Salonia Matidia (4 July 68 – 23 December 119) was the daughter and only child of

Ulpia Marciana Ulpia Marciana (August 48 – 112) was the beloved elder sister of Roman Emperor Trajan and grandmother of empress Vibia Sabina the wife of Hadrian. Upon her death her brother had her deified. Life She was the eldest child born to Roman woman ...

and wealthy

praetor Praetor ( , ), also pretor, was the title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected '' magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to discharge vario ...

Gaius Salonius Matidius Patruinus Gaius Salonius Matidius Patruinus (died 78) was a Roman Senator who lived in the Roman Empire during the 1st century during the reign of Vespasian (r. 69–79). Life Patruinus came from a wealthy family of Vicetia (modern Vicenza, northern Italy ...

. Her maternal uncle was the Roman emperor

Trajan Trajan ( ; la, Caesar Nerva Traianus; 18 September 539/11 August 117) was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Officially declared ''optimus princeps'' ("best ruler") by the senate, Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presi ...

. Trajan had no children and treated her like his daughter. Her father died in 78 and Matidia went with her mother to live with Trajan and his wife,

Pompeia Plotina Pompeia Plotina (died 121/122) was Roman empress from 98 to 117 as the wife of Trajan. She was renowned for her interest in philosophy, and her virtue, dignity and simplicity. She was particularly devoted to the Epicurean philosophical school in ...

Life

Between 81 and 82, Matidia married a suffect

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throug ...

and former

proconsul A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a consul. A proconsul was typically a former consul. The term is also used in recent history for officials with delegated authority. In the Roman Republic, military command, or ' ...

Lucius Vibius Sabinus Lucius Vibius Sabinus was a Roman Empire, Roman Senate of the Roman Empire, Senator who lived in the 1st century. His daughter Vibia Sabina married the emperor Hadrian. Biography Little is known about his family, but Sabinus came from a family of ...

. Sabinus died in 83 or 84. Matidia bore Sabinus a daughter called

Vibia Sabina Vibia Sabina (13 August 83–136/137) was a Roman Empress, wife and second cousin once removed to the Roman Emperor Hadrian. She was the daughter of Matidia (niece of Roman Emperor Trajan) and suffect consul Lucius Vibius Sabinus. Early life ...

, who would marry the future Roman Emperor

Hadrian Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...

. Matidia was very fond of her second cousin Hadrian and allowed him to marry Vibia Sabina. In 84, Matidia married for a second time to an otherwise unknown Roman aristocrat called

Lucius Mindius Lucius Mindius is an unattested Roman Aristocrat who lived in the Roman Empire in the second half of the 1st century. Mindius was a Roman Senator of Consular rank. Little is known on his origins. In 84, Mindius married Salonia Matidia, the niece o ...

. Matidia bore Mindius a daughter called Mindia Matidia, commonly known as

Matidia Minor Mindia Matidia or Vibia Matidia or Matidia Minor (''Minor'' Latin for ''the younger'', 85 – after 161) was a Roman imperial woman in the early second century AD. She was related to several ancient Roman Emperors, as a great-niece to Trajan and ...

. Mindius died in 85. Matidia - denarius - RIC 0759

Matidia later married Lucius Scribonius Libo Rupilius Frugi Bonus, who was suffect consul in 88. Frugi had a daughter called

Rupilia Faustina Marcus Annius Verus ( 50 – 138 AD) was the paternal grandfather and adoptive father of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, and father-in-law of emperor Antoninus Pius. Biography Verus was the son of an elder Marcus Annius Verus, who gained the r ...

from an earlier marriage. Faustina would go on to marry the

Roman Senator The Roman Senate ( la, Senātus Rōmānus) was a governing and advisory assembly in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, being established in the first days of the city of Rome (traditionally founded in ...

Marcus Annius Verus, to whom she bore one daughter and two sons. Matidia often traveled with her uncle and assisted him with decision-making. Like her mother, Matidia was honored with monuments and inscriptions in her name throughout the Roman Empire. On 29 August 112, she received the title of Augusta upon the death and divinization of Marciana. SALONINA MATIDIA RIC II 752 (Trajan)-94001036

SALONINA MATIDIA RIC II 752 (Trajan)-94001036

When Trajan died in 117, Matidia and Plotina brought the emperor's ashes back to Rome. In 119 Matidia died, whereupon the Roman Emperor

delivered her funeral oration, deified her, and granted her a temple and altar in Rome itself. She thus became the first divinized Roman woman to be dedicated a full-scale temple of her own, as opposed to one shared with her husband or a smaller shrine.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Matidia, Salonia 68 births 119 deaths 1st-century Roman women 2nd-century Roman women Deified Roman women Nerva–Antonine dynasty Augustae