Justina (empress)

Justina (c. 340 – c. 391) was the second wife of the Roman Emperor Valentinian I (reigned 364–375) and the mother of Valentinian II (reigned 375–392), Galla, Grata and Justa.

Justina was a daughter of Justus, governor of Picenum under Constantius II. According to Socrates of Constantinople: "Justus the father of Justina, who had been governor of Picenum under the reign of Constantius, had a dream in which he seemed to himself to bring forth the imperial purple out of his right side. When this dream had been told to many persons, it at length came to the knowledge of Constantius, who conjecturing it to be a presage that a descendant of Justus would become emperor, caused him to be assassinated."

Justina had two known brothers, Constantius and Cerealis. One of her daughters was named Galla. In La Pseudobigamie de Valentinien I (1958), J. Rougé argues all three names were representative of their descent from the Neratius family, an aristocratic family connected to the Constantinian dynasty through marriage. According to the Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire the names Justus and Justina may also indicate a relation to the Vettus family.

The Prosopography mentions a theory that Justus was a son of Vettius Justus, Consul in 328, and a woman of the Neratius family. The latter family produced four relatively notable members in the early 4th century, siblings or half-siblings to each other. The first was Galla, wife of Julius Constantius and mother of Constantius Gallus. Her brothers were Naeratius Cerealis, Consul in 358 and Vulcacius Rufinus, Praetorian prefect of Italy from 365 to his death in 368. An unnamed sister was mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus as mother of Maximus, praefectus urbi of Rome under Julian the Apostate.

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