FAUSTA, FLAVIA MASSIMA. — Daughter of the Emperor MAXIMIAN, born probably in Rome in 289. When Galerius proposed to suppress the usurpation of MAXENTIUS, the latter, to defend himself, persuaded his father MAXIMIAN to resume the purple.
The Albunean spring of Tivoli is the source. The F. are a popular multiplication of his figure.
Deposed in 305 by the abdication imposed by DIOCLETIAN, FAUSTA was offered in marriage by MAXIMIAN to the Caesar of the Gauls, CONSTANTINE, to secure his support against Galerius.
The nuptial ceremony took place in Gaul in 307, and Eumenius delivered on that occasion a panegyric that has been preserved (Paneg. Lat., VI). Naturally, the marriage of the not yet ten-year-old girl was symbolic; the first actual son, CONSTANTIUS II, was not born until ten years later, since the two elder sons of CONSTANTINE, CRISPUS and CONSTANTINE II, were born of concubines. Six years later the last son, CONSTANS, was born, and three years after that (326) a dark tragedy cast a gloomy shadow over the fortunate empire of CONSTANTINE. Within a short time the young CRISPUS and his stepmother FAUSTA were put to death by imperial order; in the great murmur that arose, the two deaths were attributed to a single cause, and the story of HIPPOLYTUS and PHAEDRA was too well known among the people for any other explanation of the exception to be sought.