Justina (empress)
Justina († 388 ) was the second wife of the Roman Emperor Valentinian I ( 364-375 ) and mother of Valentinian II ( 375-392 ).
Justina was a daughter of Justus, governor of Picenum under Constantius II and had at least two brothers, Constantius and Cerealis. She was first married to Magnentius, who ruled as anti-emperor 350-353 Roman West. Zosimus and John of Antioch, according to the marriage remained childless because Justina was still too young. 370 she married Valentinian I.. For the emperor, it was also the second marriage, from his first marriage he had already collected 367 co-emperor son Gratian. Justina and Valentinian had at least four children, the son of Valentinian II and the daughters Galla, Grata and Justa.
According to Ammianus Marcellinus, Zosimus and Philostorgius to Justina held at the death of Valentinian I on 17 November 375 in Sirmium on. She took over the regency for the first four years of Valentinian II, who succeeded in the west next to his half-brother and guardian Gratian, and took their residence in Milan. Justina was attached to Arianism, but was only after the death of her husband are active in church politics in favor of their faith. With Ambrose of Milan, the leader of the Nicene party in Italy, she was in bitter dispute.
Gratian defeated the usurper Magnus Maximus 383, which took power in Britain, Gaul, Hispania and Africa. Maximus, who ruled from Trier, was 384 by Theodosius I and - recognized by Valentinian and Justina as co-emperor, whose power range is limited now to Italy - willy- nilly.
387 Maximus broke the arrangement with Valentinian, crossed the Alps and marched on to Milan. Justina fled with her children to Thessaloniki to Theodosius. After Zosimus Justina this offered her daughter Galla to wife, if he would help Valentinian II back to his throne. Theodosius consented and married Galla towards the end of the year. In the summer of 388, Theodosius defeated the troops of Maximus, who had to arise in Aquileia and was executed on August 28. Justina died in the same year; the reinstatement of her son as emperor in the West she has not witnessed.
Swell
- Ammianus Marcellinus 30.10
- Socrates Scholasticus, Historia ecclesiastica, 4.30 (english)
- Zosimus 4.53 (english)