Antonia, Life and Death of the Matriarch of Rome
In 40 BC, Mark Antony married Octavia, sister of Octavian (later known as Emperor Augustus). It was a political marriage approved by the Roman Senate to strengthen the alliance between Octavian and Antony during the Second Triumvirate. Octavia travelled with her husband to many different provinces and lived with him in his mansion in Athens between 40 and 36 BC. Their youngest daughter Antonia, known to historians as Antonia Minor to distinguish her from her older sister Antonia Major, were born in 36 BC.
Antonia never knew her father. Antonia’s mother moved her and her brothers from Athens to Rome as soon as she was born because Antony abandoned them to be with Cleopatra, a love story that began a year before his marriage to Octavia. However, Octavia’s devotion to her husband and brother never wavered. Octavia was a key figure in an armaments bargain struck at Tarentum in 37 BC, in which Antony and Octavian pledged to support each other in their Parthian and Sicilian wars. Following Antony’s catastrophic war in Parthia in 35 BC, Octavia brought new troops, supplies, and money to Athens for her husband. Nonetheless, Mark Antony divorced Octavia in late 33 BC and had men remove her from his home in Rome. Antonia was three years old at the time. She was six years old when Antony died.
Despite painting his adversary as a traitor, Augustus, out of love for his sister Octavia, permitted his nieces to inherit their father’s wealth. Antonia became a wealthy and influential young woman after inheriting huge estates in Italy, Greece, and Egypt.
The Price of Marrying a Hero
When Octavian became Rome’s only ruler and adopted the name Augustus, he set about cementing the dominance of his extended family. He was active in strengthening his dynasty through carefully planned marital arrangements. He had no sons of his own, but his marriage produced one daughter, Julia. However, his marriage to his second wife, Livia Drusilla, gave him two stepsons. Tiberius, the older of these sons, was born in 42 BC and later became Emperor Tiberius. The second, Nero Claudius Drusus, was born in 38 BC, and Augustus chose him as Antonia’s husband. Antonia and Drusus married in 16 BC, when she was approximately 20 years old. Their oldest surviving son, Germanicus, was born a year later.
A Roman Marble Status of Empress Livia as the Goddess Ceres. (Public Domain)
Top Image: Marble statue of Antonia Minor. Source: Scailyna / CC BY-SA 4.0
By Martini Fisher
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