Imagine being married to one of the most famous philosophers in history—Marcus Aurelius, the Stoic emperor who wrote Meditations—and everyone in Rome is gossiping that you're sleeping with gladiators.
That was the life of Faustina the Younger, Roman empress from 161 to 175 A.D. She was accused of having affairs with soldiers, sailors, and most scandalously, gladiators. And when her husband found out? According to ancient sources, he had the gladiator killed and made Faustina bathe in his blood before having sex with her—because apparently, that was supposed to "cure" her lust.
Yes, you read that right. Gladiator. Blood. Bath.
Whether the story is true or not (historians are skeptical), it's one of the wildest tales from ancient Rome. And it says a lot about how Romans viewed women, sex, and gladiators.
Faustina the Younger was born in 130 A.D. into one of the most powerful families in Rome. Her father was Emperor Antoninus Pius, who ruled from 138 to 161 A.D. Her mother was Faustina the Elder, also an empress. So Faustina grew up in the imperial palace, surrounded by wealth, power, and politics.
When she was around 15 years old, her father arranged for her to marry her cousin, Marcus Aurelius. Yes, her cousin. That was normal in Roman imperial families—they wanted to keep power within the bloodline.
Marcus Aurelius would later become one of Rome's most famous emperors, known for his Stoic philosophy and his book Meditations. But when he married Faustina, he was just the heir apparent. Together, they had 12 to 14 children (sources vary), though only six survived to adulthood: five daughters and one son.
That son was Commodus, who would later become emperor and go down in history as one of Rome's worst rulers. But we'll get to that.
Throughout her life, Faustina was dogged by rumors of adultery. Ancient sources claim she had affairs with soldiers, sailors, and—most notoriously—gladiators.
Why gladiators? Because in ancient Rome, gladiators were sex symbols.
Think of them like modern professional athletes or action movie stars. They were muscular, dangerous, and fought to the death in front of roaring crowds. Roman women—especially wealthy noblewomen—were obsessed with them. According to That Muse, "In the Roman times, gladiators were seen as sex symbols and as an aphrodisiac. Rich women in the Roman Empire would swoon over the gladiators. Some hired them as body guards to protect them, as well as have affairs with them."
So the idea of an empress having an affair with a gladiator wasn't just scandalous—it was also kind of... predictable. Gladiators were the ultimate forbidden fantasy for Roman noblewomen.
But were the rumors true?
Probably not. As That Muse points out, the rumors were "probably false and created by Faustina's biggest enemies." In ancient Rome, powerful women were constantly accused of sexual misconduct as a way to discredit them. It was a political weapon.
But the rumors stuck. And they became part of Faustina's legacy.
Here's where the story gets truly bizarre.
According to the Historia Augusta—an ancient Roman text that's part history, part gossip column—Faustina fell madly in love with a gladiator. She became so obsessed that she got sick from longing. Eventually, she confessed her passion to her husband, Marcus Aurelius.
Marcus, being a Stoic philosopher, didn't fly into a rage. Instead, he consulted the Chaldeans—Babylonian astrologers and soothsayers who were popular in Rome. They told him there was a way to "cure" Faustina's lust: kill the gladiator, have Faustina bathe in his blood, and then have sex with her.
The Historia Augusta describes it like this: "On a certain occasion, it was said, Faustina, the daughter of Pius and wife of Marcus, saw some gladiators pass by, and was inflamed for love of one of them; and afterwards, when suffering from a long illness, she confessed the passion to her husband. And when Marcus reported this to the Chaldeans, it was their advice that Faustina should bathe in his blood and thus couch with her husband."
So Marcus allegedly had the gladiator executed. Faustina was then forced to bathe in the dead man's blood. Afterward, she and Marcus had sex, and supposedly, her passion for the gladiator was "cured" and transferred back to her husband.
It's like a twisted ancient Roman love spell.
Almost certainly not.
The Historia Augusta is notoriously unreliable. It's filled with provable falsehoods, gossip, and embellishments. Historians treat it more like ancient tabloid journalism than actual history.
More importantly, the story contradicts everything we know about Marcus Aurelius. He was a Stoic philosopher who believed in self-control, rationality, and forgiveness. The historian Cassius Dio—a much more reliable source—wrote that Marcus "refrained from all offences and did nothing amiss whether voluntarily or involuntarily; but the offences of the others, particularly those of his wife, he tolerated, and neither inquired into them nor punished them."
In other words, Marcus ignored Faustina's alleged affairs. He didn't punish her. He certainly didn't force her to bathe in gladiator blood.
The Historia Augusta itself admits the story is gossip. It says the Chaldeans' advice is something "they embroider this assertion, moreover, with a story current among the people..." Translation: "This is what people are saying, but we can't verify it."
So why did the story spread?
Because people love scandal. And because Faustina's son, Commodus, turned out to be a terrible emperor who was obsessed with gladiators. He even fought in the arena himself, which was considered disgraceful for an emperor. Romans started whispering that maybe Commodus wasn't Marcus Aurelius' son at all—maybe he was the son of Faustina's gladiator lover. That would explain why he acted so differently from his philosopher father.
It's a juicy theory, but there's no evidence for it.
To understand why the rumors focused on gladiators, you have to understand what gladiators represented in Roman culture.
Gladiators were slaves or criminals forced to fight to the death for public entertainment. They were at the absolute bottom of Roman society. But paradoxically, they were also celebrities. They had fan clubs. Women would collect their sweat (yes, really) and use it as an aphrodisiac. Graffiti in Pompeii calls certain gladiators "the delight of all the girls."
For a noblewoman—especially an empress—to have an affair with a gladiator was the ultimate taboo. It was crossing every social boundary imaginable. It was like a modern queen running off with a convicted felon. That's why the rumor was so scandalous and so persistent.
And it wasn't just Faustina. Other Roman noblewomen were accused of the same thing. It was a common stereotype: rich women lusting after dangerous, low-class gladiators.
The gladiator wasn't the only man Faustina was accused of sleeping with.
Ancient sources claim she had affairs with soldiers and sailors. One particularly damaging rumor involved Avidius Cassius, a powerful Roman general. Some sources claim Faustina encouraged Cassius to rebel against Marcus Aurelius and declare himself emperor. The implication was that she was having an affair with Cassius and wanted to make him emperor so she could rule with him instead of her husband.
There's no solid evidence for this either. But the rumor was so widespread that when Cassius was killed, some people suspected Faustina had ordered his assassination to cover up the affair.
She was also accused of ordering other executions and poisonings. The Historia Augusta paints her as a scheming, murderous empress who manipulated her husband and killed her enemies.
Again, most historians think this is exaggerated or outright false. Powerful women in ancient Rome were routinely accused of sexual misconduct and murder. It was a way to undermine their influence.
Here's what's really interesting: Marcus Aurelius never publicly condemned Faustina.
In fact, he seems to have loved her deeply. They were married for over 30 years and had at least a dozen children together. When she died in 175 A.D., Marcus was devastated. He had her deified—declared a goddess—and buried her in the Mausoleum of Hadrian in Rome. He also founded a charity for orphaned girls in her name.
In his Meditations, Marcus thanks the gods for giving him a wife who was "obedient, affectionate, and simple." Whether he actually believed that or was just putting on a good public face, we'll never know.
But the fact remains: if Marcus really believed Faustina was cheating on him with gladiators, he didn't punish her. He didn't divorce her. He didn't have her executed (which emperors absolutely could do). He stayed with her until she died, and then he honored her memory.
That doesn't sound like a man who forced his wife to bathe in gladiator blood.
True or not, the rumors about Faustina have lasted for nearly 2,000 years.
She's remembered not for her political influence, her charity work, or her role as empress, but for the scandalous stories about her sex life. That's partly because ancient Roman historians were obsessed with the private lives of powerful women. And it's partly because the story of the gladiator blood bath is just too wild to forget.
As That Muse puts it, "In a life of scandalous love affairs, executions, and rumors, Faustina's story would be at home on reality TV today."
And they're right. If Faustina lived now, she'd be the subject of a Netflix documentary, a true crime podcast, and a million TikTok conspiracy theories.
So what's the real story?
We'll probably never know for sure. Ancient sources are contradictory, biased, and often unreliable. What we do know is this:
Faustina the Younger was a powerful empress who lived in a world that was deeply suspicious of powerful women. She was married to one of Rome's greatest emperors and gave birth to one of its worst. She was accused of adultery, murder, and treason—accusations that were probably exaggerated or invented by her enemies.
The story of the gladiator blood bath is almost certainly false. But it tells us something important about ancient Rome: how they viewed women, how they viewed gladiators, and how they used sexual scandal as a political weapon.
Faustina's real crime wasn't sleeping with gladiators. It was being a woman with power in a world that didn't trust women with power.
Historia Augusta - Life of Marcus Aurelius (University of Chicago)
That Muse - "Keeping Up With Faustina the Younger: A Tale of Love Affairs, Executions, & Rumors"
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