Justina (empress)

Roman empress

For other uses, see Justina (disambiguation).

Justina

Roman empress
Tenure| c. 370–375

Born| c. 340
Died| 388(388-00-00) (aged 47–48)
Spouse|

* Magnentius
* Valentinian I

Issue
others...|

* Valentinian II
* Galla

Dynasty| Valentinianic dynasty by marriage;
Constantinian dynasty by birth
Father| Justus, consularis of Picenum[1]
Religion| Arian Christianity[2]

Justina (Latin: Iustina; c. 340 – c. 388) was a Roman empress. She was initially the wife of the rebel emperor Magnentius and was then married to Valentinian I, with whom she had four children, including the emperor Valentinian II and the empress Galla.

Possibly a relative of the Constantinian dynasty, she was Valentinian's second wife after Marina Severa, and stepmother of the augustus Gratian and the mother-in-law of the augustus Theodosius I. Her young son Valentinian was made emperor shortly after her husband's death in November 375. According to Late Antique ecclesiastical history, Justina was an Arian Christian, and began to promote this christology after her husband died, bringing her into conflict with Ambrose, the Nicene Christian bishop of Mediolanum (Milan). In 387, fleeing from the invasion of the Italian Peninsula by the emperor Magnus Maximus, Justina took her children to the Balkans – including the child-emperor Valentinian II – and secured the intervention of the eastern emperor Theodosius in the civil war by marrying her daughter Galla to him at Thessalonica. Afterwards, Theodosius attacked and defeated Magnus Maximus, ending the civil war, during which time Justina herself died.

## Family[edit]

Justina was a daughter of Justus, governor of Picenum under Constantius II.[1] According to Socrates of Constantinople: "Justus the father of Justina, who had been governor of Picenum under the reign of Constantius, had a dream in which he seemed to himself to bring forth the imperial purple out of his right side. When this dream had been told to many persons, it at length came to the knowledge of Constantius, who conjecturing it to be a presage that a descendant of Justus would become emperor, caused him to be assassinated."[3]

Justina had two known brothers, Constantius and Cerealis. One of her daughters was named Galla. In La Pseudobigamie de Valentinien I (1958), J. Rougé argues all three names were representative of their descent from the Neratius family, an aristocratic family connected to the Constantinian dynasty through marriage.[4] According to the Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire the names Justus and Justina may also indicate a relation to the Vettus family.[1]

The Prosopography mentions a theory that Justus was a son of Vettius Justus, Consul in 328, and a woman of the Neratius family. The latter family produced several relatively notable members in the early 4th century. The first was Galla, wife of Julius Constantius and mother of Constantius Gallus. Her brothers were Neratius Cerealis, Consul in 358 and Vulcacius Rufinus, Praetorian prefect of Italy from 365 to his death in 368.[5]

Although Timothy Barnes has theorised that Justina was a granddaughter or great-granddaughter of Crispus through her unnamed mother,[4][6] another suggestion is that she was the granddaughter of Julius Constantius and his first wife, the aforementioned Galla, through her mother. Hence, this makes Justina at the heart of the family connexions between the Constantinian and the Valentinianic (and later Theodosian) dynasties.[7]

## Marriage to Magnentius[edit]

Justina was first married to Magnentius, a Roman usurper, from 350 to 353.[6][8] However both Zosimus and the fragmentary chronicle of John of Antioch, a 7th-century monk tentatively identified with John of the Sedre, Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch from 641 to 648,[9] report that Justina was too young at the time of her first marriage to have children.[4]

## Empress and marriage to Valentinian I[edit]

Solidus of Valentinian I

In c. 370, Justina became the second wife of Valentinian I after his divorce. Barnes observed that Christian writers appeared to be embarrassed by his act, as few sources name his first wife.[10] There are two different reports of the exact circumstances. The one given by John Malalas, the Chronicon Paschale and John of Nikiû say Marina committed fraud and was exiled,[11] though Barnes considers it to be an attempt to justify the divorce of Valentinian I without blaming the emperor.[12] The other version given by Socrates, Jordanes and Theodorus Lector do not say Valentinian’s first wife was disgraced, and explain how Justina came to know the emperor by saying that Severa introduced her to him.[12][13][14]

Justina became the stepmother of Gratian, Valentinian’s son from his previous marriage. The couple had four children. Their only son was Valentinian II. Their daughters were Galla, Grata and Justa.[15] According to Socrates, Grata and Justa remained unmarried. They were still alive in 392 but not mentioned afterwards.[16]

## Widowhood and the reign of Valentinian II[edit]

Valentinian I died in 375.[17] According to Ammianus Marcellinus, Zosimus and Philostorgius, Justina was living near Sirmium by the time she was widowed. During the reign of Valentinian II, she moved with him to Mediolanum (Milan). She assisted her young son Valentinian II's rule.

In 383, Gratian had died while facing a major revolt under Magnus Maximus. Maximus proceeded to establish his control of a portion of the Roman Empire including Britain, Gaul, Hispania and the Diocese of Africa.[18] He ruled from his capital at Augusta Treverorum (Treves, Trier) and was able to negotiate his recognition by Valentinian II and Theodosius I, starting from 384. The area of Valentinian II had effectively been limited to Italia, ruling from Mediolanum (modern Milan).[15]

Justina was an Arian though unable to act in favor of her religious faction until after the death of her husband. She maintained a long struggle against Ambrose, leader of the Nicene faction in Milan.[2][19] The dispute started in 385 when Ambrose refused the imperial court's demand for the Arian usage of a basilica for Easter, a cause which Justina championed.[20][21] Many church historians influenced by Ambrose's rhetoric wrote negative accounts about her, stating that she persecuted the bishop for selfish reasons.[22][23] However, Justina was not the only person in the court pursuing the Arian worship, since Gothic soldiers and some high-ranking civilian and military officials under Valentinian also had a stake in it.[24]

In 387, the truce between Valentinian II and Maximus ended. The latter crossed the Alps into the Po Valley and threatened Milan. Justina and her children Valentinian and Galla fled their capital for Thessaloniki, capital of the Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum and at the time chosen residence of Theodosius. Theodosius was at the time a widower, his first wife Aelia Flaccilla having died in 386.

Theodosius granted refuge to the fugitives. After Justina involved herself in negotiations with him, he agreed to reinstall her son, and her daughter Galla was married to Theodosius.[25]

In July–August, 388, the combined troops of Theodosius I and Valentinian II invaded the territory of Maximus under the leadership of Richomeres, Arbogast, Promotus and Timasius. Maximus suffered a series of losses and surrendered in Aquileia. He was executed on 28 August 388. Theodosius sent Valentinian to the West, and though Justina was believed by Zosimus to have intended to go with him, she died within the same year.[2]

## References[edit]

1. ^ a b c Jones, Martindale & Morris, p. 490.
2. ^ a b c Jones, Martindale & Morris, p. 488-489.
3. ^ Socrates Scholasticus, "The Ecclesiastical History", Book 14, Chapter 31, translation by Philip Schaff (1819 - 1893).
4. ^ a b c Lenski 2003, p. 103.
5. ^ Jones, Martindale & Morris, p. 382.
6. ^ a b David A. Wend, "Magnentius As Emperor"
7. ^ François Chausson, "Stemmata aurea : Constantin, Justine, Théodose. Revendications généalogiques et idéologie impériale au IVe s. ap. J.-C." (2007)
8. ^ Michael DiMaio, Jr., "Magnentius (350-353 A.D) and Decentius (351-353 A.D.)"
9. ^ Catholic Encyclopedia, "John of Antioch"
10. ^ Barnes 1998, p. 123.
11. ^ Jones, Martindale & Morris, p. 828.
12. ^ a b Barnes 1998, p. 124.
13. ^ Jordanes, Romana  310
14. ^ Theodorus Lector,  Epitome 212,  p. 74.9-17
15. ^ a b Walter E. Roberts , "Valentinian II (375-92 A.D.)"
16. ^ Jones, Martindale & Morris, p. 400, 488.
17. ^ Walter E. Roberts, "Valentinian I (364-375 A.D)"
18. ^ Walter E. Roberts, "Magnus Maximus (383-388 A.D.)"
19. ^ Williams & Friell 1994, p. 43.
20. ^ Ambrose, Epistolae 20
21. ^ McLynn 1994, p. 187.
22. ^ Rufinus, Ecclesiastical History 11.15-16
23. ^ Augustine, Confessions 9.7.15
24. ^ McLynn 1994, p. 170–174.
25. ^ Williams & Friell 1994, p. 62.

## Sources[edit]

* Barnes, Timothy D. (1998). Ammianus Marcellinus and the Representation of Historical Reality (Cornell Studies in Classical Philology). Cornell University Press. ISBN 080143526-9.
* Charles, Robert H. (2007) [1916]. The Chronicle of John, Bishop of Nikiu: Translated from Zotenberg's Ethiopic Text. Merchantville, NJ: Evolution Publishing. ISBN 9781889758879.
* Camphausen, Hans v., 1929. Ambrosius von Mailand als Kirchenpolitiker. Berlin/Leipzig.
* Homes Dudden, A., 1935. The Life and Times of St. Ambrose. Oxford.
* Jones, A.H.M.; J.R. Martindale & J. Morris (1971). Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire. Vol. 1\. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-07233-6.
* Lenski, Noel (2003). Failure of Empire: Valens and the Roman State in the Fourth Century A.D. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-23332-8.
* McLynn, Neil B. (1994), Ambrose of Milan: Church and Court in a Christian Capital, The Transformation of the Classical Heritage, vol. 22, Berkeley: University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-08461-2
* Williams, Stephen; Friell, Gerard (1994). Theodosius: The Empire at Bay. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-07447-5.

## External links[edit]

* Gunther Gottlieb (1992). "Justina". In Bautz, Friedrich Wilhelm (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol. 3\. Herzberg: Bautz. col. 888. ISBN 3-88309-035-2.
* Section about her in "Ammianus Marcellinus and the Representation of Historical Reality" by Timothy David Barnes
* Section about her on "Failure of Empire" by Noel Emmanuel Lenski
* Profile of Vulcacius Rufinus in the Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire

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Italics indicates a consort to a junior co-emperor, underlining indicates a consort to an emperor variously regarded as either legitimate or a usurper, and bold incidates an empress regnant.

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