Annia Galeria Faustina the Elder, sometimes referred to as Faustina I or Faustina Major (c. 100[3][6] – late October 140), was a Roman empress and wife of the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius. The emperor Marcus Aurelius was her nephew and later became her adopted son, along with Emperor Lucius Verus. She died early in the principate of Antoninus Pius, but continued to be prominently commemorated as a diva, posthumously playing a prominent symbolic role during his reign.
 
Faustina died near Rome in 140, perhaps at Antoninus Pius's estate at Lorium.[22] Antoninus was devastated at Faustina's death and took several steps to honor her memory. He had the Senate deify her (her apotheosis was portrayed on an honorary column) and dedicate the Temple of Faustina to her in the Roman Forum.Because of this, Faustina was the first Roman empress with a permanent presence in the Forum Romanum.[23] The Senate authorized gold and silver statues of her, including an image to appear in the circus,[24] where it might be displayed in a carpentum (a kind of covered wagon) or currus elephantorum (a cart drawn by elephants).[25] Antoninus also ordered various coins with her portrait struck, inscribed DIVA FAVSTINA ("Divine Faustina") and elaborately decorated. He also established a charity called Puellae Faustinianae ("Girls of Faustina") to assist orphaned Roman girls and created a new alimenta (see Grain supply to the city of Rome).[26] Her remains were interred in the Mausoleum of Hadrian.[27][28] Certain cities struck coin issues in honour of the "divine Faustina" (Ancient Greek: ΘΕΑ ΦΑΥϹΤΕΙΝΑ);[29] the most notable such cities were Delphi, Alexandria, Bostra, and Nicopolis. Martin Beckmann suggests that the coins of Nicopolis might have been minted at Rome and given out as imperial largesse at the Actian Games.[31] The coins issued in the wake of Faustina's funeral illustrate her elaborate funeral pyre, which may have influenced the design of later private mausolea  the deities Pietas and Aeternitas, among others;[33] and an eagle (or less often a winged genius) bearing a figure aloft, with the legend CONSECRATIO (i.e. Faustina's ascension into heaven).Coins of Faustina were sometimes incorporated into jewellery and worn as amulets.