Antonia Minor

Antonia Minor
The Juno Ludovisi (a portrait of Antonia Minor)
Spouse	Nero Claudius Drusus
Issue
Germanicus Livilla Claudius, Emperor of Rome
Father	Mark Antony
Mother	Octavia Minor
Born	31 January 36 BC Athens, Greece
Died	September/October AD 37 (aged 73) Rome

Antonia Minor (PIR² A 885), also known as Antonia the Younger or simply Antonia (31 January 36 BC - September/October AD 37) was the younger of two daughters of Roman politician Mark Antony and Octavia Minor. Tacitus Ann. 4.44.2 and 12.54.2 may have confused the two Antonia sisters (of whom the younger is far more famous). The problem is even more complex: an even older Antonia was born to a previous wife of Antony. That daughter is properly Antonia Maior (the Elder) while the woman usually called Antonia the Younger is in fact Antonia Tertia.

The woman usually called Antonia the Younger was the younger niece of the Emperor Augustus, sister-in-law of the Emperor Tiberius, paternal grandmother of the Emperor Caligula and Empress Agrippina the Younger, mother of the Emperor Claudius, and both maternal great-grandmother and paternal great-aunt of the Emperor Nero. She was additionally the maternal great-aunt of the Empress Valeria Messalina and Faustus Cornelius Sulla Felix, and paternal grandmother of Claudia Antonia, Claudia Octavia, and Britannicus.

Antonia is one of the most prominent Roman women. She is celebrated for her virtue and beauty. She was the youngest daughter to Octavia Minor and Mark Antony and was also the favorite niece of her mother’s younger brother, Rome’s first Emperor Augustus.

Birth and early life

She was born in Athens, Greece and after 36 BC was brought to Rome by her mother and her siblings. Antonia never had the chance to know her father, Mark Antony, who divorced her mother in 32 BC and committed suicide in 30 BC. She was raised by her mother, her uncle and her aunt, Livia Drusilla. Due to inheritances, she owned properties in Italy, Greece and Egypt. She was a wealthy and influential woman who often received people, who were visiting Rome. Antonia had many male friends and they included wealthy Jew Alexander the Alabarch and Lucius Vitellius, a consul and father of future Emperor Aulus Vitellius.

Marriage to Drusus

In 16 BC, she married the Roman general and consul Nero Claudius Drusus. Drusus was the stepson of her uncle Augustus, second son of Livia Drusilla and brother of future Emperor Tiberius. They had several children, but only three survived: the famous general Germanicus, Livilla and the Roman Emperor Claudius. Antonia was the grandmother of the Emperor Caligula, the Empress Agrippina the Younger and through Agrippina, great-grandmother and great-aunt of the Emperor Nero. Drusus died in June 9 BC in Germany, due to complications from injuries he sustained after falling from a horse. After his death, although pressured by her uncle to remarry, she never did.

Antonia raised her children in Rome. Tiberius adopted Germanicus in AD 4 (Suet. Tib. 15, Gai. 1., Div. Claud. 2). Germanicus died in 19 AD, presumably poisoned through the handiwork of Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso and Munatia Plancina. On the orders of Tiberius and Livia Drusilla, Antonia was forbidden to go to his funeral (suggested, but not stated by Tac. Ann. 3.3). When Livia Drusilla died in June 29 AD, Antonia took care of Caligula, Agrippina the Younger, Julia Drusilla, Julia Livilla and later Claudia Antonia, Claudius's daughter through his second wife Aelia Paetina, her younger grandchildren.

Antonia's children

Antonia's children were Germanicus, Livilla, and Claudius.

Germanicus

Germanicus was very popular among the citizens of Rome, who enthusiastically celebrated all his victories. He was also a favourite with Augustus, his grandfather-in-law, who, for some time, considered him as heir to the Empire. He was married to Agrippina the Elder, daughter of Julia the Elder (Augustus's own daughter) and Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. He had nine children by Agrippina but only six lived to adulthood. They were (from oldest to youngest) Nero Caesar, Drusus Caesar, the Emperor Caligula, the Empress Agrippina the Younger, Julia Drusilla and Julia Livilla. In 4 AD, Augustus finally decided in favour of Tiberius, his stepson, but he was compelled to adopt Germanicus as a son and name him his heir. After the death of Augustus in 14 AD, the Senate appointed Germanicus commander of the forces in Germania. Tiberius was made emperor, but he was highly unpopular and the legions rioted on the news. Refusing to accept Tiberius, the rebel soldiers cried for Germanicus as emperor. However, Germanicus refused. Germanicus died in Antioch, Syria in 19 AD, a year after he defeated the kingdoms of Cappadocia and Commagene. His death was surrounded by speculation, and several sources refer to claims that he was poisoned by Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso, governor of Syria, under orders of the emperor Tiberius.

Livilla

In 31 AD, Antonia exposed a plot by her daughter Livilla and Tiberius’ notorious Praetorian prefect, Sejanus, to murder the Emperor Tiberius and Caligula and to seize the throne for themselves. Livilla had poisoned her husband, Tiberius' son, Drusus Julius Caesar (sometimes known by his nickname "Castor") to remove him as a rival. Sejanus was executed on Tiberius’ orders, and Livilla was handed over to her formidable mother for punishment. Cassius Dio states that Antonia imprisoned Livilla in her room until she starved to death.

Claudius

See Claudius

Succession of Caligula and death

When Tiberius died, Caligula became emperor in March 37 AD. Caligula awarded her a senatorial decree, granting her all the honors that Livia Drusilla had received in her lifetime. She was also offered the title of Augusta, previously only given to Augustus's wife Livia, but rejected it.

Six months into his reign, Caligula became seriously ill and never recovered, (although according to some sources, the illness was feigned). Antonia would often offer Caligula advice, but he once told her, "I can treat anyone exactly as I please!". Caligula was rumored to have had his young cousin Gemellus beheaded, to remove him as a rival to the throne. This act was said to have outraged Antonia, who was grandmother to Gemellus as well as to Caligula.^{[citation needed]}

Having had enough of Caligula’s anger at her criticisms and of his behavior, she committed suicide. Suetonius’s Caligula, clause 23, mentions how he might have poisoned her.

When his grandmother Antonia asked for a private interview, he refused it except in the presence of the prefect Macro, and by such indignities and annoyances he caused her death; although some think that he also gave her poison. After she was dead, he paid her no honour, but viewed her burning pyre from his dining-room.

When Claudius became emperor after his nephew’s assassination in 41 AD, he gave his mother the title of Augusta. Her birthday became a public holiday, which had yearly games and public sacrifices held. An image of her was paraded in a carriage.

In art and popular culture

In ancient art

• Juno Ludovisi, Palazzo Altemps, Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome
• Malta
• Ara Pacis, Rome [1]
• Location unknown [2]
• Palazzo Massimo, Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome [3] and portr-antonia-minor.jpg
• Cossyra [4]
• Cimiez Nice Archaeological Museum [5]
• Musée des Antiques de Toulouse [6]
• Coinage, e.g. [7], [8], [9] and [10]
• Harvard University Art Museums [11],
• Getty Museum [12]
• British Museum, 'Clytie' [13]
• Baiae Nymphaeum, now at Museo Archeologico dei Campi Flegrei at Baiae / Misenum [14]

For more, see Nikos Kokkinos, Antonia Augusta: Portrait of a Great Roman Lady (London ; New York : Routledge, 1992) [15].

In popular culture

Antonia is one of the main characters in the novel I, Claudius. In the television adaptation of the book she is portrayed by Margaret Tyzack.

References

Ancient sources

• Plutarch - Life of Mark Antony
• Suetonius - Caligula (Gaius) & Claudius
• Tacitus - Annals of Imperial Rome
• Valerius Maximus, Factorum et dictorum memorabilium libri iv.3.3

Secondary sources

• E. Groag, A. Stein, L. Petersen - e.a. (edd.), Prosopographia Imperii Romani saeculi I, II et III, Berlin, 1933 - . (PIR²)