The Portable Antiquities Scheme

• Roman coins
  • Introduction
  • General articles
  • Emperor guide
  • Dynasties
  • Denominations
  • Active mints
  • Fourth Century reverses
  • Reece Periods
  • Reverse personifications
  • Republican moneyers
• Other numismatic periods
  • Byzantine coins
  • Iron Age coins
  • Early Medieval coins
  • Greek & Roman coins
  • Medieval coins
  • Post Medieval coins

Bruttia Crispina

Reece Period attributed: Period 9

Member of the The Antonines dynasty.

Coins for this issuer were issued from 178 until 187.

Bruttia Crispina was the daughter of L. Fulvius Bruttius Praesens. She married the future emperor when he was 16 years old. After ten years of marriage, she was banished to Capri for adultery and later killed.

View all coins recorded by the scheme attributed to Bruttia Crispina.

Wikipedia derived information

Bruttia Crispina (164-191?) was the Empress of Rome and wife of Roman Emperor Commodus.

Crispina’s mother is unknown and her father was twice consul Gaius Bruttius Praesens. Crispina’s paternal grandparents were consul and senator Caius Bruttius Praesens and rich heiress Laberia Hostilia Crispina, who was the daughter of another twice consul, Manius Laberius Maximus. Crispina's brother was future consul Lucius Bruttius Quintius Crispinus.

Her father’s family originally came from Volceii, Lucania, Italy and were closely associated with the Roman Emperors Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. Crispina was born and raised in Rome or Volceii. Crispina married Commodus, in the summer of 178 (probably July).

The actual ceremony was modest but it was commemorated on coinage and largesse was distributed to the people. An epithalamium for the occasion was composed by the sophist Julius Pollux. Like many marriages of young members of the upper orders, it was an arranged marriage: Crispina's father and Marcus Aurelius (Commodus’ father) had arranged for it to occur.

Commodus disliked Crispina, presumably due to her character - she was a beautiful woman, but said to be vain and haughty. She received the title of Augusta. On the basis of a misreading of SHA Commodus 5.9 and Dio 73.4.6 her fall is sometimes wrongly associated with the conspiracy of Lucilla in 181 or 182.

Her name continues to appear in inscriptions until as late as 191 (CIL 8.2366). Her eventual exile and death may instead have been associated with the fall of Marcus Aurelius Cleander or her inability to help Commodus ensure the dynastic succession..

Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruttia_Crispina
This data is sourced from dbpedia, and as such should be treated with caution

Latest examples recorded