Claudia Pulchra
Claudia Pulchra (
PIR2 C 1116) was a patrician woman of
Ancient Rome who lived during the reigns of
Augustus and
Tiberius. She was a member of the
Julio-Claudian family, the Imperial dynasty who ruled Rome from
27 BC to
68 AD.
She was daughter to
Claudia Marcella Minor and
Marcus Valerius Messala Barbatus Appianus (cf.
PIR1 V 89), consul in
12 BC. Her maternal grandparents were
Gaius Claudius Marcellus and
Octavia Minor, sister of
Caesar Augustus. She was the sister of
Marcus Valerius Messalla Barbatus (who would later become the father of
Valeria Messalina, third wife of
Roman Emperor Claudius).
She became the second wife of Roman General and Politician
Publius Quinctilius Varus. He was the
widower of
Vipsania Marcella, who was the daughter of
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and his second wife.
Pulchra and Varus had a son, a younger
Publius Quinctilius Varus the Younger. Her husband committed
suicide in September
9 AD during the
Battle of the Teutoburg Forest,
Germania Inferior. She never remarried.
Pulchra was always a close friend to her second cousin
Agrippina the elder. Through her friendship with Agrippina, she became the victim of the intrigues of
Aelius Sejanus'
treason trials in
26 AD. She was accused of to attempted to poison Tiberius, cast magic, immorality and died in
exile.
Tacitus considered the trial to be an indirect political attack against Agrippina.
Her son became wealthy through the
inheritance of both his parents. In
27, however the younger Varus found himself facing accusations of treason and was formally condemned. His trial has been attributed to the increasing distrust of
Tiberius towards his environment and the machinations of Sejanus.
The Latin
pulchra means "beautiful".
* (edd.),
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.
*
An interpretation of her fate as resulting from the political conflict within the Julio-Claudian dynasty
