MATIDIA (Augusta, 112-119). Denarius. Rome.

Obv: MATIDIA AVG DIVAE MARCIANAE F.
Diademed and draped bust right.
Rev: PIETAS AVGVST.
Pietas standing facing, head left, placing hands on heads of two children, Sabina and Matidia, to left and right.

Woytek 729; RIC 759 (Trajan).

Salonia Matidia was born in AD 68 and was the only daughter of praetor Gaius Salonius Matidius Patruinus and Ulpia Marciana (mentioned in the obverse legend of this coin), the sister of the future emperor Trajan. She married at the age of 13-14 to Lucius Vibius Sabinus, from a powerful family of consular rank. In 83 AD a daughter, Vibia Sabina, the future wife of Emperor Hadrian, was born and her husband died. Matidia married twice more and had three more daughters, including the future grandmother of Marcus Aurelius, Rupilia Faustina. But her other two husbands also soon died. She made her home a literary salon, full of cultured people, and loved palace life, advising the emperor Trajan, and often following him to the battlefields to support him. She is also said to have had a good understanding with the emperor's wife, Plotina, with whom she worked to secure a worthy successor to the throne, opting for Hadrian, who married his daughter Vibia. It is unclear what happened when Trajan died, having fallen ill in Cilicia during the campaign against the Parthians. Hadrian's adoption, according to the historian Cassius Dio, was announced to the Roman Senate with a false letter from Trajan, actually written by Plotina. Hadrian however kept both women close and allowed Matidia to assist him until she died in 119 AD. At her death the emperor granted her a touching eulogy and organised spectacular gladiatorial games, and finally deified her by having a temple built in Rome.

Condition: Fine.

Weight: 2.87 g.
Diameter: 19 mm.