Vibia Sabina: Empress, Wife of Hadrian

I bet that if you think of Emperor Hadrian, you think about his great wall in the north of England. Possibly you might think of the Roman decadence of villas and statues made from marble. Yet beside him, often erased from the narrative, stood Vibia Sabina, his wife and Rome’s empress for more than four decades.

Her likeness survives on hundreds of coins, but her voice does not. She remains one of antiquity’s most silent women.