Aemilia (wife of Pompey)
Aemilia Scaura (ca 100 BC – 82 BC) was the daughter of Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, a patrician, and his second wife Caecilia Metella Dalmatica.
By the time of her birth, Scaurus was around 70 and, as princeps senatus, the speaker of the Senate, was one of the most important politicians of Rome. After her father's death, Caecilia Metella married Lucius Cornelius Sulla. Aemilia was married to Manius Acilius Glabrio, and she was pregnant. Plutarch wrote that when Sulla was appointed dictator "he admired Pompey for his high qualities and thought him a great help in his administration of affairs, he was anxious to attach him to himself by some sort of a marriage alliance. His wife Metella shared his wishes, and together they persuaded Pompey to divorce Antistia and marry Aemilia." [1] The marriage was tragic, "the young woman died in childbirth at the house of Pompey." [2] Plutarch commented that "This marriage was therefore characteristic of a tyranny, and befitted the needs of Sulla rather than the nature and habits of Pompey..." [3]
The Via Aemilia Scaura is a Roman road built by Marcus Aemilius Scaurus.
Notes
References
Plutarch, Parallel Lives, The Live of Sulla, The Life of Pompey, The Complete Collection of Plutarch's Parallel Lives, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014; ISBN 978-1505387513; see [1] accessed June 2016