Lucilla
daughter of M. Aurelius and the younger Faustina, was born about A. D. 147. Upon the death of Antoninus Pius, in A. D. 161, she was betrothed to the emperor, L. Verus, who was at that time setting out upon an expedition against the Parthians, and joined her husband at Ephesus three years later. After his death, which happened in A. D. 169, hastened, according to Capitolinus (M. Aurel. 100.26), by poison front her hands, she was given in marriage to Claudius Pompeianus, a native of Antioch, who, although of equestrian rank only, was much esteemed on account of his great abilities and high character. Lucilla accompanied M. Aurelius to the East at the period of the rebellion of Avidius Cassius; and after her father's death, was treated with much distinction by her brother, Commodus; but being jealous of the superior honours paid to his empress, Crispina, and eager to get rid of a husband, whom she despised, as far inferior to herself, she engaged in a plot against the life of the prince, which, having been detected, she was banished to the island ot Capreae. and there put to death, about the year A. D. 183. The story of her having been accessory to the death of Verus rests upon no good evidence, but in general profligacy she seems to have been a worthy descendant of the Faustinae, and a worthy sister to Commodus.
Historians do not expressly mention that she had children by her first husband; yet the legend, Fecunditas, which appears upon some of her medals, although the date of these may be uncertain, would lead to the conclusion that their union was not unfruitful; and since the Claudius Pompeianus who undertook to assassinate Commodus is called her son-in-law, it is manifest that the daughter whom he married must have been born of Verus, for the death of Lucilla happened thirteen years only after her second marriage. By Pompeianus she had a son named Pompeianus, who rose to great distinction under Caracalla. [Pompeianus.] (D. C. 71.1, 72.4; Capitolin. M. Aurel. 7, Ver. 2; Lamprid. Commod. 4, 5.)
[W.R]
otherwise Domitia Calvilla, the wife of Annius Verus, and mother of M. Aurelius. (Capitolin. M. Aurel. 1.6 ; Spartian. Did. Jul. ].) [W.R]
was, according to some numismatologists, the name of the daughter of Nigrinus, the wife of Aelius Caesar. There seem, however, to be no good grounds for this assertion; and the coins adduced as belonging to her ought to be assigned to Annia Lucilla. (Eckhel, vol. vi. p. 527.) [W.R]
A daughter of the emperor Marcus Aurelius and of Faustina, born A.D. 146. At the age of seventeen she was given in marriage to Lucius Verus, at that time commanding the Roman armies in Syria. Verus came as far as Ephesus to meet her, and the union was celebrated in that city, but, habituated to debauchery, Verus soon relapsed into his former mode of life; and Lucilla, finding herself neglected, took a woman's revenge, and entered on a career of similar licentiousness. Returning subsequently with her husband to Rome, she caused him to be poisoned there; and afterwards, in accordance with her father's directions, contracted a second marriage with Claudius Pompeianus, an aged senator, of great merit and probity. Her licentious conduct, however, underwent no change, and she was banished to the island of Capreae by her brother Commodus, against whom she had formed a conspiracy. Not long after, Commodus sent a centurion to her place of exile, who put her to death, in the thirty-eighth year of her age, A.D. 184 (Dio Cass. lxxi. 1; lxxii. 4; Aurel. 7).