Claudia Marcella was the name of the two daughters of
Octavia Minor, the sister of Emperor
Augustus, by her first husband, the
consul Gaius Claudius Marcellus Minor. According to
Suetonius, they were known as
The Marcellae sisters. The sisters were born in
Rome. Between 40 BC-36 BC, they lived with their mother and their stepfather Triumvir
Mark Antony in
Athens,
Greece. After 36 BC, they accompanied their mother, when she returned to
Rome with their siblings. They were raised and educated by their mother, their maternal uncle,
Augustus, and their maternal aunt-in-marriage Empress
Livia Drusilla. Very little is known on these two daughters of Octavia Minor.
The birth year of the elder daughter, Claudia Marcella Major (PIR2 C 1102; Major Latin for the elder) is unknown, as is much of her life. However, it is known that she was married twice.
Her first marriage took place in 28 BC, and it was to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, the close friend and loyal lieutenant of her maternal uncle, Augustus. Although Suetonius states they had children[1], it is uncertain whether any of them survived to adulthood. However, it is generally believed that Marcella bore him a daughter[2], retrospectively called Vipsania Marcella, in order to differentiate her from her three half-sisters). The existence of this daughter is attested by the oration delivered by Augustus for Agrippa at the latter man's funeral in 12 BC[3]. It is also in that oration that Vipsania Marcella's marriage to the general Publius Quinctilius Varus[4] is implied.
In 21 BC, Agrippa divorced Marcella to marry Augustus' daughter, Julia, who had recently become widowed after the death of her first husband and Marcella's brother, Marcus Claudius Marcellus. Marcella then married consul Iullus Antonius, the second son of Mark Antony from his third wife Fulvia.
