Domitia Lepida (c. 5 BC – AD 54) was a Roman aristocrat, related to the imperial family. She was mother of
Valeria Messalina, wife of the Emperor
Claudius
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; ; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54), or Claudius, was a Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Nero Claudius Drusus, Drusus and Ant ...
. Lepida was a beautiful and influential figure. Like her sister, she was also very wealthy. She had holdings in
Calabria
Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...
and owned the ''praedia Lepidiana''.
Biography
Lepida was the daughter of
Antonia Major and
Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, and granddaughter to triumvir
Mark Antony
Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman people, Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the Crisis of the Roman Republic, transformation of the Roman Republic ...
by
Octavia Minor, a great-niece of the
Roman Emperor Augustus
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...
. She had two siblings:
Domitia and
Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus (consul AD 32).
Lepida was married three times. Her first husband was her cousin,
Marcus Valerius Messalla Barbatus. Lepida married Barbatus probably around AD 15, suggesting that she was born in approximately 4 BC. It was standard for princesses in the imperial family to marry before their 18th birthday. They had a daughter,
Valeria Messalina (c. AD 17/20-48), who became Empress and third wife to the Emperor Claudius. Barbatus most likely died around AD 20 or 21, shortly after Messalina was born. It is extremely unlikely that
Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus was their son, since Lepida's son by her second husband reached the consulship earlier than Messalla. Lepida's second husband was
Faustus Cornelius Sulla,
consul
Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...
in AD 31, a descendant of the dictator Lucius Cornelius
Sulla
Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (, ; 138–78 BC), commonly known as Sulla, was a Roman people, Roman general and statesman of the late Roman Republic. A great commander and ruthless politician, Sulla used violence to advance his career and his co ...
. Their son,
Faustus Cornelius Sulla Felix was born c. AD 22 and married
Claudia Antonia
Claudia Antonia (Classical Latin: ANTONIA•CLAUDII•CAESARIS•FILIA (edd), ''Prosopographia Imperii Romani saeculi I, II et III'', Berlin, 1933 - A 886) (c. AD 30–AD 66) was the daughter and oldest surviving child of the Roman Emperor C ...
, the daughter of Claudius through his second marriage to
Aelia Paetina. Faustus Cornelius Sulla died in 62.
At the beginning of the reign of her son-in-law, Claudius, Lepida, now a widow, married
Appius Junius Silanus, (cos. AD 28). In the following year (AD 42), Silanus was put to death by Claudius, allegedly because he had plotted to assassinate Claudius, but the rumor circulated that Messalina had framed him after he resisted her advances.
Lepida was the maternal grandmother to Messalina's children
Claudia Octavia
Claudia Octavia (late 39 or early 40 – June 9, AD 62) was a Roman empress. She was the daughter of the Emperor Claudius and Valeria Messalina. After her mother's death and father's remarriage to her cousin Agrippina the Younger, she became ...
(step-sister and first wife of Nero) and
Britannicus. In AD 48, Messalina was executed on the orders of Claudius, due to Messalina's mock marriage with her lover Gaius Silius which swiftly evolved into a failed
coup d'état
A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup
, is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...
. During Messalina's heyday, Lepida argued with Messalina and they became estranged (this likely followed Appius Silanus' execution). In Messalina's last hour in the Gardens of Lucullus, Lepida was at her side and encouraged her to end her own life.
[Tacitus, ''Annals'' 11.37.] After Messalina was stabbed with a dagger by an officer, her body was given up to Lepida.
Lepida's former sister-in-law,
Agrippina the Younger
Julia Agrippina (6 November AD 15 – 23 March AD 59), also referred to as Agrippina the Younger, was Roman empress from AD 49 to 54, the fourth wife and niece of emperor Claudius, and the mother of Nero.
Agrippina was one of the most prominent ...
, became Claudius' new wife in AD 49. Out of jealousy, Agrippina arranged the execution of Lepida sometime before the poisoning of Claudius, after which Nero became the new emperor. Agrippina charged Lepida with attempting to take her life by magic, disturbing Roman peace, and failing to control her
Calabria
Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...
n slave-gangs. Agrippina thought that Lepida would use her 'kind' influence on Nero to turn him against his mother.
Cultural depictions
She was played by
Moira Redmond in the 1976 BBC TV series ''
I, Claudius''.
See also
*
List of Roman women
*
Women in ancient Rome
Freeborn (Ancient Rome), Freeborn women in ancient Rome were Roman citizenship, citizens (''cives''), but could not vote or hold Roman magistrate, political office. Because of their limited public role, women are named less frequently than men by ...
References
Citations
Bibliography
* Levick, Barbara, ''Claudius''. Yale University Press, New Haven, 1990
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lepida, Domitia
5 BC births
54 deaths
1st-century BC Roman women
1st-century BC Romans
1st-century Roman women
1st-century Romans
Executed ancient Roman women
Lepida
Julio-Claudian dynasty
People executed by the Roman Empire
Year of birth unknown