Roman Imperial Diva Marciana [sister of Trajan]

Ulpia Marciana​

A public expression of his devotion to his family, Trajan's relatives were portrayed on his coinage to an extent not seen since the Julio-Claudian emperors. Both his natural father Marcus Ulpius Traianus and adoptive father Nerva are commemorated on his coinage, and Trajan also extended the honour to his living relatives, namely his sister Marciana, his wife Plotina and his niece Matidia. Trajan and his elder sister Marciana maintained a particularly close relationship. The deep affection that existed between them is evident in Trajan's decision to award her the title of Augusta, the first sister of an emperor ever to receive the title. Marciana thus became part of the imperial iconography, and her statue was placed, together with those of Trajan and his wife Plotina, over the Arches of Trajan in Ancona.

Marciana would often travel with her brother and assist him in decision making. Throughout the Roman Empire, she was honoured with monuments and inscriptions, and Trajan founded two towns named after her: Colonia Marciana Ulpia Traiana Thamugadi founded in 100 and Marcianopolis founded in 106. If there had been any doubt of the esteem in which Trajan held his beloved sister, it must surely have been dispelled when upon her death, sometime between 113 and 114, she was deified by the Senate at Trajan's behest.

It is on this posthumous coinage of Marciana that the reverse legend CONSECRATIO is first utilised, and it was thereafter frequently employed for posthumous coinages of deified Augusti and Augustae. Following Marciana's death, her daughter Matidia was raised to the rank of Augusta in her stead, and coinage was struck in her name also. Through Matidia, Marciana would be the great-great-great grandmother of the future emperor Marcus Aurelius.