Marcia | |
|---|---|
 Marcia from Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum | |
| Born | c. 80 BC |
| Spouses |
|
| Children | 1 son |
| Parent | Lucius Marcius Philippus |
Marcia (also Marzia or Martia; born c. 80 BC) was the second wife of Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis (Cato the Younger) and the daughter of Lucius Marcius Philippus.
Marcia is believed to have been born around 80 BC to Lucius Marcius Philippus and his first wife. She had two brothers named Lucius Marcius Philippus and Quintus Marcius Philippus. [1] [2] [3] When her father married Atia, she became the step-sister of Octavia Minor and Gaius Octavius Thurinus (the future emperor Augustus). [4]
After Cato divorced his first wife Atilia because of rumors about her infidelity, in 63 BC, he married Marcia whom Plutarch described as "a woman of excellent reputation, about whom there was the most abundant talk". Marcia and Cato had two or three children; however, there is controversy about whether or not she was pregnant with this third child at the time of her second marriage to Hortensius. There is no indication that their marriage was unhappy: Plutarch relates that Marcia was concerned for Cato's safety, and Appian says that Cato was extremely fond of Marcia.
Marcia's second marriage, in the year 56 BC, was to the renowned orator and advocate Quintus Hortalus, whom Cicero styled as "king of the courts". Hortensius was an admirer and friend of Cato's, and he was eager to be more closely related to Cato and his family. Hortensius' own wife, the daughter of Quintus Lutatius Catulus, had just died and an alliance with Cato seems to be the chief reason for Hortensius, nearing 60 years old, to request to be married to Cato's daughter Porcia, who was only about 20 years old at the time. However, because Porcia was already married to Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus and the age difference was so great, Cato refused to give his consent. Hortensius immediately suggested that he marry Marcia instead because she had already borne Cato his heirs. Due to Hortensius' ardor, Cato acquiesced, but only on the condition that Marcia's father, Lucius Marcius Philippus, approve as well. With Philippus' consent obtained, Cato divorced Marcia, thereby placing her under her father's charge. Hortensius promptly married Marcia, and they had a son. After Hortensius' death in 50 BC, she inherited "every last sesterce of his estate". [5]
At the outbreak of Caesar's Civil War in 49 BC, Marcia and her children moved back into Cato's household. Plutarch asserts that Cato remarried Marcia after Hortensius's death, whereas Appian's histories relate that Cato merely reestablished her in his own household. Either way, this caused a minor scandal, as after Hortensius' death, her return made the household rich.
Many assumptions have been made regarding Cato's character based upon his endorsement of the marriage between Marcia and Hortensius. Appian said that "as a girl; [Cato] was extremely fond of her, and she had borne him children. Nevertheless, he gave her to Hortensius, one of his friends,— who desired to have children but was married to a childless wife..." Appian's claim is not accurate however, as Hortensius had a son and heir from his marriage with Lutatia. The supposed sacrifice is used by Plutarch and other historians to illustrate Cato's honorability and his willingness to sacrifice a wife he liked in the name of friendship. This positive interpretation of Cato's character is reflected in Lucan's Pharsalia and how the Uticans mourned his death.
Julius Caesar on the other hand accused Cato of wife trafficking and marrying Marcia off to Hortensius simply in order to gain his wealth. "For why," said Caesar, "should Cato give up his wife if he wanted her, or why, if he did not want her, should he take her back again? Unless it was true that the woman was at the first set as a bait for Hortensius, and lent by Cato when she was young that he might take her back when she was rich." Plutarch asserts that in the reason Cato took Marcia back in 49 BC was because he was fleeing Rome with Pompey as a result of Caesar's approach and needed someone to look after his young daughters and household in his place, which Marcia did.
She is the subject of the painting Marcia . In her Masters of Rome series of novels, Colleen McCullough suggests that Cato gave Marcia to Hortensius simply because he could not reconcile his passion for her with his Stoic ideals, that he never let her go emotionally, and that he took her back at the first opportunity.
Marcus Junius Brutus was a Roman politician, orator, and the most famous of the assassins of Julius Caesar. After being adopted by a relative, he used the name Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus, which was retained as his legal name. He is often referred to simply as Brutus.
Quintus Hortensius Hortalus was a famous Roman lawyer, a renowned orator and a statesman. Politically he belonged to the Optimates. He was consul in 69 BC alongside Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus. His nickname was Dionysia, after a famous actress. After his retirement Hortensius took up fish-breeding as a hobby. Cicero spoke of him as a Piscinarius – 'fish fancier'.
Quintus Lutatius Catulus was a consul of the Roman Republic in 102 BC. His consular colleague was Gaius Marius. During their consulship the Cimbri and Teutones marched south again and threatened the Republic. While Marius marched against the Teutones in Gaul, Catulus had to keep the Cimbri from invading Italy. In this he failed; the Cimbri succeeded in invading the Po Valley. In 101 BC Catulus, as proconsul, continued the war against the Cimbri. Marius, elected consul for the fifth time, joined him and together they campaigned against the Germanic invaders in the Po Valley. At the Battle of Vercellae Marius and Catulus decisively defeated the Cimbri and ended the Germanic invasion. After Vercellae the two feuded, and Catulus consequently committed suicide following Marius's victory in the civil war of 87 BC.
Servilia was a Roman matron from a distinguished family, the Servilii Caepiones. She was the daughter of Quintus Servilius Caepio and Livia, thus the half-sister of Cato the Younger. She married Marcus Junius Brutus, with whom she had a son, the Brutus who, along with others in the Senate, would assassinate Julius Caesar. After her first husband's death in 77, she married Decimus Junius Silanus, and with him had a son and three daughters.
Porcia, occasionally spelled Portia, especially in 18th-century English literature, was a Roman woman who lived in the 1st century BC. She was the daughter of Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis and his first wife Atilia. She is best known for being the second wife of Marcus Junius Brutus, the most famous of Julius Caesar's assassins, and appears primarily in the letters of Cicero.
Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus was a politician of the Roman Republic. He was a conservative and upholder of the established social order who served in several magisterial positions alongside Julius Caesar and conceived a lifelong enmity towards him. In 59 BC, he was consul alongside Julius Caesar. Their partnership was contentious to the extent that Caesar's supporters assaulted Bibulus in Rome's main forum on the eve of an important vote. Bibulus withdrew from public politics for the rest of his term.
Atia was the niece of Julius Caesar, and mother of Gaius Octavius, who became the Emperor Augustus. Through her daughter Octavia, she was also the great-grandmother of Germanicus and his brother, emperor Claudius.
Lucius Marcius Philippus was a politician and senator in the late Roman republic. He was governor of Syria from 61 to 60 and later served in the consulship of 56 BC. He was also step-father of the emperor Augustus.
The gens Marcia, occasionally written Martia, was one of the oldest and noblest houses at ancient Rome. They claimed descent from the second and fourth Roman Kings, and the first of the Marcii appearing in the history of the Republic would seem to have been patrician; but all of the families of the Marcii known in the later Republic were plebeian. The first to obtain the consulship was Gaius Marcius Rutilus in 357 BC, only a few years after the passage of the lex Licinia Sextia opened this office to the plebeians.
Octavia the Younger was the elder sister of the first Roman Emperor, Augustus, the half-sister of Octavia the Elder, and the fourth wife of Mark Antony. She was also the great-grandmother of the Emperor Caligula and Empress Agrippina the Younger, maternal grandmother of the Emperor Claudius, and paternal great-grandmother and maternal great-great-grandmother of the Emperor Nero.
Julia was the daughter of Roman dictator Julius Caesar and his first or second wife Cornelia, and his only child from his marriages. Julia became the fourth wife of Pompey the Great and was renowned for her beauty and virtue.
Julia was the wife of the Roman consul Gaius Marius and a paternal aunt of future Roman dictator Julius Caesar.
Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, consul in 54 BC, was an enemy of Julius Caesar and a strong supporter of the aristocratic party in the late Roman Republic.
Quintus Servilius Caepio was a Roman patrician, statesman and soldier. He was the son of Quintus Servilius Caepio who was consul in 106 BCE and who lost his army during the Battle of Arausio. He was elected praetor some time in the last 90s BC and fought for Rome during the Social War. He was killed in the second year of the war while fighting the Marsi by Quintus Poppaedius Silo.
Marcus Livius Drusus was a Roman politician and reformer. He is most famous for his legislative programme during his term as tribune of the plebs in 91 BC. During his year in office, Drusus proposed wide-ranging legislative reforms, including offering citizenship to Rome's Italian allies.
The gens Porcia, rarely written Portia, was a plebeian family at Ancient Rome. Its members first appear in history during the third century BC. The first of the gens to achieve the consulship was Marcus Porcius Cato in 195 BC, and from then until imperial times, the Porcii regularly occupied the highest offices of the Roman state.
The career of Julius Caesar before his consulship in 59 BC was characterized by military adventurism and political persecution. Julius Caesar was born on 12 July 100 BC into a patrician family, the gens Julia, which claimed descent from Iulus, son of the legendary Trojan prince Aeneas, supposedly the son of the goddess Venus. His father died when he was just 16, leaving Caesar as the head of the household. His family status put him at odds with the Dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who almost had him executed.
The gens Hortensia was an ancient plebeian family in Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned in the fifth century BC, but from that time somewhat infrequently until the final century of the Republic. The most illustrious of the gens was the orator Quintus Hortensius, a man of great learning, and a contemporary of Cicero. Under the Empire they seem to have sunk back into obscurity.
Marcus Porcius M. f. M. n. Cato was the father of Cato the Younger. His promising political career was cut short by his sudden death, early in the first century BC.
Livia Drusa was a Roman matron. She was the daughter of Marcus Livius Drusus, consul in 112 BC, and sister of Marcus Livius Drusus, tribune of the plebs in 91 BC. She was the mother of Cato the Younger, and grandmother of Marcus Junius Brutus, through her oldest daughter Servilia.
• The Histories of Appian trans. by Horace White: Harvard University Press, 1912 and 1913; the Foreign Wars in Vols. I and II. Book 2, page 411. Appian's Roman History at Livius.org
• Plutarch and the Family of Cato Minor. Thomas Means; Sheila K. Dickison. The Classical Journal, Vol. 69, No. 3. (Feb. - Mar., 1974), pp. 210-215 at JSTOR.
• The Parallel Lives by Plutarch published in Vol. VIII of the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1919. Life of Cato Minor at LacusCurtius
• Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. William Smith (1867). Ancient Library, Vol. 2, pp. 939–940.
• The Eternal Triangle, First Century B.C.. Hattie L. Gordon. The Classical Journal, Vol. 28, No. 8. (May, 1933), pp. 574-578 at LacusCurtius
• Book II: The Flight of Pompeius in '"Pharsalia (aka "The Civil War")" by Lucan (Marcus Annaeus Lucanus). Medieval and Classical Literature Library.
