Fadilla


Annia Aurelia Fadilla, most commonly known as Fadilla was one of the daughters born to Marcus Aurelius and his wife Faustina the Younger. She was a sister to Lucilla and Commodus. Fadilla was named in honor of her late maternal aunt Aurelia Fadilla. The cognomen Fadilla, was the cognomen of the mother and a half-sister of Antoninus Pius. Her maternal grandparents were Antoninus Pius and Faustina the Elder and her paternal grandparents were Domitia Lucilla and praetor Marcus Annius Verus.

Life

Fadilla was born and raised in Rome. During the reign of her father, she married Marcus Peducaeus Plautius Quintillus, a Roman senator who later served twice as consul and as Augur, and who was a nephew of Roman emperor Lucius Verus. The mother of Plautius Quintillus was Ceionia Fabia, sister of Lucius Verus. Fadilla bore Marcus Peducaeus Plautius Quintillus two children: a son, Quintillus, and a daughter, Plautia Servilla.
When her father died in 180, her remaining brother Commodus succeeded him as Roman emperor. During Commodus' reign, Fadilla and her family lived in a private palace on Capitoline Hill in Rome which was later bestowed by the later Roman emperor Elagabalus as one of his mother's favorite residences. Her husband became one of Commodus' main advisers.
According to Herodian, Fadilla warned Commodus about Marcus Aurelius Cleander, a Praetorian prefect, who was becoming too powerful. With the help from one of her sisters, she uncovered and revealed a palace conspiracy aimed at the removal of Commodus in 189.