Vipsania (wife of Varus)

Vipsania (likely born between 28–22 BC and sometimes called Vipsania Marcella to differentiate her from her sisters) was an ancient Roman noblewoman of the first century BC. She was married to the politician Publius Quinctilius Varus[1] and was a daughter of Roman general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and his second wife Claudia Marcella Major (the niece of emperor Caesar Augustus).[2]

For other uses, see Vipsania (disambiguation).
Vipsania
SpousePublius Quinctilius Varus
ChildrenSextus Nonius Quinctilianus
Parents
Relativesgens Vipsania
FamilyJulio-Claudian dynasty
Roman imperial dynasties
Julio-Claudian dynasty
Chronology
27 BC – AD 14
AD 14–37
AD 37–41
AD 41–54
AD 54–68
Preceded by
Roman Republic		 Followed by
Year of the Four Emperors

History

Early life

Vipsania was likely born between 28 BC and 22 BC to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and his second wife Claudia Marcella Major, the eldest daughter of emperor Augustus sister Octavia Minor. This hypothesis is rebutted by Meyer Reinhold who considered that she was the daughter by Agrippa's first wife Pomponia Caecilia Attica.[3][4]

She is thought to have had a younger full sister and two older half sisters (one who married Quintus Haterius and another named Vipsania Agrippina who married the future emperor Tiberius)[5] as well as five younger half-siblings named Gaius Caesar, Lucius Caesar, Agrippina the Elder, Vipsania Julia and Agrippa Postumus from her father's third and last marriage to Julia the Elder. From her mother she also likely had several younger half siblings, among them Lucius Antonius and Iulla Antonia.[6]

Marriage

She likely married Varus around 14 BC.[7] She was his second wife.[8] Their marriage was considered the reason why Varus was selected to be consul in 13 BC with Tiberius.[9][10] She might have been the mother of Sextus Nonius Quinctilianus if he was indeed Varus' son[11] or another son who served with his father in 4 AD.[12][13] Their marriage did not last much longer than a decade from his consulship, since by then Varus was married to another woman.[14]

Research

Her existence was first discovered to modern historians upon the rediscovery of a papyrus recounting Augustus' funeral oration for Agrippa which states that Varus and Tiberius were both sons-in-law to Agrippa.[15]

See also

References
  1. Severy, Beth (2004). Augustus and the Family at the Birth of the Roman Empire. Routledge. p. 65. ISBN 9781134391837.
  2. Wells, Peter S. (2004). The Battle That Stopped Rome: Emperor Augustus, Arminius, and the Slaughter of the Legions in the Teutoburg Forest. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 81. ISBN 9780393352030.
  3. Reinhold, "Marcus Agrippa's Son-in-Law P Quinctilius Varus", Classical Philology 67 (1972), pp. 119–121.
  4. Waite, Stephen V. F. (1972). "The Contest in Vergil's Seventh Eclogue". Classical Philology. 67 (2): 121–123. doi:10.1086/365843. JSTOR 269221. S2CID 161661620.
  5. Syme, Ronald (1989). The Augustan Aristocracy (illustrated and revised ed.). Clarendon Press. p. 504. ISBN 9780198147312.
  6. de la Bédoyère, Guy (2018). Domina: The Women Who Made Imperial Rome. Yale University Press. p. 312. ISBN 9780300240672.
  7. Abdale, Jason R. (2016). Four Days in September: The Battle of Teutoburg. Pen and Sword. ISBN 9781473860872.
  8. Craven, Maxwell (2019). The Imperial Families of Ancient Rome. Fonthill Media.
  9. Levick, Barbara (2014). Augustus: Image and Substance. Routledge. p. 140. ISBN 9781317867449.
  10. Stern, Gaius (2009). "Varus' Legacy After Teutoburger Wald" – via www.researchgate.net.
  11. Levick, Barbara, Tiberius the Politician (1999). 36
  12. Crosby, Daniel J. (2016), The Case for Another Son of P. Quinctilius Varus: a Re-examination of the Textual and Scholarly Traditions Around Joseph. BJ 2.68 and AJ 17.288, Bryn Mawr College, pp. 123, 125
  13. Roncaglia, Alessandro (2015). Giochi di famiglia: dinamiche di potere tra Augusto e Tiberio [Family games: dynamics of power between Augustus and Tiberius] (PDF) (PhD thesis) (in Italian). University of Bologna. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 February 2020.
  14. Syme, Ronald (1989). The Augustan Aristocracy (illustrated and revised ed.). Clarendon Press. p. 315. ISBN 9780198147312.
  15. Syme, Ronald (1989). The Augustan Aristocracy (illustrated and revised ed.). Clarendon Press. p. 146. ISBN 9780198147312.
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