Claudia Marcella

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Claudia 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 BC-36 BC, they lived with their mother and their step-father Triumvir 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 maternal aunt-in-marriage Empress Livia Drusilla. Very little is known on these two daughters of Octavia Minor.

[edit] Claudia Marcella Major

The first daughter, Claudia Marcella Major (PIR² C 1102; Major Latin for the elder; born 41 BC), was married in 28 BC to statesman and close friend to Augustus Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. Agrippa married Marcella in an alliance with her uncle. Suetonius (Vita Augustii, 63.1), stated they had children. Marcella bore him a daughter and only child who was Vipsania Marcella Agrippina, who about in 14 BC married and became the first wife to general Publius Quinctilius Varus.

In 21 BC Agrippa divorced Marcella, to marry Augustus' daughter Julia the Elder who was recently widowed from her first husband Marcus Claudius Marcellus, Marcella's elder brother. Marcella then married consul Iullus Antonius, the second son of Mark Antony from his third wife Fulvia, 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. According to Tacitus (Annals 4.44), Iullus and Marcella had children. They had two sons: Lucius Antonius and Gaius Antonius and a daughter Iulla Antonia (cf. PIR² sub A 800; Raepsaet-Charlier, nr. 78, p. 95). After Iullus' death in 2 BC, Marcella married Sextus Appuleius, the consul of 14. Their daughter and only child was Appuleia Varilla. Through her children, Marcella doesn’t seem to have any further descendants.

[edit] Claudia Marcella Minor

The second daughter, Claudia Marcella Minor (PIR² C 1103, Minor Latin for the younger, born 40 BC), was born after her father's death. The husband’s names of this Marcella are not even known with certainty and have been conjectured on the basis of inscriptions and literary sources. Marcella first married Lucius Aemilius Lepidus Paullus (a nephew of triumvir Marcus Aemilius Lepidus) consul in 34 BC, to whom she bore a daughter Claudia Pulchra. Paullus died in 13 BC. Pulchra married and became the second wife of Publius Quinctilius Varus. They had a son, a younger Publius Quinctilius Varus.

Marcella remarried and her second husband was senator who was twice consul Marcus Valerius Messalla Messallinus. They had a son, who was their only child called Marcus Valerius Messalla Barbatus (PIR¹ V 88). Barbatus became a consul and married his maternal cousin Domitia Lepida and they had two children: consul Marcus Valerius Messala Corvinus and future infamous Empress Valeria Messalina who married and became the third wife to Emperor Claudius. Messalina and Claudius had two children: Claudia Octavia, future Empress and first wife to Emperor Nero and prince Britannicus.

[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.