In the year 221, Roman Emperor Elagabalus was induced to end his highly controversial and politically damaging marriage to the Vestal Virgin Aquilia Severa by powerful courtiers, led by his grandmother Julia Maesa. In its place he was advised to marry Annia Aurelia Faustina as an alliance with the powerful clan represented by her blood connections with the prior Nerva–Antonine dynasty. Annia Aurelia Faustina was recently widowed as her late husband, Pomponius Bassus, had been executed for subversion and treason.