Vibia Sabina

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.

Vibia Sabina

Augusta

Statue of Vibia Sabina (Villa Adriana, Tivoli)

Empress of the Roman Empire

Reign

117 - 136/137

Predecessor

Pompeia Plotina

Successor

Faustina the Elder

Born

13 August 83
Rome, Roman Empire

Died

136/137

Spouse

Full name
Vibia Sabina
Regnal name
Vibia Sabina Augusta

Father

Lucius Vibius Sabinus

Mother

Salonia Matidia

Bust of Vibia Sabina (Capitoline Museums, Rome)

Roman imperial dynasties

Nerva–Antonine dynasty (AD 96–192)

Chronology

Nerva	96–98
Trajan	98–117
Hadrian	117–138
Antoninus Pius	138–161
Lucius Verus	161–169
Marcus Aurelius	161–180
Commodus	177–192

Family

Nerva–Antonine family tree
Category:Nerva–Antonine dynasty

Succession

Preceded by
Flavian dynasty

Followed by
Year of the Five Emperors

Early life

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.

Empress

Sabina accumulated more public honors in Rome and the provinces than any imperial woman had enjoyed since the first empress, Augustus’ wife Livia. Indeed, Sabina is the first woman whose image features on a regular and continuous series of coins minted at Rome. She was the most traveled and visible empress to date.[1] In 128, she was awarded the title of Augusta.

Sabina is described in the poetry of Julia Balbilla, her companion, in a series of epigrams on the occasion of Hadrian's visit to Egypt in November of 130. In the poems, Balbilla refers to Sabina as "beautiful" and "lovely."

The Historia Augusta (a notoriously unreliable source) reports that the historian Suetonius, who was Hadrian's secretary, was dismissed by Hadrian from his position in 119, for "conducting [himself] toward his wife, Sabina, in a more informal fashion than the etiquette of the court demanded."[2][3] 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.

Death

Vibia Sabina died before her husband, some time in 136 or early 137.[4] There is a strong ancient tradition that Hadrian treated his wife little better than a slave, and may have driven her to suicide.[1] 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."[5]

See also

Vibia Aurelia Sabina (170-died before 217), great-greatniece to Vibia Sabina

Nerva–Antonine family tree

Nerva–Antonine family tree

Q. Marcius Barea Soranus

Q. Marcius Barea Sura

Antonia Furnilla

M. Cocceius Nerva

Sergia Plautilla

P. Aelius Hadrianus

Titus
(r. 79–81)

Marcia Furnilla

Trajanus Pater

Nerva
(r. 96–98)

Ulpia[lower-roman 1]

Aelius Hadrianus Marullinus

Julia Flavia[lower-roman 2]

Marciana[lower-roman 3]

C. Salonius Matidius[lower-roman 4]

Trajan
(r. 98–117)

P. Acilius Attianus

P. Aelius Afer[lower-roman 5]

Paulina Major[lower-roman 6]

Lucius Mindius
(2)

Libo Rupilius Frugi
(3)

Matidia[lower-roman 7]

L. Vibius Sabinus
(1)[lower-roman 8]

Paulina Minor[lower-roman 6]

L. Julius Ursus Servianus[lower-roman 9]

Matidia Minor[lower-roman 7]

Suetonius?[lower-roman 10]

Sabina[lower-roman 3]

Hadrian[lower-roman 5][lower-roman 11][lower-roman 6] (r. 117–138)

Antinous[lower-roman 12]

Julia Balbilla?[lower-roman 13]

C. Fuscus Salinator I

Julia Serviana Paulina

M. Annius Verus[lower-roman 14]

Rupilia Faustina[lower-roman 15]

Boionia Procilla

Cn. Arrius Antoninus

L. Ceionius Commodus

Appia Severa

C. Fuscus Salinator II

L. Caesennius Paetus

Arria Antonina

Arria Fadilla[lower-roman 16]

T. Aurelius Fulvus

L. Caesennius Antoninus

L. Commodus

Fundania Plautia

ignota[lower-roman 17]

C. Avidius Nigrinus

M. Annius Verus[lower-roman 15]

Domitia Calvilla[lower-roman 18]

Fundania[lower-roman 19]

M. Annius Libo[lower-roman 15]

FAUSTINA[lower-roman 16]

Antoninus Pius
(r. 138–161)[lower-roman 16]

L. Aelius Caesar[lower-roman 17]

Avidia Plautia[lower-roman 17]

Cornificia[lower-roman 15]

MARCUS AURELIUS
(r. 161–180)[lower-roman 20]

FAUSTINA Minor[lower-roman 20]

C. Avidius Cassius[lower-roman 21]

Aurelia Fadilla[lower-roman 16]

LUCIUS VERUS
(r. 161–169)[lower-roman 17]
(1)

Ceionia Fabia[lower-roman 17]

Plautius Quintillus[lower-roman 22]

Q. Servilius Pudens

Ceionia Plautia[lower-roman 17]

Cornificia Minor[lower-roman 23]

M. Petronius Sura

COMMODUS
(r. 177–192)[lower-roman 20]

Fadilla[lower-roman 23]

M. Annius Verus Caesar[lower-roman 20]

Ti. Claudius Pompeianus
(2)

Lucilla[lower-roman 20]

M. Plautius Quintillus[lower-roman 17]

Junius Licinius Balbus

Servilia Ceionia

Petronius Antoninus

L. Aurelius Agaclytus
(2)

Aurelia Sabina[lower-roman 23]

L. Antistius Burrus
(1)

Plautius Quintillus

Plautia Servilla

C. Furius Sabinus Timesitheus

Antonia Gordiana

Junius Licinius Balbus?

Furia Sabina Tranquillina

GORDIAN III
(r. 238–244)

(1) = 1st spouse
(2) = 2nd spouse
(3) = 3rd spouse
  Reddish purple indicates emperor of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty

  lighter purple indicates designated imperial heir of said dynasty who never reigned

  grey indicates unsuccessful imperial aspirants

  bluish purple indicates emperors of other dynasties
dashed lines indicate adoption; dotted lines indicate love affairs/unmarried relationships
small caps = posthumously deified (Augusti, Augustae, or other)

Notes:

Except where otherwise noted, the notes below indicate that an individual's parentage is as shown in the above family tree.

Sister of Trajan's father: Giacosa (1977), p. 7.
Giacosa (1977), p. 8.
Levick (2014), p. 161.
Husband of Ulpia Marciana: Levick (2014), p. 161.
Giacosa (1977), p. 7.
DIR contributor (Herbert W. Benario, 2000), "Hadrian".
Giacosa (1977), p. 9.
Husband of Salonia Matidia: Levick (2014), p. 161.
Smith (1870), "Julius Servianus".
Suetonius a possible lover of Sabina: One interpretation of HA Hadrianus 11:3
Smith (1870), "Hadrian", pp. 319–322.
Lover of Hadrian: Lambert (1984), p. 99 and passim; deification: Lamber (1984), pp. 2–5, etc.
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.
Husband of Rupilia Faustina: Levick (2014), p. 163.
Levick (2014), p. 163.
Levick (2014), p. 162.
Levick (2014), p. 164.
Wife of M. Annius Verus: Giacosa (1977), p. 10.
Wife of M. Annius Libo: Levick (2014), p. 163.
Giacosa (1977), p. 10.
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.
Husband of Ceionia Fabia: Levick (2014), p. 164.
Levick (2014), p. 117.

References:

DIR contributors (2000). "De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and Their Families". Retrieved 2015-04-14.
Giacosa, Giorgio (1977). Women of the Caesars: Their Lives and Portraits on Coins. Translated by R. Ross Holloway. Milan: Edizioni Arte e Moneta. ISBN 0-8390-0193-2.
Lambert, Royston (1984). Beloved and God: The Story of Hadrian and Antinous. New York: Viking. ISBN 0-670-15708-2.
Levick, Barbara (2014). Faustina I and II: Imperial Women of the Golden Age. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-537941-9.
William Smith, ed. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

References

Brennan, Corey (2018). Sabina Augusta. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190250997.
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.

Further reading

(in French) L’Harmattan, La vie de Sabine, femme d’Hadrien, in Minaud, Gérard, Les vies de 12 femmes d’empereur romain – Devoirs, Intrigues & Voluptés , Paris, 2012, pp. 169–188.
Brennan, Corey T., Sabina Augusta: An Imperial Journey, Oxford, 2018, ISBN 978-0190250997

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vibia Sabina.

Coins of Sabina at Dirty Old Coins

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

Authority control	BNE: XX4953482 BNF: cb16008344c (data) CANTIC: a11219300 GND: 118793934 ISNI: 0000 0000 2128 1754 LCCN: n80141011 SUDOC: 104803614 ULAN: 500354928 VIAF: 54944543 WorldCat Identities: lccn-n80141011

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