Salonina Matidia

Who was Salonina Matidia?

Salonina Matidia was the daughter and only child of Ulpia Marciana and wealthy praetor Gaius Salonius Matidius Patruinus. Her maternal uncle was the Roman Emperor Trajan. 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.

Between 81 and 82, Matidia married a suffect consul and former proconsul Lucius Vibius Sabinus. Sabinus died in 83 or 84. Matidia bore Sabinus a daughter called Vibia Sabina, who would marry the future Roman Emperor Hadrian. 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 unattested Roman aristocrat called Lucius Mindius. Matidia bore Mindius a daughter called Mindia Matidia, commonly known as Matidia Minor. Mindius died in 85.

Matidia later married suffect consul of 88, Lucius Scribonius Libo Rupilius Frugi Bonus. Matidia bore Frugi a daughter called Rupilia Faustina. Faustina would go on to marry the Roman Senator Marcus Annius Verus, to whom she bore one daughter and two sons. Through her children, Faustina would become the grandmother of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and his wife Faustina the Younger, as well as Marcus's sister Annia Cornificia Faustina.