Claudia Marcella

Claudia Marcella was the name of several women of ancient Rome.

• Claudia Marcella, a proposed woman who might have been the mother of Publius Quinctilius Varus[1]
• Claudia Marcella Major, (41 BC - ?) oldest daughter of Octavia the Younger, married Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
• Claudia Marcella Minor, (40 BC - ?) second daughter of Octavia the Younger, married Marcus Valerius Messalla Appianus

The two Claudia Marcella who were the daughters of Octavia Minor, the sister of Roman emperor Augustus, by her first husband, the consul Gaius Claudius Marcellus.[2] According to the Roman Historian Suetonius, they were known as "The Marcellae" sisters, and they are also known as the two Marcellae.[3] The sisters were born in Rome. Between 40 BC-36 BC, they lived with their mother and their stepfather Triumvir Mark Antony in Athens, Greece. After 36 BC they accompanied their mother when she returned to Rome with their siblings. They were raised and educated by their mother, their maternal uncle, Roman emperor Augustus, and their maternal aunt-in-marriage Roman Empress Livia Drusilla.[2] These two daughters of Octavia Minor and Gaius Claudius Marcellus with their siblings, provide a critical link between the past of the Roman Republic and the new Roman Empire.[4] The marriages of the sisters and the children born to their unions assured republican family lines into the next generation.[5]

References

1. https://web.archive.org/web/20200506112126/https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/antioch-augustus-general-varus-1793451037
2. Lightman, A to Z of Ancient Greek and Roman Women, pp. 204-5
3. Kleiner, Cleopatra and Rome, p.32
4. Lightman, A to Z of Ancient Greek and Roman Women, p. 205
5. Lightman, A to Z of Ancient Greek and Roman Women, p. 204

Sources

Ancient

• Plutarch, Life of Mark Antony
• Suetonius, "Augustus", The Twelve Caesars
• Tacitus, Annales

Modern

• Annelise Freisenbruch, Caesars' Wives: Sex, Power, and Politics in the Roman Empire, Simon and Schuster, 2011
• Diana E. E. Kleiner, Cleopatra and Rome, Harvard University Press, 2009
• N. Kokkinos, Antonia Augusta: Portrait of a Great Roman Lady, Psychology Press, 1992
• M. Lightman & B. Lightman, A to Z of Ancient Greek and Roman Women, Infobase Publishing, 2008
• J. Minto, The Heliopolis Scrolls, ShieldCrest, 2009
• G. Stern, Women, Children, and Senators on the Ara Pacis Augustae: A Study of Augustus' Vision of a New World Order in 13 BC, ProQuest, 2006
• Ronald Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy, Oxford University Press, 1989

External links

• Octavia Minor at Livius.org (last accessed 5 April 2020)