23 December AD 119 – Hadrian commemorates his mother-in-law, Salonia Matidia (#Hadrian1900)

In December of the year 119, Hadrian faced a personal tragedy. He said farewell to his beloved mother-in-law, Salonia Matidia, who passed away in her early 50s.

Immediately after her death, Hadrian granted her extravagant honours. He arranged for her deification, delivered a speech in her honour, turned the commemoration of her passing into a public event featuring gladiatorial games, issued consecration coins bearing her name, and even constructed a temple complex in the Campus Martius in Rome to venerate her memory.

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Matidia was the only child of Ulpia Marciana (older sister of Trajan) and praetor Caius Salonius Matidius Patriunus. According to the Feriale Duranum, a 3rd-century AD military calendar found in the garrison town of Dura-Europos (PDura 54), her dies natalis (birthday) was on 4 July, but the year of her birth is unknown (presumably c. AD 67/68). Her father died in 78, and she and her mother were admitted to the household of Trajan (her uncle) and his wife, Pompeia Plotina. Matidia was at least married twice. Her first husband was a man named L. Mindius, with whom she bore a daughter, Mindia Matidia, commonly known as Matidia the Younger. After her first husband’s death, Matidia married former proconsul Lucius Vibius Sabinus. They had one daughter named Sabina, who later married her second cousin, the future Emperor Hadrian, in 100.

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An entry in the Fasti Ostienses (Fragment 22) records that when her mother Marciana died on 29 August 112, Trajan deified Marciana, and Matidia was awarded the honorary title of Augusta, which she shared with Trajan’s wife Plotina and was honoured at Rome and across the Empire. IIII. K. Septembr. [Marciana Aug]usta excessit divaq(ue) cognominata [eodem die Mati]dia Augusta cognominata III [Non. Sept. Mar]ciana Augusta funere censorio [elata est …]

One aureus struck between 115 and 117 capitalises on her relationship with her mother, Marciana. It depicts a diademed Matidia between the words MATIDIA AUG DIVAE MARCIANAE F (Maditia Augusta, daughter of the deified Marciana). On the reverse side of the coin, Matidia is shown as the goddess Pietas (filial piety), which highlights her important role within the family and her devotion to her children. It was her children who continued the dynasty of Trajan.

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The Historia Augusta is the only literary source that mentions Matidia. In the text, she is described as being with Plotina and Attianus, who accompanied Trajan’s ashes from Antioch to Rome (HA Had. 5.9). Additionally, two other passages mention that “special honours” were given to her after her death.

“On his mother-in‑law he bestowed special honour by means of gladiatorial games and other ceremonies.” HA Had. 9.9

“In Rome, in addition to popular entertainments of unbounded extravagance, he gave spices to the people in honour of his mother-in‑law.” HA Had. 19.5

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Although the Historia Augusta does not explicitly state that Matidia received divine honours, the numismatic record and the Acta of the Arval Brethren indicate her consecration and provide information about the chronology. A silver denarius inscribed with the legend DIVA AUGUSTA MATIDIA – CONSECRATIO was minted in 119-20. Moreover, the records of the Arval Brethren, an important Roman collegium, provide a date for the consecration (CIL VI 2080).

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According to the Arval Brethren, on 23 December 119, Gaius Vitorius Hosidius Geta, the magister of the collegium, presented a gift of two pounds (0.9 kg) of perfume and 50 pounds (22.6 kg) of incense to the people to honour Matidia.

Transcript: C(aio) Heren[ni]o Apella / L(ucio) [Coe]l[io? R]ufo co(n)s(ulibus) / [m]agi[st]erio / [C(ai) Vit]ori Hosidi Ge[t]ae / X K(alendas) Ianuar(ias) / in consecra[tionem M]atidiae Aug(ustae) socrus Imp(eratoris) Caesaris Traiani Hadriani Aug(usti) unguenti p(ondo) II nomine / collegi(i) fratr[um Arvali]um per C(aium) Vitorium Hosidium Getam mag(istrum) missum turis p(ondo) L item nomine calator[um]

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The term “consecratio” was used to refer to the funeral process of deification, which resulted in Matidia being considered a diva. An inscription has even preserved the speech that Hadrian gave during her consecratio. The fragmented text was copied from an inscribed slab in the 16th century and was subsequently lost. Originally known as Hadriani Laudatio Matidiae (CIL XIV 3579), it was discovered in Tivoli (ancient Tibur), where Matidia may have passed away (Birley 1997, 107). The inscription was damaged during the copying process, resulting in an incomplete speech with missing words and lines.

During his speech, Hadrian spoke highly of Matidia, praising her with a long list of admirable qualities. A. R. Birley notes that Hadrian even honoured her as if she were his own mother. One of the qualities that Hadrian highlighted was her loyalty to her family

“She followed her uncle (Trajan) from his obtaining the position of emperor, and right up to that last illness by which he met his death, as his companion and intimate, revering him like a daughter, in her affection doing everything for him, and was never seen without him.”

He then says that he is overwhelmed by grief at her death, referring to her as his “loving mother-in-law” and praising her beauty, modesty, and kindness (all translations by Christopher P. Jones, 2004).

“But why should I say more about the character of my mother-in-law? For how could it come about that […] gravity of […] woman at all, and not… approve most highly? I would describe […] and in detail all that I felt if I were not so overcome by my present grief.”

“She lived as one most dear to her husband, after him most chaste through a very long widowhood (despite being) in the prime of her life and with the greatest physical beauty, most obedient to her mother, herself a most indulgent mother […]. She never asked anything of me, and did not ask for many things which I would rather have wished to be asked for.”

Christopher P. Jones argues in “A Speech of Emperor Hadrian” that the address, long believed to be Matidia’s funeral oration, was actually delivered by Hadrian before the Senate. The speech was made when Hadrian sought Matidia’s deification, and the text may have been inscribed on a statue base, which was probably set up in Hadrian’s Villa. Jones restores the final lines of Hadrian’s speech as follows.

“As the niece of my deified father by blood, by adoption placed in the relation of cousin to me, […] uncle […] a noble title in accordance with her merits, I ask that you confer upon her the honour of consecration…”

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Hadrian also commissioned a vast temple devoted to his mother-in-law, Matidia, in the central Campus Martius near the Pantheon. This made Matidia the first deified woman to have a temple of her own within the city limits of Rome. The temple was depicted on a rare bronze medallion struck by Hadrian, which had the inscription DIVAE MATIDIAE SOCRVI (“to the deified Matidia, his mother-in-law”). The medallion shows a small aedicula with two columns and a triangular pediment where a female figure sits enthroned. On either side of the aedicula are projecting porticoes, two-storey high, possibly identified as the basilicas of Matidia and Marciana.

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The temple is also known from a lead pipe found in 1636 near Sant’Ignazio bearing the inscription Templo Matidiae (CIL XV 7248). The temple is also mentioned in the 4th-century AD Regionary Catalogues (Reg. IX) as basilicam Matidies et Marciani and basilicam Neptuni Matidies Marciani (LacusCurtius). It was situated between the Pantheon and the Templum Antonini. An altar, which may have been connected to the temple, was also found and is mentioned in one inscription (CIL VI 31893).

Based on Fragment 36b of the Forma Urbis Romae (see here), the temple is believed to have had eight columns on its front and back sides and thirteen on the long sides. It was an octastyle peripteral building, and its portico covered about the same area as the nearby Temple of the Deified Hadrian, measuring around 100 by 65 metres.

A few remains of the Temple of Matidia can be seen in Vicolo della Spada d’Orlando, which is situated northeast of the Pantheon, between Via dei Pastini and Piazza Capranica. In the past, several cipollini columns were visible in Piazza Capranica, two of which are currently embedded in a house located in the square. These columns had a diameter of about 1.70 metres, which suggests a hypothetical height of approximately 17 metres, making it taller than the Pantheon (F. Coarelli, Rome and Environs: An Archaeological Guide, 2014).

In the 18th century, Giovanni Battista Piranesi drew the remains of an ancient temple consisting of seven columns, five of which are still crowned by capital in the Corinthian order. Piranesi referred to the building as the temple of Juturna, but the temple is otherwise unknown in this part of the Campus Martius. Because Piranesi placed this temple between the Temple of Hadrian and the Pantheon, it is assumed that he recorded the remains of the Temple of Matidia, which was later built over.

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The act of deification was an unprecedented honour for a person other than the emperor himself. However, during the reign of Trajan, the deification of imperial women became common. The first member of the Trajanic family to receive this honour was Trajan’s sister Marciana, who was deified in 112. Two more women from the family, Trajan’s wife Plotina in 123 and Sabina, daughter of Matidia and grand-niece of Trajan, in 136, were also deified. It’s believed that the worship of these Trajanic women emphasised the importance of family lineage and dynastic continuity. However, Hadrian’s trend of deification was also perhaps motivated by the need to legitimize his succession to the throne.

Even after Hadrian’s reign, the celebration of the Trajanic divae persisted, and their significance in Roman daily life is indicated in the Feriale Duranum. This 3rd-century calendar includes religious observances along with a considerable number of days dedicated to celebrating emperors, empresses, and other members of the imperial family. Both Marciana and Plotina are included. The entries of Marciana and Plotina record the celebration of their birthdays with public prayers (supplicatio).

Kal(endas) Septembr]es ọ[b nata]lẹ[m Div]ạe Maṛ[cianae Divae Marci]ạṇ[ae supplicatio]… before the Kalends of September: for the birthday of the divine Marciana, to the divine Marciana public prayer.

[ -ca.?- N]ọn(as) [I]ụlias oḅ [n]ạtalem Divaẹ Ṃaṭidiae Diva[e] Mati[di]ae supplị[cat]i[o]… 4 days before the Nones of July: for the birthday of the divine Matidia, to the divine Matidia public prayer.

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Various scholars have been examining the public roles of the Trajanic women to understand why they were deified. The Historia Augusta confirms that they held significant official positions and accompanied the emperors throughout the Empire, attending official events. These women were celebrated with statues, coins, and inscriptions and even had cities named after them, such as Marcianopolis in eastern Thrace and Plotinopolis in southern Thrace. The buildings in Rome attest to their public status and high regard, providing further evidence of their prominence.

These women were not only examples of traditional female virtues such as fidelity, devotion, discretion, and modesty, as seen in texts and on coins, but also in new roles as businesswomen and later as benefactors. For example, Mindia Matidia’s patronage in Suessa Aurunca and her establishment of an alimentary foundation for boys and girls. These women owned vast estates in Italy and North Africa, and some even owned brick factories.

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With the exception of Plotina, the political power of these 2nd-century AD women is not well-documented in the historical record. Mary T. Boatwright suggests that these women did not hold positions of influence in politics but were rather celebrated for their vital role as guarantors of the imperial dynasty. Boatwright argues that the women of the Trajanic era were revered for their virtuous behaviour as modest matrons and their power as symbols, which ultimately led to their deification.

Whatever political power these women of the early 2nd century had, they inspired many elite women throughout the Empire to become benefactors. They actively contributed to community efforts, particularly the construction and restoration of public buildings and children’s charities. These women set an example that was followed by others who sought to support and uplift their communities.

Sources & references:

• Birley, Anthony R. Hadrian. The Restless Emperor, London, New York (1997) pp.107
• James H. Oliver, The Divi of the Hadrianic Period, The Harvard Theological Review 42 (1949), 37.
• Boatwright, Mary T. The Imperial Women of the Early Second-Century A.C., AJPh, Vol. 112, No. 4 (Winter, 1991), 515.
• Bickerman, E. J. Diva Augusta Marciana. The American Journal of Philology, vol. 95, no. 4, 1974, pp. 362–376
• Smallwood, E. Mary. Documents Illustrating the Principates of Nerva, Trajan, and Hadrian. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1966)
• Coarelli, Filippo, et al. Rome and Environs: An Archaeological Guide. 1st ed., University of California Press, 2014.
• Christopher Jones, A Speech of the Emperor Hadrian, Classical Quarterly 54.1 (2004), 272-73.
• Mary T. Boatwright, Hadrian and the City of Rome, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press (1987), 59.
• Brennan, T. Corey, Sabina Augusta: An Imperial Journey. Women in antiquity, Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press (2018)

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