Atia (also Atia Balba) (85 BC – 43 BC) was the niece of

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...

(through his sister Julia Minor), and mother of Gaius Octavius, who became the Emperor

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...

. Through her daughter Octavia, she was also the great-grandmother of

Germanicus Germanicus Julius Caesar (24 May 15 BC – 10 October AD 19) was an ancient Roman general, known for his campaigns in Germania. The son of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia the Younger, Germanicus was born into an influential branch of the patr ...

and his brother, emperor

Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Drusus and Antonia Minor ...

Biography

Early life

Atia was the daughter of Julia Minor and her husband

praetor Praetor ( , ), also pretor, was the title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected ''magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to discharge vario ...

Marcus Atius Balbus Marcus Atius Balbus (105 – 51 BC) was a 1st-century BC Roman who served as a praetor in 62 BC, he was a cousin of the general Pompey on his mother's side and a brother-in-law of the Dictator Julius Caesar through his marriage to Caesar's sister ...

. Atia had at least one younger sister, and possibly an older one. Due to this, she is sometimes called ''Atia Secunda'' or ''Atia Balba Secunda''. She may also have had a brother.

First marriage

Her first marriage was with Gaius Octavius, the praetor in 61 BC and then Macedonian

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political r ...

. Her family lived close to

Velitrae Velletri (; la, Velitrae; xvo, Velester) is an Italian ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome, approximately 40 km to the southeast of the city centre, located in the Alban Hills, in the region of Lazio, central Italy. Neighbouring com ...

, ancestral home of the Octavii. They had two children:

Octavia Minor Octavia the Younger ( la, Octavia Minor; c. 66 BC – 11 BC) was the elder sister of the first Roman Emperor, Augustus (known also as Octavian), the half-sister of Octavia the Elder, and the fourth wife of Mark Antony. She was also the great-gr ...

, born around 66 BC, and the younger Gaius Octavius, born in 63 BC. In his ''

Dialogus de oratoribus The ''Dialogus de oratoribus'' is a short work attributed to Tacitus, in dialogue form, on the art of rhetoric. Its date of composition is unknown, though its dedication to Lucius Fabius Justus places its publication around 102 AD. Summary ...

'',

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historiography, Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his t ...

notes her to be exceptionally religious and moral, and one of the most admired matrons in the history of the

Republic A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...

In her presence no base word could be uttered without grave offence, and no wrong deed done. Religiously and with the utmost delicacy she regulated not only the serious tasks of her youthful charges, but also their recreations and their games.

Suetonius' account of Augustus mentions the divine omens she experienced before and after his birth:

When Atia had come in the middle of the night to the solemn service of Apollo, she had her litter set down in the temple and fell asleep, while the rest of the matrons also slept. On a sudden a serpent glided up to her and shortly went away. When she awoke, she purified herself, as if after the embraces of her husband, and at once there appeared on her body a mark in colours like a serpent, and she could never get rid of it; so that presently she ceased ever to go to the public baths. In the tenth month after that Augustus was born and was therefore regarded as the son of Apollo. Atia too, before she gave him birth, dreamed that her vitals were borne up to the stars and spread over the whole extent of land and sea, while Octavius dreamed that the sun rose from Atia's womb. (Suetonius:94:4)

The day he was born the conspiracy of
Catiline Lucius Sergius Catilina ( 108 BC – January 62 BC), known in English as Catiline (), was a Roman politician and soldier. He is best known for instigating the Catilinarian conspiracy, a failed attempt to violently seize control of the R ...
was before the House, and Octavius came late because of his wife's confinement; then Publius Nigidius, as everyone knows, learning the reason for his tardiness and being informed also of the hour of the birth, declared that the ruler of the world had been born. (Suetonius:94:5) Suetonius. ''
The Twelve Caesars ''De vita Caesarum'' (Latin; "About the Life of the Caesars"), commonly known as ''The Twelve Caesars'', is a set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire written by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. The gr ...
''. Retrieved a
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Octavius died in 59 BC, when their son Gaius Octavius (future Roman emperor

) was four years old.

Second marriage

The same year as her first husband died Atia remarried to Lucius Marcius Philippus, consul in 56 BC. Philippus already had three children at the time; the already adult Lucius Marcius Philippus (''consul suffectus'' in 38 BC who ended up marrying Atia's younger sister), Marcia (the wife of Cato the Younger) and Quintus Marcius Philippus (proconsul of Cilicia in 47 BC).Sumner, "Lex Annalis", pp. 252–254. It's possible that she and Philippus had children. Atia was so fearful for her son's safety that she and Philippus urged him to renounce his rights as Caesar's heir. She died in August or September 43 BC. Octavian honored her memory with a public funeral.

Cultural depictions

A fictionalised

Atia of the Julii This is a list of characters from the HBO series ''Rome''. The historical figures upon which certain characters are based are noted where appropriate. Main Recurring Guest * (historically, '' Antonia the Elder'' or ''Antonia Minor''), da ...

is portrayed by

Polly Walker Polly Alexandra Walker (born 19 May 1966) is an English actress. She has starred in the films '' Enchanted April'' (1991), '' Patriot Games'' (1992), '' Sliver'' (1993), '' Restoration'' (1995), '' The Gambler'' (1997), and '' Savage Messiah'' ...

in the BBC-HBO-RAI television series ''

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (Romulus and Remus, legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg ...

''. There she is portrayed as ambitious, shrewd, manipulative, sexually uninhibited, and morally bankrupt; the program also shows her as involved in a long-term romantic relationship with

Marc Antony Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic from a constitutional republic into the auto ...

. Jonathan Stamp, the historical consultant for ''Rome'', stated that in addition to the historical Atia, the character version of Atia draws significant influences from other Roman women from the same time period, such as the infamous Clodia, and Marc Antony’s wife,

Fulvia Fulvia (; c. 83 BC – 40 BC) was an aristocratic Roman woman who lived during the Late Roman Republic. Fulvia's birth into an important political dynasty facilitated her relationships and, later on, marriages to Publius Clodius Pulcher, Gaiu ...

Footnotes

References

Sources

External links

A portrait bust of Atia, from the Getty Museum

{{Authority control 85 BC births 43 BC deaths 1st-century BC Roman women 1st-century BC Romans Atii Burials at the Mausoleum of Augustus Family of Augustus Family of Julius Caesar