Antinoan Connections: Goddesses and Antinous–Lucilla

Annia Aurelia Galeria Lucilla was a daughter of Marcus Aurelius and the Empress Faustina the Younger, the wife of the co-emperor of Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus (who was the son of Aelius Caesar, Hadrian’s first adopted heir, who was born not long after Antinous died), and a woman who tried to assassinate her brother, the emperor Commodus. She was exiled and executed in disgrace for this, and thus never deified in antiquity; however, it is my own belief that she should be accorded as much honor as any of the other Divi honored from the Antonine period, since she was the wife to a Divus, daughter to a Divus and Diva, and in her attempt to assassinate Commodus, she was actually doing something that would have ultimately benefited the Empire. She is thus one of the Ekklesía Antínoou’s nominated Sancti for 2010.

Lucilla was born on March 7, 148-150, the twin sister of Gemellus Lucillae (a male child), who died about 150 CE. In 161, with her father’s accession to the principate, she was betrothed to Lucius Verus, and they married in 164 in Ephesus. Lucilla was immediately given the title of Augusta. She spent most of her time in Rome while Lucius Verus and her father were away fighting wars in Syria and elsewhere. She had two children with Lucius Verus who both died young. When Lucius Verus died in 168/169, soon after Marcus Aurelius forced Lucilla to marry a Syrian Roman ally and consul, Tiberius Claudius Pompeianus Quintianus, which both Lucilla and her mother were against for a variety of reasons. She bore Quintianus a son in about 170, Pompeianus, who later went on to be a military commander under the Severan emperor Caracalla.

Lucilla and Quintianus were on campaign with Marcus Aurelius on the Danube from 172 until 180, when the emperor died and was succeeded by her younger brother Commodus. Her hopes of ever becoming empress again were more or less crushed by this, and not only was she upset with this, but she was also very disturbed by the instability of her brother. In 182, herself and several of her relatives attempted to assassinate Commodus and install Quintianus as emperor. When the plot failed, several of the conspirators were executed immediately, but first Lucilla was banised to Capri, and later that year they were executed on orders of Commodus.

While some might accuse this Augusta of enviousness and scheming, there is no question that the rule of Commodus in comparison to that of his Antonine predecessors was disastrous, and set the stage for the instability that followed in the late second and throughout the third centuries–197 was the “Year of Five Emperors,” for crying out loud! Aurelius’ decision to have one of his genetic children as his successor, rather than a qualified individual who was adopted, was clearly a bad choice, and one that Nerva, Trajan, and Hadrian certainly would not have approved of (even if they were able to have children themselves). It takes a very enterprising woman to stand up to tyranny and instability like she did, and she should be considered a heroine as a result. Further, she had the title of Augusta, and a spouse’s death nor one’s own (forced) remarriage–though both were uncommon–cannot remove the numen Augusti from a person, so it should be honored, and she should be honored for having possessed it.

Ave Diva Lucilla Augusta! Ave Ave Antinoe!