Pompeia (wife of Memmius)

Last updated

Pompeia (born late 2nd century BC and died some time 1st century BC) was a Roman noblewoman of plebeian status. [1]

Contents

Biography

Early life

She was born and raised in a senatorial family in Rome. Her father was the consul and general Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo but the name of her mother is uncertain, some sources claim she was a Lucilia but others that Lucilia was her grandmother. Pompeia's brother was the future triumvir Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (better known as Pompey the Great) who was relatively close in age to her. They also probably had another sister who was somewhat older. [2]

Marriages

Pompeia married the Roman nobleman and politician Gaius Memmius. [3] They likely had a son by the same name who became a moneyer. [4] Memmius was an ally to her brother; he commanded forces under Pompey in Sicily in 81 BC; he served Pompey as a quaestor from 76 to 75 BC during the Sertorian War on the Iberian Peninsula. In 75 BC Memmius was killed in a battle near Saguntum. [5] After Memmius's death she married Publius Cornelius Sulla, the nephew of the late Dictator Sulla. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pompey</span> Roman general and statesman (106–48 BC)

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, known in English as Pompey or Pompey the Great, was a general and statesman of the Roman Republic. He played a significant role in the transformation of Rome from republic to empire. Early in his career, he was a partisan and protégé of the Roman general and dictator Sulla; later, he became the political ally, and finally the enemy, of Julius Caesar.

Gaius Memmius was a Roman politician, orator and poet. He is most famous as the dedicatee of Lucretius' De Rerum Natura, and for his appearances in the poetry of Catullus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sulla</span> Roman general and dictator (138–78 BC)

Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix, commonly known as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman. He won the first big civil war in Roman history and became the first man of the Republic to seize power through force.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucullus</span> Roman politician and general (118–57/56 BC)

Lucius Licinius Lucullus was a Roman general and statesman, closely connected with Lucius Cornelius Sulla. In culmination of over 20 years of almost continuous military and government service, he conquered the eastern kingdoms in the course of the Third Mithridatic War, exhibiting extraordinary generalship in diverse situations, most famously during the Siege of Cyzicus in 73–72 BC, and at the Battle of Tigranocerta in Armenian Arzanene in 69 BC. His command style received unusually favourable attention from ancient military experts, and his campaigns appear to have been studied as examples of skillful generalship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sextus Pompey</span> Roman politician and general (c. 67–35 BC)

Sextus Pompeius Magnus Pius, also known in English as Sextus Pompey, was a Roman military leader who, throughout his life, upheld the cause of his father, Pompey the Great, against Julius Caesar and his supporters during the last civil wars of the Roman Republic.

Mucia Tertia was a Roman matrona who lived in the 1st century BC. She was the daughter of Quintus Mucius Scaevola, the pontifex maximus and consul in 95 BC.

Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo was a Roman general and politician, who served as consul in 89 BC. He is often referred to in English as Pompey Strabo, to distinguish him from his son, the famous Pompey the Great, or from Strabo the geographer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claudia Antonia</span> Daughter of Emperor Claudius (AD c.30-66)

Claudia Antonia was the daughter and oldest surviving child of the Roman Emperor Claudius and the only child of his second wife Aelia Paetina. Antonia was a great great-niece of the Emperor Augustus, great-niece of the Emperor Tiberius, first cousin of the Emperor Caligula, half-sister to Claudia Octavia and Britannicus, and cousin, stepsister and sister-in-law of the Emperor Nero.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pompeia gens</span> Ancient Roman family

The gens Pompeia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome, first appearing in history during the second century BC, and frequently occupying the highest offices of the Roman state from then until imperial times. The first of the Pompeii to obtain the consulship was Quintus Pompeius in 141 BC, but by far the most illustrious of the gens was Gnaeus Pompeius, surnamed Magnus, a distinguished general under the dictator Sulla, who became a member of the First Triumvirate, together with Caesar and Crassus. After the death of Crassus, the rivalry between Caesar and Pompeius led to the Civil War, one of the defining events of the final years of the Roman Republic.

Faustus Cornelius Sulla was a politician of the Roman Republic. He was the son of the dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla. He started his career in the shadow of Pompey, whom he followed during the Civil War against Julius Caesar. He was killed soon after the battle of Thapsus in 46 BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calpurnia (wife of Caesar)</span> Last wife of Julius Caesar

Calpurnia was either the third or fourth wife of Julius Caesar, and the one to whom he was married at the time of his assassination. According to contemporary sources, she was a good and faithful wife, in spite of her husband's infidelity; and, forewarned of the attempt on his life, she endeavored in vain to prevent his murder.

Pompeia was a Roman woman. She was an ancestor of the Roman emperors Augustus, Claudius, Caligula and Nero.

Pompeia Magna was the daughter and second child born to Roman triumvir Pompey the Great from his third marriage, to Mucia Tertia. Her elder brother was Gnaeus Pompeius and her younger brother was Sextus Pompey.

Quintus Pompeius was the name of various Romans from the gens Pompeia, who were of plebeian status. They lived during the Roman Republic and Roman Empire.

Gnaeus Pompeius may refer to:

The Battle of Utica of 81 BC was fought near Utica between a Roman army under the command of Gnaeus Pompeius and another Roman army under the command of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus. The battle was part of Sulla's civil war and ended in a complete victory for Pompeian army.

Gaius Memmius was a Roman plebeian and a soldier of the late Roman republic.

Antistia was a Roman woman and the first of the five wives of Gnaeus Pompeius, later known as Pompey the Great.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wives of Pompey the Great</span> Roman statesmans five marriages

The first-century-BCE Roman statesman and commander Pompey the Great was married five times. These marriages were not only romantic matches, but political arrangements, often dictated by Pompey's political career and need to form alliances with other powerful Roman men.

References

  1. "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, page 472 (V. 3)". www.ancientlibrary.com. Archived from the original on 7 October 2007. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  2. American Journal of Ancient History. Vol. 1–3. Harvard University. 1976. p. 19.
  3. Plutarch, Pompey 11.2
  4. Harlan, Michael (1995). Roman Republican Moneyers and Their Coins, 63 B.C.-49 B.C. University of Michigan: Seaby. p. 78. ISBN   9780713476729.
  5. Plutarch, Sertorius 21.2; Orosius 5.23.12
  6. John Leach, Pompey the Great, p.104.

Sources