The Three Husbands of Fulvia, the Leading Lady of the Ancient Roman Elites

Modern readers perhaps know Fulvia primarily as the cuckolded wife of Mark Antony and Cleopatra’s love rival. But this description falls far short of her figure. In fact, Fulvia was one of the most renowned and politically prominent ladies in antiquity during the final days of the Roman Republic. When she married Antony, her third husband in 44 BC, Fulvia was already a well-known figure in Roman society who carried a significant political clout which would have appealed to Antony at the time.

As the last surviving members of two old families, Fulvia inherited a large fortune. Apart from being savvy on how to utilise her money, she was also savvy in capitalising on her link to the Roman past – both of which are useful to have especially in the turbulent political time in which she lived. Her first marriage to Publius Clodius Pulcher, a member of the very influential Claudian family, also contributed to her clout. Following Clodius’s murder, Fulvia married Caius Scribonius Curio, also a rising politician who died in Africa during the civil war. Her third and final marriage was to Mark Antony, magister equitum, consul, triumvir, and, eventually, Octavian’s greatest adversary.

Fulvia’s three husbands were from consular families with prestigious backgrounds. Clodius, who came from the patrician Claudian ancestry, was the son and grandson of a consul, the grandson of a censor, and the brother of a future consul and censor. He also had three sisters, each of whom married a consul. Curio, whose senatorial family had only reached the consulate in 76, could be satisfied with his father’s importance in the state and convinced of his own promise. Antony himself could claim two grandfathers who were consuls, one of whom was also censor, as well as two uncles who were consuls, one of whom also became censor.

Few women, even at this age of marital manoeuvring, could boast such a star-studded sequence of husbands as Fulvia. But, impressive as her marriages may be, Fulvia was never just the wife of a politician.  Lactantius, likely echoing Cicero in the De Republica, provides a context for anyone interested in the political importance of women in the time of Rome’s civil war. Women were able to achieve power in a state where their official potential was strictly limited to certain religious positions, not only through the institution of political or dynastic marriage, which was critical to the balance of affairs in the last century of the Republic, but also through the exercise of personal talents and influence.

Bust of Fulvia (left) and image of Athena (right) on a Phrygian coin. (CNG / CC BY-SA 3.0)

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By Martini Fisher