FAUSTINA, wife of Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome, A.D. 138–160, was the daughter of Antoninus Pius and his wife Faustina Augusta. She was the mother of Commodus—a son not unworthy of his maternal descent. Faustina was distinguished equally for her beauty and her licentiousness; and as cruelty usually accompanies sensuality when invested with power, she has been accused of causing the death of her son-in-law Verus, and with encouraging the rebellion of Avidius Crassus. These charges rest on no good foundation, but her infamy is upon record. Aurelius affected to be insensible to the irregularities of Faustina. He advanced her paramours to public employments, and on her death obtained for her divine honours. Her statue was placed in the temple of Venus; and the village in Cappadocia where she died was erected into a city with the name of Faustinaopolis. This, as M. Crevier says, is carrying goodness too far. It was either weak credulity, or vain dissimulation; but the subsequent conduct of Marcus Aurelius, in admitting his son Commodus to the imperial power while he was yet a boy, evinced an equal want of judgment and dignity.