Salonia

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Salonia was a Roman woman who lived during the mid-2nd century BC who was the second wife of Cato the Elder. She was the young daughter of Salonius who was an under-secretary to Cato the Elder[1]. Following the death of his first wife, Cato began taking solace with a slave girl who secretly visited his bed [2].

However, his son Marcus Porcius Cato Licinianus and his son's wife disapproved of the relationship, so Cato decided to marry Salonia in order to solve the problem [3][4]. However, when Licinianus found out about it he complained that now his problem was with his father's marriage to Salonia [5]. Cato replied that he loved his son and only wished to have more like him [6].

In 154 BC, Salonia gave birth to Marcus Porcius Cato Salonianus [7] who was only five when his father died. Through her son she is grandmother of Lucius Porcius Cato and Marcus Porcius Cato, the great-grandmother of Cato the Younger, and the great-great-grandmother of Marcus Porcius Cato, who died at the Battle of Philippi and Porcia Catonis, who was married to Marcus Junius Brutus.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Plutarch, Cato the Elder, 24.2.
  2. ^ Plutarch, Cato the Elder, 24.1.
  3. ^ Plutarch, Cato the Elder, 24.3
  4. ^ Plutarch, Cato the Elder, 24.4.
  5. ^ Plutarch, Cato the Elder, 24.4
  6. ^ Plutarch, Cato the Elder, 24.5
  7. ^ Plutarch, Cato the Elder, 24.6