Rubellia Bassa (born between 33-38) was a daughter of

Gaius Rubellius Blandus Gaius Rubellius Blandus was a Roman senator who lived during the Principate. Blandus was the grandson of Rubellius Blandus of Tibur, a member of the Equestrian class, who was the first Roman to teach rhetoric. He was suffect consul from August to ...

, consul in AD 18 and possibly his wife

Julia Livia Julia Livia (7 – 43 AD), was the daughter of Drusus Julius Caesar and Livilla, and granddaughter of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. She was also a first cousin of the emperor Caligula, and niece of the emperor Claudius. Biography Early life Jul ...

(killed 43) but more probably an earlier wife.

Possible imperial ancestry

It has been theorized that her mother was

(daughter of

Drusus Julius Caesar Drusus Julius Caesar (14 BC – 14 September AD 23), was the son of Emperor Tiberius, and heir to the Roman Empire following the death of his adoptive brother Germanicus in AD 19. He was born at Rome to a prominent branch of the ''gens Claud ...

and

Livilla Claudia Livia (Classical Latin: CLAVDIA•LIVIA; c. 13 BC – AD 31) was the only daughter of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia Minor and sister to Roman Emperor Claudius and general Germanicus, and thus paternal aunt of emperor Caligula and ...

), which would make Bassa the great-granddaughter of

Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus (; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was the second Roman emperor. He reigned from AD 14 until 37, succeeding his stepfather, the first Roman emperor Augustus. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC. His father ...

and the great-great-niece of

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 Pr ...

through his sister

Octavia the Younger 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-gra ...

; however, this lineage is uncertain because her father,

married

Julia Julia is usually a feminine given name. It is a Latinate feminine form of the name Julio and Julius. (For further details on etymology, see the Wiktionary entry "Julius".) The given name ''Julia'' had been in use throughout Late Antiquity (e.g ...

when he was around 55, which makes an earlier marriage likely (possibly to a Laecania Bassa), and Rubellia Bassa may have been the daughter of Blandus by this theorized earlier marriage. Bassa had at least one sibling or half-sibling, a brother named Gaius Rubellius Plautus who was one of the nearest heirs of the blood of Tiberius, being the grandson of

. Plautus was forced to kill himself in 62 and his wife Antistia Pollitta and children were executed four years later, perhaps because the children were direct descendants of previous Roman Emperors.

Marriage and possible descendants

Rubellia Bassa married Gaius Octavius Laenas, maternal uncle of the future emperor Nerva.

Ronald Syme Sir Ronald Syme, (11 March 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a New Zealand-born historian and classicist. He was regarded as the greatest historian of ancient Rome since Theodor Mommsen and the most brilliant exponent of the history of the Roman ...

claims that Sergius Octavius Laenas Pontianus, consul in 131 under Emperor Hadrian, set up a dedication to his grandmother, " ublliae / ladi f(iliae) Bassae / Octavi Laenatis / Sergius Octavius / Laenas Pontianus / aviae optimae ".Syme, ''Tacitus'', Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958, pp. 627-8 This obscure link is perhaps a continuation of the

Julio-Claudian , native_name_lang=Latin, coat of arms=Great_Cameo_of_France-removebg.png, image_size=260px, caption= The Great Cameo of France depicting emperors Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius and Nero, type=Ancient Roman dynasty, country= Roman Empire, estates=* ...

bloodline through the

2nd century The 2nd century is the period from 101 ( CI) through 200 ( CC) in accordance with the Julian calendar. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period. Early in the century, the Roman Empire attained its greatest e ...

References

30s births Year of death unknown 1st-century Roman women Rubellii {{AncientRome-bio-stub

Possible imperial ancestry

Marriage and possible descendants

See also

References