Athenais (daughter of Herodes Atticus) and the wealthy heiress Vibullia Alcia Agrippina, while her maternal grandparents were the Roman Senator, Consul Appius Annius Trebonius Gallus and the aristocratic woman Atilia Caucidia Tertulla. Her paternal uncle was Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodianus, while her paternal aunt was Claudia Tisamenis. The maternal uncle of Athenais was Appius Annius Atilius Bradua who served as an ordinary consul in 160. Through her maternal grandfather, Athenais was a relative to the Roman Empress Faustina the Elder, wife of the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius. Faustina the Elder was the mother of Roman Empress Faustina the Younger and aunt of Roman Emperor Marcus
Roman emperor then create a rival lineage of Roman emperors in western Europe, the Holy Roman Emperors, which ruled the Holy Roman Empire for most of the period between 800 and 1806. These Emperors were never recognized as Roman emperors by the court in Constantinople. Modern historians conventionally regard Augustus as the first Emperor whereas Julius Caesar is considered the last dictator of the Roman Republic, a view having its origins in the Roman writers Plutarch, Tacitus and Cassius Dio. However, the majority of Roman writers, including Josephus, Pliny the Younger, Suetonius and Appian, as well as most of the ordinary people