Diva Faustina II AD 175-176. Rome
Sestertius Æ

33 mm, 25,12 g

DIVA FAVSTINA PIA, draped bust right / [CONSECRATIO], peacock standing to left with tail spread; [S]-C across fields.

Nearly Very Fine

RIC III 1703 (Aurelius); C. 72; BMCRE 1573 (Aurelius and Commodus).

Diva Faustina, also known as Faustina the Elder or Faustina the Elder Augusta, was a Roman empress and the wife of the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius. She was born in AD 100, and she married Antoninus Pius before he became emperor. Her full name was Annia Galeria Faustina. Diva Faustina is remembered as a virtuous and influential empress. She was well-regarded and beloved by the Roman people during her husband's long and prosperous reign, which lasted from AD 138 to 161 AD. After her death on October AD 140, she was deified by the Senate, and she became known as "Diva Faustina" ("Diva" meaning "divine" or "deified"). Her deification was a common practice in Roman imperial cults, and it honored her as a revered figure after her passing. Diva Faustina's memory and legacy were also celebrated through various monuments, inscriptions, and coins during and after her lifetime. Many of these representations depicted her as a paragon of virtue and motherhood