Plautia Urgulanilla was the first wife of the future Roman Emperor Claudius. They were married circa 9 AD, when he was 18 years old. Suetonius writes that they were divorced in 24 AD on the grounds of her scandalous love affairs and the suspicion of murder. [1]
Urgulanilla was a member of the Plautia gens. She was of Etruscan descent. [2]
Her father was Marcus Plautius Silvanus, the consul for the year 2 BC, and a decorated general, honoured with triumphal ornaments for his successes in the Bellum Batonianum or Great Illyrian Revolt in 12 AD. [3] [4] He had served beside Tiberius. [5] Her paternal grandmother was Urgulania, after whom Urgulanilla was named; her maternal grandmother was also a close friend of the Empress Livia Drusilla. [6]
Her mother was named Lartia and was the daughter of Gnaeus Lartius.
Urgulanilla had three attested siblings:
Through her family Urgulanilla was well-connected, but her marriage to Claudius was not a splendid match for a member of the imperial family; rather, it came about as consequence of the unfortunate fates of the other candidates. Claudius broke off his first engagement after Julia the Younger, the mother of his fiancée Aemilia Lepida, fell into disgrace, and his second fiancée Livia Medullina died on their wedding day.
Claudius and Urgulanilla were married circa 9 AD.
Urgulanilla had two attested children:
The murder in which Urgulanilla is supposed to have participated was that of her sister-in-law, Apronia, who was the second wife of Urgulanilla's brother, Marcus Plautius Silvanus. However, none of the existing ancient writings makes clear how she was involved, and the details provided by Tacitus seem to imply she could not have been personally involved at all. [13] Plautius Silvanus was first married to Fabia Numantina; however, at some time before 24 AD, they had divorced, and he had married Apronia, a daughter of Lucius Apronius. In 24 AD, Plautius Silvanus was accused of murdering Apronia "for reasons not ascertained" by throwing her out of a window in that year. Silvanus responded by claiming that he was asleep when the event had occurred, and was totally unaware of the circumstances leading to her death, saying that she had perhaps committed suicide. The murder was investigated by the Emperor Tiberius who, having investigated the couple's bedroom, discovered proof of a scuffle, and therefore referred the case to the Senate for trial, thus implying that he believed Silvanus to be guilty. However, Silvanus' grandmother, Urgulania, sent him a dagger, encouraging him to commit suicide, which he duly did. Shortly after the murder of Apronia, Fabia Numantina was "charged with having caused her husband's insanity by magical incantations and potions" but was acquitted. [14] [15]
Urgulanilla appears as a significant character in I, Claudius by Robert Graves. She was played by Jennifer Croxton in the BBC TV adaptation.
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus was Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Drusus and Antonia Minor at Lugdunum in Roman Gaul, where his father was stationed as a military legate. He was the first Roman emperor to be born outside Italy.
AD 16 (XVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Taurus and Libo. The denomination AD 16 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Livia Drusilla was Roman empress from 27 BC to AD 14 as the wife of emperor Augustus. She was known as Julia Augusta after her formal adoption into the Julian family in AD 14.
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Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus, usually called Britannicus, was the son of Roman Emperor Claudius and his third wife, Valeria Messalina. For a time, he was considered his father's heir, but that changed after his mother's downfall in 48, when it was revealed she had engaged in a bigamous marriage without Claudius' knowledge. The next year, his father married Agrippina the Younger, Claudius' fourth and final marriage. Their marriage was followed by the adoption of Agrippina's son, Lucius Domitius, whose name became Nero as a result. His stepbrother would later be married to Britannicus' sister Octavia and soon eclipsed him as Claudius' heir. After his father's death in October 54, Nero became emperor. The sudden death of Britannicus shortly before his fourteenth birthday is reported by all extant sources as being the result of poisoning on Nero's orders; as Claudius' biological son, he represented a threat to Nero's claim to the throne.
The gens Livia was an illustrious plebeian family at ancient Rome. The first of the Livii to obtain the consulship was Marcus Livius Denter in 302 BC, and from his time the Livii supplied the Republic with eight consuls, two censors, a dictator, and a master of the horse. Members of the gens were honoured with three triumphs. In the reign of Augustus, Livia Drusilla was Roman empress, and her son was the emperor Tiberius.
Aulus Plautius was a Roman politician and general of the mid-1st century. He began the Roman conquest of Britain in 43, and became the first governor of the new province, serving from 43 to 46.
Claudia Livia was the only daughter of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia Minor and sister to Roman Emperor Claudius and general Germanicus, and thus paternal aunt of emperor Caligula and maternal great-aunt of emperor Nero, as well as the niece and daughter-in-law of Tiberius. She was named after her grandmother, Augustus' wife Livia Drusilla, and commonly known by her family nickname Livilla. She was born after Germanicus and before Claudius.
Vipsania Agrippina was the first wife of the Emperor Tiberius. She was the daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Attica, thus a granddaughter of Titus Pomponius Atticus, the best friend of Cicero.
Nero Julius Caesar was the adopted grandson and heir of the Roman Emperor Tiberius, alongside his brother Drusus. Born into the prominent Julio-Claudian dynasty, Nero was the son of Tiberius' general and heir, Germanicus. After the deaths of his father and of Tiberius' son, Drusus the Younger, Nero and his brother Drusus were adopted together by Tiberius in September AD 23. As a result of being heirs of the emperor, he and his brother enjoyed accelerated political careers.
Urgulania, was a prominent noblewoman during the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, due to her friendship with the empress Livia. She was the mother of the Roman general Marcus Plautius Silvanus, who had distinguished himself when fighting with the future Emperor Tiberius during the Great Illyrian Revolt in the Balkans. She was the grandmother to Plautia Urgulanilla, the first wife of the future emperor Claudius, and another Marcus Plautius Silvanus, the suspect in a notorious murder case.
Pomponia Graecina was a noble Roman woman of the 1st century who was related to the Julio-Claudian dynasty. She was the wife of Aulus Plautius, the general who led the Roman conquest of Britain in 43 AD, and was renowned as one of the few people who dared to publicly mourn the death of a kinswoman killed by the Imperial family. It has been speculated that she was an early Christian. She is identified by some as Lucina or Lucy, a saint honoured by the Roman Catholic Church.
FuriaLivia Medullina Camilla was the second fiancee of the future Emperor Claudius.
Marcus Plautius Silvanus was a Roman politician and general active during the Principate. He was consul in 2 BC as the colleague of the emperor Augustus.
Tiberius Plautius Silvanus Aelianus was a Roman patrician who twice served as consul, in 45 and 74 AD. He was the natural son of Lucius Aelius Lamia and the adopted son of Marcus Plautius Silvanus, brother of Plautia Urgulanilla, first wife of the emperor Claudius. It is known he offered up the prayer as pontifex when the first stone of the new Capitol was laid in 70 AD. In some ancient sources he is referred to as Plautius Aelianus, but we learn from an inscription that his full name was Tiberius Plautius Silvanus Aelianus, and that he held many important military commands.
Fabia Numantina was a member of the patrician Fabia gens. Precisely how she fits into this family is not certain; while she is generally believed to be the daughter of Paullus Fabius Maximus and Marcia, a maternal first cousin of Augustus, it is possible that she was the daughter of Paullus' brother, Africanus Fabius Maximus.
Tiberius Claudius Drusus was the eldest son of the Roman Emperor Claudius with his first wife Plautia Urgulanilla. He had one younger sister, Claudia, who was repudiated by Claudius along with Plautia.
Plautius Lateranus was a Roman senator of the first century.
The gens Plautia, sometimes written Plotia, was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens first appear in history in the middle of the fourth century BC, when Gaius Plautius Proculus obtained the consulship soon after that magistracy was opened to the plebeian order by the Licinio-Sextian rogations. Little is heard of the Plautii from the period of the Samnite Wars down to the late second century BC, but from then to imperial times they regularly held the consulship and other offices of importance. In the first century AD, the emperor Claudius, whose first wife was a member of this family, granted patrician status to one branch of the Plautii.
Marcus Plautius Silvanus was a Roman senator, and was praetor elect in AD 24. He held the duumvirate of Trebula Suffenas in AD 23.