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| Marcia Furnilla | |
|---|---|
 Bust believed to depict Furnilla | |
| Spouse | Titus |
| Issue | Flavia |
Marcia Furnilla was a Roman noblewoman who lived in the 1st century. Furnilla was the second and last wife of the future Roman Emperor Titus as well as the aunt of the future emperor Trajan.
Marcia Furnilla came from a noble and distinguished family. She was from the gens Marcia who were of plebeian status, [1] claiming descent from the Roman king Ancus Marcius. She was a daughter of Roman Senator Quintus Marcius Barea Sura and Antonia Furnilla. Her sister was Marcia, the mother of Ulpia Marciana and of future Roman Emperor Trajan. Her father was a friend to future Roman Emperor Vespasian (who was Titus' father) and her paternal uncle was the senator Quintus Marcius Barea Soranus, while her paternal cousin was the noblewoman Marcia Servilia Sorana. Furnilla's paternal grandfather was Quintus Marcius Barea Soranus, who was Suffect consul in 34 and Proconsul of the Africa Province in 41–43, while her maternal grandfather could have been Aulus Antonius Rufus, a Suffect consul in 45. [2]
Marcia Furnilla was born and raised in Rome. She married Titus, widowed from his first marriage, in 63. The marriage between Titus and Furnilla was an arranged one.
This marriage for Titus was an influential one and promoted his political career. Suetonius describes Furnilla as a "very well-connected" woman. Furnilla bore Titus a daughter named Flavia, previously assumed to have been Julia Flavia, but it is now regarded that Julia's mother was Titus first wife Arrecina Tertulla. Furnilla's daughter likely died young. [3]
Like Titus' first marriage, this one was short. Furnilla's family was connected to the opponents of Roman Emperor Nero and after the failure of the Pisonian conspiracy in 65, they were disfavored by the Emperor. Titus didn't want to be connected with any potential plotters and ended his marriage to Furnilla, but continued raising their daughter.
The fate of Furnilla afterwards is unknown. After her death, she was placed along with her mother in the mausoleum of Gaius Sulpicius Platorinus - a magistrate at the time of the first Roman Emperor Augustus - and his sister Sulpicia Platorina in Rome.
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| Notes: Except where otherwise noted, the notes below indicate that an individual's parentage is as shown in the above family tree.
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Quintus Marcius Barea Soranus was a Roman senator who lived in the reign of Nero. He was suffect consul in 52, but later attracted the hatred of Nero, and upon being condemned to death committed suicide. He was associated with a group of Stoics opposed to the perceived tyranny and autocratic tendencies of certain emperors, known today as the Stoic Opposition.
Domitia Longina was a Roman empress and wife to the Roman emperor Domitian. She was the youngest daughter of the general and consul Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo. Domitia divorced her first husband, Lucius Aelius Lamia Plautius Aelianus in order to marry Domitian in AD 71. The marriage produced only one son, whose early death is believed to have been the cause of a temporary rift between Domitia and her husband in 83. She became the empress upon Domitian's accession in 81, and remained so until his assassination in 96. She is believed to have died sometime between AD 126 and 130.
The gens Flavia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Its members are first mentioned during the last three centuries of the Republic. The first of the Flavii to achieve prominence was Marcus Flavius, tribune of the plebs in 327 and 323 BC; however, no Flavius attained the consulship until Gaius Flavius Fimbria in 104 BC. The gens became illustrious during the first century AD, when the family of the Flavii Sabini claimed the imperial dignity.
Julia Flavia or Flavia Julia, nicknamed Julia Titi, was the daughter of Roman Emperor Titus and his first wife Arrecina Tertulla.
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.
Julia was the wife of the Roman consul Gaius Marius and a paternal aunt of future Roman dictator Julius Caesar.
Marcus Ulpius Traianus was a Roman general and senator. He was the biological father of emperor Trajan.
Flavia Domitilla was a Roman noblewoman of the 1st century AD. She was a granddaughter of Emperor Vespasian and a niece of Emperors Titus and Domitian. She married her second cousin, the consul Titus Flavius Clemens, a grand-nephew of Vespasian through his father Titus Flavius Sabinus.
Marcia Servilia or commonly known as Servilia was the daughter of Roman Senator Barea Soranus. Her father was part of the Stoic Opposition who opposed Nero's tyrannical rule. When he was sentenced to death by Nero in 65 or 66, Servilia was similarly accused and sentenced to death on a charge of consulting sorcerers supposedly to find out her father's fate.
Scribonia Magna, known in modern historical sources as Scribonia Crassi, was a Roman noblewoman. Scribonia was descended from Pompey.
Arrecina Tertulla was a Roman woman who lived in the 1st century. She was the first wife of Titus and mother of his daughter Julia Flavia.
Julia Tertulla was a Roman woman who lived in the 1st century and 2nd century in the Roman Empire. Tertulla was the daughter of suffect consul Gaius Julius Cornutus Tertullus and the identity of her mother is unknown. Tertulla was born and raised in Perga, the capital of the Roman province of Pamphylia. She was the paternal aunt to Gaius Julius Plancius Varus Cornutus.
Marcia was a Roman noblewoman and the mother of the Roman emperor Trajan.
Libo Rupilius Frugi was a Roman senator and an ancestor of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. He served as suffect consul in 88.
Quintus Marcius Barea Sura was a Roman Senator of the first century AD.
Titus Sextius Cornelius Africanus, also known as Titus Sextius Africanus, was a Roman Senator who lived in the Roman Empire in the second half of the 1st century and first half of the 2nd century. He served as an ordinary consul in 112 as the colleague of emperor Trajan.
Sulpicia Praetextata was an ancient Roman noblewoman who lived in the Roman Empire in the 1st century.
Quintus Marcius Barea Soranus was a Roman senator who lived in the first half of the first century AD.
Publius Julius Lupus was a Roman senator, best known as the step-father of the emperor Antoninus Pius. He was suffect consul in the nundinium of November-December 98 as the colleague of Quintus Fulvius Gillo Bittius Proculus.
