Antinoan Connections: Goddesses and Antinous–Plotina

We now come to today’s Diva, namely Diva Pompeia Plotina Augusta, the wife of the Emperor Trajan and good friend (and relative, technically!) of the Emperor Hadrian.

Pompeia Plotina Claudia Phoebe Piso was born sometime during the reign of Nero (54-68 CE)–not unlike her imperial successor and great-niece Sabina, we do not know the exact date of her birth, nor her death. However, if we were to venture a guess and suggest that she was younger than Trajan by about ten years (as that was often the case in Roman marriages, at least minimally), she may have been born in c. 63 CE. She was married to Trajan before his accession as emperor in 98 as the adopted successor to Nerva, and their marriage was a happy one. However, it was a childless marriage, which necessitated the adoption of Hadrian as imperial successor. When Trajan died during a campaign on August 9, 117 CE, it was Plotina who, in the end, seems to have either negotiated Hadrian’s adoption from Trajan on his death-bed, or (in some interpretations) conspired to forge statements that would have Hadrian be the adopted successor. Though Hadrian’s marriage to the granddaughter of the deified sister of Trajan, Marciana, certainly would have favorably placed Hadrian for succession, nonetheless it was this last-minute situation which determined Hadrian as the ultimate successor.

Some have also suggested throughout history that Hadrian was having an affair with Plotina, and that it was through this means that he secured his imperial succession. That would be a very strange situation indeed, if what some others have suggested about Trajan and Hadrian were true–namely, that Hadrian was once a youthful lover (however briefly) to Trajan, despite being his cousin. But, as ever, the public–whether ancient or modern, academic or not–is eager for a sex scandal and a tabloid story.

What is certain is that Hadrian clearly honored and esteemed her greatly, and that the two of them enjoyed discussing philosophy. Correspondence survives between them in which they debate the succession of the School of Epicurus in Athens, along with a notice by Hadrian that he would like to have dinner with her on the occasion of her birthday–but, frustratingly, no dates are attached to this correspondence.

Plotina died in c. 121-122, and Hadrian had her deified, as well as having her honored alongside Trajan in a temple in Rome afterwards, and founding a temple for her in her birthplace of Nemausus (modern Nimes, France). Plotina was reluctant to receive the title of Augusta from her husband, which he had been urging since 100, but she at last relented in 105, and thereafter appears on imperial coinage. A figure with whom she appears on coins is Fides, who was already mentioned in this series. She was honored with a demoi named after her in the city of Antinoöpolis, in the phyla named for Matidia.

Ave Diva Plotina Augusta! Ave Ave Antinoe!