Publius Claudius Pulcher (son of Clodius)

Publius Claudius Pulcher (c. 62-59 BC[lower-alpha 1] – aft. 31 BC, born Publius Clodius Pulcher) was a son of Publius Clodius Pulcher and his wife Fulvia.

Publius Claudius Pulcher
Spouse(s)Unknown
Claudia Marcella Minor (possibly)
ChildrenAppius Claudius Pulcher
Claudia Pulchra (possibly)
Parents

Biography

Early life

Publius, who was the son of Publius Clodius Pulcher and Fulvia, had one full sister Clodia Pulchra, and three half-brothers, Gaius Scribonius Curio, Marcus Antonius Antyllus and Iullus Antonius from his mother. It is not known exactly when he was born, but he was still referred to as a "boy" in 44 BC. In 52 BC when his father was killed by Titus Annius Milo and his followers, there were accusations that Milo had also had a slave abduct the boy from his father's villa in Alba and bring him to see the body of his father and to demand that he allow them to cut up Clodius' body.[1] At his father's funeral he was not considered old enough to deliver a funeral oration.[2] As a young man Publius had his step-father Mark Antony recall the exiled Sextus Cloelius (sometimes called "Sextus Clodius") as a favour. Sextus had been a major supporter of his father.[3]

Career

As an adult, he was regarded as a lethargic nonentity who only rose to the Praetorship after 31 BC under the Second Triumvirs and died amid scandals of luxurious excess and an obsessive attachment to a common prostitute.[4] An inscription of ownership on an expensive Egyptian alabaster vase once owned by him has survived to attest to his short official career, and includes an unusual triple filiation which confirms the literary evidence to the effect that Clodius' own filiation was: Ap. f. Ap. n. Ap. pron. (son of Appius cos.79, grandson of Appius cos.143).[5]

Family

He had at least one son, Appius Claudius Pulcher. There has also been some speculation among historians such as George Patrick Goold[6] that he might have been the father of Claudia Pulchra who was the daughter of Augustus' niece Claudia Marcella Minor, but other historians such as Ronald Syme have rejected this proposal.[7]

Notes
  1. Tatum (Patrician Tribune p. 61) points out that in 44 BC, Claudius could still be called a puer, "boy", though granting that age categories such as puer, adolescens and iuvenis are fluid.
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References
  1. "ASCONIUS, ON CICERO'S Pro Milone". csun.edu. California State University, Northridge. Retrieved 2020-05-04.
  2. "Fin De Siecle". The Cambridge Ancient History. Cambridge history ebook collection. 9 (illustrated, reworked ed.). Cambridge University Press. 1970. p. 407. ISBN 9780521256032.
  3. Treggiari, Susan (2019). Servilia and her Family. Oxford University Press. p. 273. ISBN 9780192564641.
  4. Valerius Maximus III.5.3
  5. T. P. Wiseman, "Pulcher Claudius", HSCP 74 (1970), 208-221, at 210, with family stemma at 220. The inscription is CIL VI, 1282 = ILS 882
  6. Goold, Patrick (1970). "Pulcher Claudius". Harvard Studies in Classical Philology. 74. Harvard University Press. p. 217. ISBN 9780674379206.
  7. Syme, Ronald (1989). "Two Nieces of Augustus". The Augustan Aristocracy. Clarendon paperbacks (new, illustrated, reworked ed.). Clarendon Press. p. 149. ISBN 9780198147312.
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