britannica. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
↑ Opper, Thorsten. Hadrian: Empire and Conflict, Harvard University Press, 2008, p. 205. ISBN 0-674-03095-8
↑ Annelise Freisenbruch, Caesars’ Wives: Sex, Power, and Politics in the Roman Empire (London and New York: Free Press, 2010), 170.

External links

Coins of Sabina at Dirty Old Coins

Media related to Vibia Sabina at Wikimedia Commons

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[5] Sister of Trajan's father: Giacosa (1977), p. 7.

[giac8-6] Giacosa (1977), p. 8.

[lev161-7] 1 2 Levick (2014), p. 161.

[8] Husband of Ulpia Marciana: Levick (2014), p. 161.

[giac7-9] 1 2 Giacosa (1977), p. 7.

[DIR_hadrian-10] 1 2 3 DIR contributor (Herbert W. Benario, 2000), "Hadrian".

[giac9-11] 1 2 Giacosa (1977), p. 9.

[12] Husband of Salonia Matidia: Levick (2014), p. 161.

[Smith_Servianus-13] Smith (1870), "Julius Servianus".

[14] Suetonius a possible lover of Sabina: One interpretation of HA Hadrianus 11:3

[Smith_1870a_p._319-15] Smith (1870), "Hadrian", pp. 319–322.

[16] Lover of Hadrian: Lambert (1984), p. 99 and passim; deification: Lamber (1984), pp. 2–5, etc.

[17] Julia Balbilla a possible lover of Sabina: A. R. Birley (1997), Hadrian, the Restless Emperor, p. 251, cited in Levick (2014), p. 30, who is sceptical of this suggestion.

[18] Husband of Rupilia Faustina: Levick (2014), p. 163.

[lev163-19] 1 2 3 4 Levick (2014), p. 163.

[lev162-20] 1 2 3 4 Levick (2014), p. 162.

[lev164-21] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Levick (2014), p. 164.

[22] Wife of M. Annius Verus: Giacosa (1977), p. 10.

[23] Wife of M. Annius Libo: Levick (2014), p. 163.

[giac10-24] 1 2 3 4 5 Giacosa (1977), p. 10.

[25] The epitomator of Cassius Dio (72.22) gives the story that Faustina the Elder promised to marry Avidius Cassius. This is also echoed in HA "Marcus Aurelius" 24.

[26] Husband of Ceionia Fabia: Levick (2014), p. 164.

[lev117-27] 1 2 3 Levick (2014), p. 117.

[1] Historia Augusta 11.3

[2] Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Suetonius Tranquillus, Gaius". Encyclopædia Britannica. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

[3] Opper, Thorsten. Hadrian: Empire and Conflict, Harvard University Press, 2008, p. 205. ISBN 0-674-03095-8

[4] Annelise Freisenbruch, Caesars’ Wives: Sex, Power, and Politics in the Roman Empire (London and New York: Free Press, 2010), 170.