Flavia Maxima Fausta Augusta (c. 289 – 326 AD) was a Roman empress. She was the daughter of Maximian and second wife of Constantine the Great, who had her executed and excluded from all official accounts for unknown reasons. Historians Zosimus and Zonaras reported that she was executed for adultery with her stepson, Crispus.
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Family
Fausta was the daughter of the emperor Maximian and his wife Eutropia. As her age is nowhere outright attested, scholarly estimates of her date of birth have ranged from 289/290 to the end of the 290s. To seal the alliance between them for control of the Tetrarchy, Maximian married her to Constantine I in 307.
Constantine at first tried to present Maximian's suicide as an unfortunate tragedy, but later started spreading another version where Fausta was involved in her father's downfall. Barnes observed that the story "shows clear signs of being invented during Constantine's war against Maxentius."
During her marriage, she had 5 children. Fausta held the title of nobilissima femina up until 324, when Constantine held her in high enough regard to grant her the title of augusta, which she received together with Constantine's mother Helena.
Execution
In 326, Fausta was put to death by Constantine, following the execution of Crispus, his eldest son by Minervina. The circumstances surrounding the two deaths were unclear. Various explanations have been suggested; in one, Fausta is set against Crispus, as in the anonymous Epitome de Caesaribus, or conversely her adultery, perhaps with the stepson who was close to her in age, is suggested.