Name. Domitia Lucilla, daughter of P. Calvisius Tullus Ruso (consul 109). On her mother's side, the granddaughter of Domitia Lucilla Maior (that is, she bears her maternal grandmother's name; an additional source of confusion, and in modern literature she is usually called Domitia Lucilla Minor for disambiguation). She inherited both the name and the colossal fortune of her grandmother, who had in turn received it from her own father, Cn. Domitius Lucanus, through a complex adoption and inheritance arrangement (see Eck 1978 on the legal details).

Family. Her husband was M. Annius Verus the younger (see marcus-annius-verus-the-younger), a praetor who died around 124. Their children were Marcus (the future emperor, born 26 April 121) and Annia Cornificia Faustina (Marcus's younger sister). After her husband's death she remained a widow and did not remarry. Marcus's upbringing was undertaken in the first place by his consular grandfather M. Annius Verus the elder, into whose house Marcus formally passed by adoption; but Domitia Lucilla continued to be for Marcus a figure of everyday maternal presence — to judge both from 01-03 and from Fronto's correspondence (in which Marcus regularly enquires about his mother's health and sends his regards to her).

Fortune. Through the maternal line she inherited the figlinae — brick and tile workshops in the environs of Rome, especially a large complex on the right bank of the Tiber by the Via Tiburtina. The products of these workshops (stamped bricks and tiles bearing the legend ex figlinis Domitiae Lucillae and derivative formulae) are archaeologically documented in great quantity throughout the centre of the empire — the principal building material of the second century for large civic and private projects in Rome and Latium, including state works under Hadrian and Antoninus. This made her one of the wealthiest private individuals in Rome and a major economic player in the Roman construction market. After her death the figlinae passed to Marcus, and from there to the imperial fiscus.

Education and Greek culture. She was fluent in Greek, both in writing and in conversation (more than average for a Roman matron of her generation, though not unique). Fronto's correspondence contains letters addressed to her personally in Greek — a characteristic sign that correspondence with her did not require the mediation of Latin. She regularly received Greek philosophers, rhetoricians, and grammarians in her house. Through this domestic environment Marcus, already in childhood, absorbed bilingualism and Greek philosophical culture, which prepared him for the more systematic instruction under Junius Rusticus, Apollonius, and Sextus (see the corresponding passages 01-07 through 01-09).

Death. The date is not securely known. Birley, on the basis of indirect indications, gives a range 155–161 — after this Lucilla's name ceases to appear in Fronto's correspondence; the terminus ante quem is the beginning of Marcus's reign (161), by which point she was no longer alive.

• 01-03 — the only direct mention in the Meditations, with the four virtues ascribed to her.
• 01-17 — in the closing thanksgiving paragraph Marcus mentions "τὸ τυχεῖν τοιαύτης μητρός" ("that I came to have such a mother") among the goods for which he gives thanks to fortune and the gods; a secondary, more general reference.

• SHA Marcus 1.3, 1.10 — brief references to the mother.
• Fronto, Ad M. Caesarem and Ad Antoninum Imperatorem, ed. M. P. J. van den Hout, M. Cornelii Frontonis Epistulae (Teubner, 2nd ed., 1988) — the principal modern critical text; letters to Domitia Lucilla — Ad M. Caes. 2.15 and passim.
• PIR² D 183 — the standard prosopographical entry.
• A. Birley, Marcus Aurelius: A Biography, rev. ed., Routledge, 2000 — ch. 2 ("The Family"), pp. 28–46; the detailed modern treatment.
• W. Eck, "Domitia Lucilla," in Der Neue Pauly — a brief academic notice with literature.
• T. Helen, Organization of Roman Brick Production in the First and Second Centuries A.D., Helsinki 1975 — the standard study of the figlinae Domitiae Lucillae and their place in the Roman building economy.
• E. M. Steinby, "L'industria laterizia di Roma nel tardo impero," in Società romana e impero tardoantico, ed. A. Giardina (Laterza, 1986), vol. II — for the long-term context of the brick industry.
• E. Champlin, Fronto and Antonine Rome, Harvard, 1980 — chapter on the women in Fronto's circle; analysis of the letters to Domitia Lucilla.
• A. R. Birley, "The Wives of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius", Klio 79 (1997) — a reconstruction of the women in Marcus's milieu, with a section on the mother.