Fulvia
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- This article is about the Roman matron. For the holder of the most gender reassignment surgeries in the world, see Fulvia Celica Siguas Sandoval.
Fulvia (77 BC - 40 BC) was a Roman woman who lived in the first century BC. Fulvia (as she is known by the ancient sources) was born with the name Fulvia Flacca Bambula and is also known as Fulvia Bambaliae. She was born and raised either in Rome or Tusculum, Italy. Fulvia was a member of the Flacci branch, of the Fulvius gens of ancient Rome. The Fulvii family came from Tusculum. Although, various members of the family achieved the position of the consulship and have become senators, the family were of Plebs status. However the family, were highly respected by the Roman Patrician. Fulvia was a daughter and only child to Marcus Fulvius Flaccus Bambalio and Sempronia Gracchae. Her father Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, received the nickname Bambalio because of his hesitancy in his speech. Her paternal grandfather was Marcus Fulvius Flaccus (consul 125 BC), was an ally to the Roman Politicians Tiberius Gracchus and Gaius Gracchus.
Her maternal grandparents were Gaius Gracchus and Licinia Crassa. Through her maternal grandfather, she is a great-niece to Tiberius Gracchus, a descendant of Roman General Scipio Africanus and Roman General Lucius Aemilius Paulus Macedonicus. Through her maternal grandmother, she is a descendant of the Licinius (gens) and Claudius (gens).
Her mother died in 63 BC. Fulvia became the heiress to the Gracchi estate and became very wealthy. Her father was still alive, when she married Publius Clodius Pulcher.
Fulvia was the first non mythological woman to appear on Roman coins. According to Plutarch, Fulvia had no interest in spinning nor managing a household nor to rule a husband with no ambition for public life, Fulvia wanted to govern or to command and be a command-in-chief. Fulvia will be remembered in the history of the late Roman Republic, for her political ambition and activity. The historian states, that Greek Ptolemaic Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt, is indebted to Fulvia for teaching Mark Antony to obey the authority of a wife.
Her first husband was Publius Clodius Pulcher, a demagogue politician famous for causing instability in Rome's internal affairs, often involved in conspiracies and known to resort to violence. It is said that Fulvia financially supported her husband's career and inspired most of his actions. Fulvia bore him a daughter called Clodia Pulchra. Clodius was killed by Titus Annius Milo in a battle that erupted between these sworn enemies and their retainers in a chance encounter at Bovillae outside Rome in 52 BC, leaving Fulvia a widow.
Her widowhood did not last long. Afterwards, she married Gaius Scribonius Curio, an influential and talented tribune whose defection to Caesar in exchange for an enormous bribe swung the balance in Julius Caesar's favor in his struggle with the Senate in 50 BC. At the outbreak of the Civil War Caesar entrusted Curio with an expedition to conquer Africa, but through overconfidence he allowed himself to be outmaneuvered by King Juba I of Numidia and he and his troops were annihilated--the only serious defeat suffered by Caesar's forces during the Civil War. Curio was killed in 49 BC.
Fulvia's own political career started with her third marriage, to future Roman Triumvir Mark Antony. Plutarch said that she needed husbands with an active political profile and the ambitious Antony was highly qualified. As Clodius had done previously, Antony was happy to accept her money to boost his career. Antony, changed the name of the Ancient Greek city of Eunemia or Eumeneia to Fulvia, in honor of her.
Fulvia bore Antony two sons Marcus Antonius Antyllus Creticus (47 BC - 1 August 30 BC) and Iullus Antonius Creticus (45 BC - 2 BC). Antyllus has her father’s first name or praenomina.
Following Julius Caesar's assassination in March 15, 44 BC, Antony formed the second triumvirate with Octavian (future Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus) and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and embarked on a savage proscription. To solidify the political alliance, Fulvia offered her daughter, Clodia, to young Octavian as wife. Antony pursued his political enemies, chief among them being Marcus Tullius Cicero, who had criticized him openly for abusing his powers as consul after Caesar's assassination. In the proscription, Antony dispatched search parties to Cicero's country homes to track him down. He was found and beheaded by a Roman centurion, Herennius, whom Cicero had previously defended successfully in a murder trial, after his whereabouts were revealed by a young slave to whom Cicero had shown special favor. Antony exhibited Cicero's head and hands at the rostra in the Forum.
Fulvia was happy to take revenge against Cicero for Antony's sake, but also in revenge for Publius Clodius Pulcher, her first husband, also an earlier victim of Cicero's sharp rhetoric. Cassius Dio describes the joy with which she pierced the tongue of the dead Cicero with her golden hairpins, as a final revenge against Cicero's power of speech.
Shortly afterwards, triumvirs then distributed the provinces among them. Lepidus took the west and Antony went to the province of Egypt, where he met Cleopatra. Octavian remained in Italy, where he was busy taking lands from Italians and giving them to the triumvirate veterans.
These actions caused political and social unrest, but when Octavian asked for a divorce from Clodia. After Octavian and Clodia divorced, Fulvia saw this as an insult to her family and she decided to take action. Together with Lucius Antonius, Mark Antony's brother, she raised eight legions in Italy to fight for Antony's rights against Octavian. The army occupied Rome for a short time, but eventually retreated to Perusia (modern Perugia). Octavian besieged Fulvia and Lucius Antonius in the winter of 41 - 40 BC, starving them into surrender. Fulvia was exiled to Sicyon, where she died of a sudden illness, while Antony was en route to meet her.
Her death opened a space for Octavian and Antony to reconcile. Now a widower, Antony married Octavian's second elder sister Octavia Minor. The fate of Fulvia’s daughter after her divorce is unknown. Her son Antyllus was beheaded by Octavian in Alexandria, Egypt in 30 BC. Her youngest child Iullus, was raised from 40 BC, by Octavia Minor. Iullus married Octavia’s daughter and Octavian's niece Claudia Marcella Major and they had two children a son Lucius Antonius Creticus and a daughter Iulla Antonia. Coinage of Fulvia can be seen at [1]
