Editing Vibia Sabina

{{Short description|Roman empress from 116 to 136/137}}
{{Infobox royalty
| title        = [[Augusta (title)|Augusta]]
| image        = Vibia Sabina (Villa Adriana) 01.jpg
| caption      = Statue of Vibia Sabina ([[Villa Adriana]], [[Tivoli, Lazio|Tivoli]])
| succession   = [[List of Roman empresses|Roman empress]]
| reign        = 117 – 136/137
| consort      = yes

| birth_date   = 83
| birth_place  = [[Rome]], [[Roman Italy|Italy]]
| death_date   = 136/137
| death_place  =
| spouse       = [[Hadrian]]
| issue        =
| full name    = Vibia Sabina
| regnal name  = Vibia Sabina Augusta
| dynasty      = [[Nerva–Antonine dynasty|Nerva–Antonine]]
| father       = [[Lucius Vibius Sabinus]]
| mother       = [[Salonia Matidia]]
}}
{{multiple image
| image1 = Vibia Sabina.jpg
| width1 = 180px
| image2 = 
| width2 = 
| caption1 = Bust of Vibia Sabina ([[Capitoline Museums]], [[Rome]])
| caption2 = Statue of Vibia Sabina ([[Villa Adriana]], [[Tivoli, Lazio|Tivoli]])
| align = 
| direction = 
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}}
'''Vibia Sabina''' (83–136/137) was a [[Roman Empress]], wife and second cousin once removed to the [[Roman Emperor]] [[Hadrian]]. She was the daughter of [[Salonia Matidia|Matidia]] (niece of Roman Emperor [[Trajan]]) and [[suffect consul]] [[Lucius Vibius Sabinus]].

== Early life ==
After her father's death in 84, Sabina and her half-sister [[Matidia Minor]] went to live with their maternal grandmother, [[Ulpia Marciana|Marciana]]. They were raised in the household of Sabina's great uncle Trajan and his wife [[Pompeia Plotina|Plotina]].

Sabina married Hadrian in 100, at the empress Plotina's request. Sabina's mother Matidia (Hadrian's second cousin) was also fond of Hadrian and allowed him to marry her daughter. Hadrian succeeded Trajan in 117.

== Empress ==
Sabina accumulated more public honors in Rome and the provinces than any imperial woman had enjoyed since the first empress, Augustus’ wife Livia. Indeed, Sabina is the first woman whose image features on a regular and continuous series of coins minted at Rome. She was the most traveled and visible empress to date.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Sabina Augusta|last=Brennan|first=Corey|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2018|isbn=978-0-19-025099-7|pp=88, 151}}</ref> In 128, she was awarded the title of [[Augusta (honorific)|Augusta]].

Sabina is described in the poetry of [[Julia Balbilla]], her companion, in a series of epigrams on the occasion of Hadrian's visit to Egypt in November of 130. In the poems, Balbilla refers to Sabina as "beautiful" and "lovely."

The ''[[Historia Augusta]]'' reports that the historian [[Suetonius]], who was Hadrian's secretary, was dismissed by Hadrian from his position in 119, for "conducting [himself] toward his wife, Sabina, in a more informal fashion than the etiquette of the court demanded."<ref>[[Augustan History|''Historia Augusta'']] [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Hadrian/1*.html#11.3 11.3]</ref><ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Suetonius Tranquillus, Gaius|volume=26}}</ref> Meanwhile, her husband was thought to be more sexually interested in his favourite [[Antinous]] and other male lovers, and he and Sabina had no children.

==The Thasos Find ==
[[File:4547_-_Istanbul_-_Museo_archeol._-_Donna_-_Copia_rom._da_orig._sec._IV_a.C._-_da_Thasos_-_Foto_G._Dall'Orto_28-5-2006.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Istanbul Archaeological Museum, the Bents’ statue of Vibia Sabina from Thasos.]]
The antiquaries [[James Theodore Bent|Theodore]] and [[Mabel Bent]], while excavating within the forum area of the ancient capital of the island of [[Thasos]] in March 1887, uncovered an almost complete statue of Vibia Sabina (2nd cent. AD; c. 1.8m high) that decorated the monument to [[Caracalla]].<ref>J. Theodore Bent, ‘Discoveries in Thasos’, ''Athenæum'', Issue 3113 (June 1887), p.839; Sheila Dillon, ''The Female Portrait Statue in the Greek World'', 2010, Cambridge University Press, pp.147-9, 278; ''The Travel Chronicles of Mrs. J. Theodore Bent'', Vol. 1, 2006, Oxford, pp.200-2.</ref>  The Bents were hoping to return with the statue to London, but it was confiscated by the Istanbul authorities, specifically [[Osman Hamdi Bey]]. It is now on display in the Archaeological Museum there.<ref>See Gustave Mendel, ''Catalogue des Sculptures Grecques, Romaines et Byzantines I'', 1912, Constantinople, pp.347-8, no.137; museum inv. no. 375).</ref>

== Death ==
[[File:SABINA RIC II 399a-1960284.jpg|thumb|250px|left|[[Denarius]] of Sabina, minted in Rome AD 128–134]]
Vibia Sabina died before her husband, some time in 136 or early 137.<ref>Opper, Thorsten. ''Hadrian: Empire and Conflict'', Harvard University Press, 2008, p. 205. {{ISBN|0-674-03095-8}}</ref> There is a strong ancient tradition that Hadrian treated his wife little better than a slave, and may have driven her to suicide.<ref name=":0" /> However other sources say he had great respect for her. 

A [[relief]] commissioned by Hadrian "depicts the apotheosis, or divine ascent of Sabina in accordance with her posthumous deification on the order of Hadrian."<ref>Annelise Freisenbruch, ''Caesars’ Wives: Sex, Power, and Politics in the Roman Empire'' (London and New York: Free Press, 2010), 170.</ref>  Some 150 years later, this was reused as [[spolia]] on the so-called [[Arch of Portugal]], and in modern times moved to the [[Capitoline Museums]], where it is on display on the staircase of the [[Capitoline_Hill#Palazzo_dei_Conservatori|Palazzo dei Conservatori]].

== Temple ==
According to researchers, a temple at [[Elefsina]] in [[Greece]] was dedicated to Sabina.<ref>[https://www.efada.gr/en-us/Archaeological-Sites-Monuments/Eleusis/Archaeological-Site-of-Eleusis/temple-of-sabina Archaeological Site of Eleusis-Temple of Sabina]</ref>

==See also==
* [[Vibia Aurelia Sabina]] (170-died before 217), half-great-great-grandniece to Vibia Sabina

{{Nerva-Antonine family tree}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{in lang|fr}} L’Harmattan,'' La vie de Sabine, femme d’Hadrien'', in Minaud, Gérard, ''Les vies de 12 femmes d’empereur romain – Devoirs, Intrigues & Voluptés '', Paris, 2012, pp.&nbsp;169–188.
* Brennan, Corey T., ''Sabina Augusta: An Imperial Journey'', Oxford, 2018, {{ISBN|978-0190250997}}

{{Roman empresses}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vibia, Sabina}}
[[Category:83 births]]
[[Category:130s deaths]]
[[Category:Vibii|Sabina]]
[[Category:1st-century Roman women]]
[[Category:1st-century Romans]]
[[Category:2nd-century Roman empresses]]
[[Category:Deified Roman empresses]]
[[Category:Hadrian]]
[[Category:Augustae]]
[[Category:Burials at the Castel Sant'Angelo]]