After her father's death in 84, Sabina and her half-sister Matidia Minor went to live with their maternal grandmother, Marciana. They were raised in the household of Sabina's great uncle Trajan and his wife 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.
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.[1] In 128, she was awarded the title of 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."[2][3] 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.
Vibia Sabina died before her husband, some time in 136 or early 137.[4] There is a strong ancient tradition that Hadrian treated his wife little better than a slave, and may have driven her to suicide.[1] However other sources say he had great respect for her.
Arelief commissioned by Hadrian "depicts the apotheosis, or divine ascent of Sabina in accordance with her posthumous deification on the order of Hadrian."[5] 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 Palazzo dei Conservatori.
^The epitomator of Cassius Dio (72.22) gives the story that Faustina the Elder promised to marry Avidius Cassius. This is also echoed in HA"Marcus Aurelius" 24.
Giacosa, Giorgio (1977). Women of the Caesars: Their Lives and Portraits on Coins. Translated by R. Ross Holloway. Milan: Edizioni Arte e Moneta. ISBN0-8390-0193-2.
Lambert, Royston (1984). Beloved and God: The Story of Hadrian and Antinous. New York: Viking. ISBN0-670-15708-2.
(in French) 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. 169–188.
Italics indicates a consort to a junior co-emperor, underlining indicates a consort to an emperor variously regarded as either legitimate or a usurper, and bold incidates an empress regnant.
