Claudia Antonia (27–66 ce)

Roman noblewoman. Born in 27 ce; died in 66 ce; daughter of Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus (10 bce–54 ce), also known as the Roman Emperor Claudius (r. 41–54 ce), and his second wife Paetina; married Gnaeus Pompey; married Faustus Cornelius Sulla Felix, also known as Sulla (a consul).

The daughter of Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus (the Roman emperor, Claudius) and his second wife Paetina , Claudia Antonia was the oldest of Claudius' children to survive childhood. Before her father became a political force, she was raised on the fringe of the imperial court under the reigns of Tiberius and Caligula (respectively, the uncle and nephew of her father), and she would remain an imperial pawn throughout her life. Claudia's political importance increased enormously after Caligula's assassination elevated her father to the imperial throne in 41 ce. Never taken seriously in a political sense until the Praetorian Guard (seeking a supposedly malleable emperor from the Julio-Claudian house) forced his accession, Claudius fooled everyone by ruling well until his weakness for beautiful women and the encroachment of senility combined to undermine the effectiveness of his declining years.

As the daughter of the emperor, Claudia's political importance was manifest; whomever she married was guaranteed a close connection to the imperial house and thus a status with the potential to affect the imperial succession. Had her mother Paetina continued as Claudius' wife, Claudia Antonia's interests would have been well served. However, by the time of his political rise in 41, Claudius was madly smitten with the beautiful but notorious Messalina , his second cousin. Messalina was around 15 when she married Claudius (in 38 ce); he was 48. Although Messalina gave birth to a daughter (Octavia ) and a son (Britannicus), she was scandalously prone to adultery, though for a time her hold over Claudius was so great that he was inclined to overlook her indiscretions. After Claudia's mother was replaced by Messalina, Claudia (just slightly younger than Messalina) constituted a threat to the successional aspirations of Britannicus, if for no other reason than that a husband of hers could function as a focal point of political opposition to Messalina's son. Claudia's first husband Gnaeus Pompey was executed at Messalina's command. In 48, Claudia realized a degree of revenge for this murder, for in that year Messalina herself was executed for treason.

In 49, Claudius again married—this time to his niece Agrippina the Younger . The ramifications of this union for the succession were enormous, for in the year 50 Agrippina convinced Claudius to adopt Nero (her son by a previous marriage) and to establish him as the "guardian" of the younger Britannicus. In 53, Nero strengthened his status at court by marrying Octavia, Claudius' daughter by Messalina. In the next year, the ground having been carefully prepared, Agrippina (in collusion with Nero) murdered the now mentally befuddled Claudius to set into motion the process that would establish Nero on the throne; this process included Britannicus' death in 55, and even Agrippina's in 59. Since Nero had insured through marriage that no political opposition could focus on Octavia, when court intrigue did mount against the increasingly irresponsible Nero, it sought alternative ties to Nero's imperial predecessor. With Octavia out of the picture, the most obvious link to the legitimacy of Claudius was Claudia Antonia, whose second husband, Faustus Cornelius Sulla Felix, was a prominent figure at the imperial court. An associate of Claudius late in his reign, Sulla had been rewarded with a consulship in 52. Such an honor insured Nero's enmity—an animosity only heightened when many at court began to turn to Sulla as a potential imperial candidate. Such promotion, however, only assured Sulla's exile (58) and eventual murder (62) at Nero's command.

After the loss of a second husband to imperial jealousy, Claudia Antonia refused all subsequent offers of marriage, knowing full well a husband would be considered a political threat by Nero. Ironically, it was Claudia's refusal of a third suitor, which led to her death. Although married to Octavia, Nero prominently adopted as his mistress a woman named Poppaea Sabina (probably beginning in 58). In 62, as Nero's relationship with Poppaea intensified, he decided to "legitimate" their association (spurred both by political intrigue and by the promise of their first child—a daughter named Claudia) by marrying Poppaea. In order to do so, Nero first divorced Octavia. Shortly thereafter, to insure that she would be put to no political use, Nero ordered her death. These actions horrified the Roman elite, but not as much as what followed. In 65, angry at her husband's dallying at the Circus Maximus, Poppaea, pregnant a second time, raged at Nero. Unused to such treatment, Nero responded with a kick to Poppaea's abdomen, causing her death. Probably contrite about the killing, and certainly bothered by the intensified rumblings about his outrageous behavior, Nero sought to shore up his crumbling standing by proposing marriage to Claudia Antonia (eight years his senior). Bearing a grudge against Nero for the loss of Sulla, however, Claudia refused and Nero was forced to "console" himself in 66 with a marriage to another of his mistresses, one Statilia Messalina . Within a year, this happy couple undertook a grand tour of Greece, where Nero would so embarrass the Roman elite as to number his days. Before abandoning Italy for the east, however, he took vengeance upon Claudia by ordering her death on the grounds that she had incited revolution against him. In fact, Claudia Antonia had done nothing but refuse his hand, but in the mind of Nero that was enough to prove treason. Claudia's death brought the direct line of Claudius to an end, and was a harbinger to the demise of the Julio-Claudian dynasty—an end realized when Nero himself was forced to commit suicide in 68.

William S. Greenwalt , Associate Professor of Classical History, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California