A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

the wife of the emperor Trajan, was, according to the concurrent testimony of all the writers who mention her, a woman of extraordinary merits and virtue. As she ascended the steps of the palace after her husband's accession, she turned round to the people, and took them to witness that she always desired to be the same as she was then; and throughout her life her conduct was regulated by this principle. She also increased the popularity of Trajan by repressing the exactions of the procurators. As she had no children, she persuaded her husband to adopt Hadrian, to whom she was much attached; but the statement of Dio Cassius, that her intercourse with Hadrian was of a criminal character, is opposed to all that we know of her character. Plotina survived her husband and died in the reign of Hadrian, who honoured her memory by mourning for her nine days, by building a temple in her honour, and by composing hymns in her praise. Hadrian likewise erected in honour of her a magnificent temple at Nemausus in Gaul. (D. C. 68.5, 69.1, 10; Plin. Paneg. 83, 84 ; Aur. Vict. Epit. 42.21; Spartian. Hadr. 4, 12.) In the coin annexed Plotina is called Augusta, but in what year she received that title is uncertain. When Pliny pronounced his Panegyric, that is, in A. D. 100, she had not yet obtained it (Pang. 84); but an ancient inscription informs us that she was so called in A. D. 105. (Eckhel, vol. vi. p. 465.)