Claudia Marcella was the name of several women of ancient Rome of the
Claudii Marcelli branch of the
Claudia gens. By the late
Roman Republic girls from this branch were often called "
Clodia".
A number of Marcellae are believed to have been the daughters of the consul Gaius Claudius Marcellus
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Claudia Marcella, a proposed daughter by an unknown woman, this Marcella might have been the mother of Publius Quinctilius Varus
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Claudia Marcella Major, (? - ?) oldest surviving daughter by Octavia Minor, married Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
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Claudia Marcella Minor, (? - ?) youngest surviving daughter by Octavia Minor, grandmother of empress Messalina
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Claudia Marcella Ignota Prima, (? - ?) a daughter by Octavia Minor who died in childhood
[Spyridon Lambros, Ἀνέκδοτον ἀπόσπασμα συγγραΦῆς περὶ τοῦ Καισαρείου γένους, Νέος Ἑλληνομνήμων 1 (1904), p. 148]
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Claudia Marcella Ignota Secunda, (? - ?) a daughter by Octavia Minor who died in childhood
[
]
The two surviving daughters of Octavia (the sister of
Roman emperor Augustus) by Marcellus
[Lightman, A to Z of Ancient Greek and Roman Women, pp. 204-5] became important in Augustus imperial plans. According to the Roman Historian Suetonius, they were known as "the Marcellae sisters" or "the two Marcellae".
[Kleiner, Cleopatra and Rome, p.32] The sisters were born in
Ancient Rome and lived with their mother and their stepfather Triumvir
Mark Antony in
Ancient Athens,
Ancient Greece. After 36 BC they accompanied their mother when she returned to Rome with their brother and half-sisters. They were raised and educated by their mother, their maternal uncle and their maternal aunt-in-marriage Roman Empress
Livia Drusilla.
[ They and their siblings provided a critical link between the past of the Roman Republic and the new Roman Empire.][Lightman, A to Z of Ancient Greek and Roman Women, p. 205] The marriages of the sisters and the children born to their unions assured republican family lines into the next generation.[Lightman, A to Z of Ancient Greek and Roman Women, p. 204]
A number of other women could have been Marcellae:
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Claudia, last wife of Quintus Lutatius Catulus may have been a Marcella
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Clodia, wife of Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus and mother of Decimus Junius Brutus may have been a Marcella.
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The wife of Publius Autronius Paetus may have been a Marcella.
[Tansey, Patrick. (2016) "A selective prosopographical study of marriage in the Roman elite in the Second and First Centuries B.C.: Revisiting the evidence". p, 9. Department of Ancient History at Macquarie University]
Sources
- Ancient
- Modern
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Annelise Freisenbruch, Caesars' Wives: Sex, Power, and Politics in the Roman Empire, Simon and Schuster, 2011
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Diana E. E. Kleiner, Cleopatra and Rome, Harvard University Press, 2009
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N. Kokkinos, Antonia Augusta: Portrait of a Great Roman Lady, Psychology Press, 1992
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M. Lightman & B. Lightman, A to Z of Ancient Greek and Roman Women, Infobase Publishing, 2008
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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
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Ronald Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy, Oxford University Press, 1989
External links
