Claudia Marcella Major
SpouseMarcus Vipsanius Agrippa
Iullus Antonius
Issueby Agrippa
Vipsania Marcella Major
Vipsania Marcella Minor (disputed)
by Iullus
Iulla Antonia
Iullus Antonius
Lucius Antonius
HouseJulio-Claudian
FatherGaius Claudius Marcellus
MotherOctavia the Younger
Roman imperial dynasties
Julio-Claudian dynasty
Chronology
27 BC – AD 14
AD 14–37
AD 37–41
AD 41–54
AD 54–68
Preceded by
Roman Republic		 Followed by
Year of the Four Emperors

Claudia Marcella Major[a] (PIR2 C 1102; born some time before 40 BC) was the senior niece of Roman emperor Augustus, being the eldest daughter of his sister Octavia the Younger and her first husband Gaius Claudius Marcellus. She became the second wife of Augustus' foremost general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and after that the wife of Iullus Antonius, the son of Mark Antony.

Biography

Early life

Marcella belonged to the generation whose childhood was marred by the violence of the civil wars of the Roman Republic.[3] She was likely the first child of her parents, being followed by her brother Marcus Claudius Marcellus and sister Claudia Marcella Minor. From her mother's second marriage to Mark Antony she would also gain two half sisters, Antonia the Elder and Antonia the Younger.

Marriages

Marcella's first known marriage was to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa in 28 BC. She was his second wife.[3] Augustus held Agrippa in the highest place of honor.[5] Agrippa was a military man loyal to Octavian throughout the civil war.[3] The marriage of Marcella and Agrippa probably occurred because of the strong bond between the two men.[6] Marcella brought Agrippa a tie to an elite republican family and to Augustus himself, for she was Augustus's niece.[3] Although Agrippa was older than Marcella but austere, he appeared to be a good husband to Marcella.[3]

Marcella and Agrippa had children,[7] however it is uncertain how many overall and how many of them survived to adulthood. It is likely based on the wording in Suetonius Augustus that they have children of both sexes.[8][9] There appears to have been at least one daughter who married Publius Quinctilius Varus,[3] sometimes retrospectively called Vipsania Marcella, in order to differentiate her from her father's other daughters. They might also have had a second daughter who married a Lepidus. Some people such as John Pollini also believe that they had at least one son together, whom he identifies as a young boy next to Agrippa on the Ara Pacis.[10][11]

In 23 BC the brother of Marcella, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, died and thus widowed Marcella's maternal cousin Julia the Elder.[5] In 21 BC, Agrippa divorced Marcella to marry Julia the daughter of Augustus.[5] After Marcella divorced Agrippa, Octavia Minor received Marcella back in her house.[5] Octavia Minor married Marcella to the future consul Iullus Antonius, the second son of Mark Antony from his third wife Fulvia who was held in high regard by Augustus.[5] Marcella bore Iullus Antonius at least one son named Lucius Antonius, they likely also had another son who might have died young,[12] named Iullus[13][14] and a daughter named Iulla Antonia.[15] Lucius was sent to study in Marseilles (not an official exile) sometime after the disgrace of his father. In 2 BC, Iullus Antonius was forced to commit suicide after being found guilty of adultery with Julia the Elder.

Prior to 1939, scholars believed that Marcella married another husband after the death of Iullus Antonius, namely the Roman Senator and cousin Sextus Appuleius, the grandson of Octavia Major—the older half-sister of her mother— but it has in modern times been accepted that this was not the case.[16]

Legacy

Marcelliopsis is a genus of flowering plants from Africa, belonging to the family Amaranthaceae that was named after her.[17]

Ancestry

See also

Notes

  1. ^ She is also known by the names Claudia Marcella Maior, Marcella Maior, Marcella Major,[1] Claudia Marcella the Elder and Marcella the Elder.[2][3][4]

References

  1. ^ Freisenbruch, Caesars' Wives: Sex, Power, and Politics in the Roman Empire, p. 277
  2. ^ Stern, Women, Children, and Senators on the Ara Pacis Augustae: A Study of Augustus' Vision of a New World Order in 13 BC, p.381
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Lightman, A to Z of Ancient Greek and Roman Women, p. 204
  4. ^ Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa article at Encyclopædia Britannica
  5. ^ a b c d e Plutarch, Mark Antony, 87
  6. ^ Kleiner, Cleopatra and Rome, p. 53
  7. ^ Suetonius, Augustus, 63
  8. ^ Torelli, Mario (1992). Typology & Structure of Roman Historical Reliefs. University of Michigan Press. p. 61. ISBN 9780472081714.
  9. ^ Buongiorno, Pierangelo; Cherchi, Alice (2020). "Origine, datazione e contenuto del senatus consultum Afinianum. Alcune ipotesi su un senatoconsulto enigmatico" (PDF). Teoria e Storia del Diritto Privato (in Italian) (XIII): 9. Trattandosi di una duplice adozione vi è motivo di ritenere che Agrippa avesse in potestà (almeno due) figli maschi nati dai precedenti matrimoni. Dal matrimonio con Pomponia Caecilia Attica ci risulta che avesse generato tre figlie e forse un figlio maschio, sappiamo invece che dal matrimonio con la nipote dell'imperatore, Claudia Marcella, aveva generato più figli (tunc Agrippa alteram Marcellarum habebat et ex ea liberos, annota Suet. Aug. 63.1; la formulazione suggerirebbe che ci fossero tanto figli maschi quanto figlie femmine). Cfr. PIR2 C 1102; PIR2 V 674. L'uso del termine 'liberi', peraltro al plurale, potrebbe suggerire che i figli fossero due o verosimilmente più di due, di genere diverso (quindi almeno uno, o più probabilmente due maschi).
  10. ^ Pollini, John (1986). "Ahenobarbi, Appuleii and Some Others on the Ara Pacis". American Journal of Archaeology. 90 (4): 453–460. doi:10.2307/506032. JSTOR 506032. S2CID 193071027.
  11. ^ Kleiner, Diana E. E.; Buxton, Bridget (2008). "Pledges of Empire: The Ara Pacis and the Donations of Rome". American Journal of Archaeology. 112 (1): 57–89. doi:10.3764/aja.112.1.57. JSTOR 40037244. S2CID 155502681.
  12. ^ Craven, Maxwell (2019). The Imperial Families of Ancient Rome. Fonthill Media.
  13. ^ Antonius. Stemma by Strachan
  14. ^ Kajava, Mika (1995). Roman Female Praenomina: Studies in the Nomenclature of Roman Women. Institutum Romanum Finlandiae (Rome). p. 155.
  15. ^ Syme, Ronald (1989). The Augustan Aristocracy (illustrated and revised ed.). Clarendon Press. p. 144. ISBN 9780198147312.
  16. ^ Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome: Genealogical Tables - Table 1: Family of Tiberius, p. 431.
  17. ^ "Marcelliopsis Schinz | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
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