Claudia Marcella

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Claudia Marcella or Marcella was the name of the two daughters of Octavia Minor, the sister of Emperor Augustus, from her first husband, the consul Gaius Claudius Marcellus Minor.

According to Suetonius, they were known as The Marcellae sisters. The sisters were born in Rome. Between 40-36 BC, they lived with their mother and their step-father Mark Antony in Athens, Greece. After 36 BC, they accompanied their mother, as she returned to Rome with their siblings. They were raised and educated by their mother, their maternal uncle and their aunt Livia Drusilla.

We know very little of these two daughters of Octavia Minor. The names of the husbands of the younger Marcella are not even known with certainty and have been conjectured on the basis of inscriptions and literary sources.

The elder, (Claudia) Marcella Major (PIR² C 1102) also called Marcella the Elder (b. 41 BC, perhaps as soon as 53 BC), was married in 28 BC to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, close friend of Augustus, to whom she bore children (Suetonius, Vita Augustii, 63.1). Their only child was Vipsania Marcella Agrippina, who was the first wife to the Roman General Publius Quinctilius Varus. In 21 BC, Agrippa divorced Marcella to marry Augustus' daughter Julia the Elder recently widowed from her first husband, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, Marcella's elder brother. Marcella then married Iullus Antonius, the son of Mark Antony, who was later exiled for adultery with Julia. According to Plutarch, Octavia took Marcella (after divorcing Agrippa) back to her house and made her marry Iullus Antonius, who was held in high regard by Augustus. Iullus Antonius and Marcella had children (Tacitus, Annals 4.44), including a son Lucius Antonius and a daughter, Iulla Antonia (cf. PIR² sub A 800; Raepsaet-Charlier, nr. 78, p. 95). After Iullus' death, Claudia married Sextus Appuleius, the consul of 14. In 17, their daughter Appuleia Varilla was charged with adultery and speaking insultingly about the imperial family. Although she was acquitted, her loved Manlius was banished from Italy and Africa.

Her younger sister, (Claudia) Marcella Minor (PIR² C 1103) or Marcella the Younger (b. 40 BC), was born after her father's death. This Marcella first married Lucius Aemilius Lepidus Paullus, consul in 34 BC to whom she bore a daughter Claudia Pulchra. Pulchra was the second wife of the ill-fated governor of Germania Publius Quinctilius Varus. Paullus died in 13 BC.

Her second husband was Marcus Valerius Messalla Messallinus, Roman senator who was twice consul. Their son Marcus Valerius Messalla Barbatus (PIR¹ V 88), who would become the father of the infamous Roman Empress Valeria Messalina, third wife of the Roman Emperor Claudius.

[edit] References

• E. Klebs, H. Dessau, P. Von Rohden (ed.), Prosopographia Imperii Romani, 3 vol., Berlin, 1897-1898. (PIR¹)
• E. Groag, A. Stein, L. Petersen - e.a. (edd.), Prosopographia Imperii Romani saeculi I, II et III, Berlin, 1933 - . (PIR²)
• Raepsaet-Charlier M.-Th., Prosopographie des femmes de l'ordre sénatorial (Ier-IIe siècles), 2 vol., Louvain, 1987, 633 ff.