Sabina, Hadrian's Long-Suffering Wife, Deified

As my profile image suggests an important part of my Roman imperial collection is deification issues.

Almost from the start of my collection, the whole state religion deification process fascinated me. The decision by the Senate to deify an emperor or family member as a sign of respect, the lookout who watched the smoke from the funeral pyre for signs of the deceased's soul being carried to heaven, ending in the coin commemorating the event. The imperial cult was an important aspect of life in Rome and these coins were meant to remind Romans of the connection between their rulers and their gods.

Vibia Sabina, a cousin of Hadrian, became his wife in 100AD at the request of Trajan's wife Plotina. We know little of her life as empress but we can assume that her marriage to Hadrian wasn't that great considering Hadrian's intense love for his Greek lover Antinous. The Historia Augusta claims she had an affair with Suetonius, but that chronicle is highly unreliable. Nevertheless when Sabina died in 136-7, Hadrian ordered her deified.

Below is the relief showing her deification that once stood in the Campus Martius but now resides in Portugal. Inset is the coin that I added to my collection.