Mucia Tertia

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Mucia Tertia was a Roman matrona that lived in the 1st century BC. She was the daughter of Quintus Mucius Scaevola, the pontifex maximus killed by Gaius Marius' supporters in 86 BC. Her mother was a Licinia that divorced her father to marry Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos, in a scandal mentioned by several sources. Her name, Mucia Tertia, suggests that she was a third daughter, according to the Roman naming convention for women. Mucia had also two younger brothers from her mother's second marriage (see Caecilius Metellus family tree).

Mucia was first married to Gaius Marius the Younger, consul in 82 BC, despite her young age. This was a time of civil war, when Lucius Cornelius Sulla had an army ready to march on Rome and their opponents needed a charismatic leader. Young Marius was not known as a talented general, but he had his father's (Gaius Marius) name to back him. Sulla won this civil war and Young Marius committed suicide, leaving Mucia a childless widow. According to the proscription laws, she was forbidden to marry again.

Soon after, Sulla, now dictator, changed his mind in respect to this young widow in particular. He needed to secure Pompey's loyalty and to do that, he arranged his marriage to Mucia around 79 BC. This marriage resulted in three children: Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey the younger), the girl Pompeia (married to Faustus Cornelius Sulla) and Sextus Pompeius.

Between 76 and 61 BC, Pompey spends most of the time away from Rome, campaigning in Hispania against Sertorius, in the Mediterranean Sea against the pirates and in the East, fighting king Mithridates VI of Pontus. On the final return, in 61 BC, Pompey sent Mucia a letter of divorce. According to Cicero's personal correspondence, the motive was adultery (it is said that she was one of Julius Caesar's many affairs). Mucia then disappears from the sources.