Claudia Marcella

Marcella was the name of the two daughters of Octavia Minor, the sister of Caesar 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 40-36 BC, they lived with their mother and their step-father 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 aunt Livia Drusilla.

We know very little of these two daughters of Octavia Minor. The names of the husbands of the younger Marcella are not even known with certainty and have been conjectured on the basis of inscriptions and literary sources.

The elder, (Claudia) Marcella Major (PIR² C 1102) also called Marcella the Elder (b. before 40 BC, perharps as soon as 53 BC), was married c. 30 BC-28 BC to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, close friend of Augustus, to whom she bore children (Suetonius, Vita Augustii, 63.1), including possibly a daughter who may have married Quintus Haterius, cos. suff. 5 BC (cf. Raepsaet-Charlier, nr. 810, p. 631ff). In 21 BC Agrippa divorced Marcella to marry Augustus' daughter Julia the Elder recently widowed from her first husband, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, Marcella's younger brother. Marcella then married Iullus Antonius, the son of Mark Antony, 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. Iullus Antonius and Marcella had children (Tacitus, Annals 4.44), including a son Lucius Antonius and a daughter, Iulla Antonia (cf. PIR² sub A 800; Raepsaet-Charlier, nr. 78, p. 95).

Her younger sister, (Claudia) Marcella Minor (PIR² C 1103) or Marcella the Younger (b. 40 BC), was born after her father's death. This Marcella seems to have first married Paullus Aemilius Lepidus, consul in 34 BC to whom she bore a son Paulus Aemilius Regillus (PIR² A 396). Her second husband seems to have been Marcus Valerius Messala Barbatus Appianus (PIR¹ V 89), consul in 12 BC, a Claudius Pulcher by birth, son of Appius Claudius Pulcher, consul in 38 BC, and adopted by Marcus Valerius Messala, consul in 53 BC. They had two children, a daughter named Claudia Pulchra, second wife of the ill-fated governor of Germania Publius Quinctilius Varus, and a son called Marcus Valerius Messala Barbatus (PIR¹ V 88), who would become the father of the infamous Messalina, third wife of the emperor Claudius.

References

* (ed.), Prosopographia Imperii Romani, 3 vol., Berlin, 1897-1898. (PIR¹)
* (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.