Marcus's Women

Hello, readers!

I'm delighted to begin a series of blogs which will support content in my next book, Antonius: Soldier of Fate--the final book in the Antonius Trilogy. Today, I'll be sharing a little about Marcus Antonius's first three wives: Fadia, Antonia, and Fulvia Bambula.

Not much is known about Fadia--wife #1. She has certainly proven herself to be a favorite character in Son of Rome, though. Every reader loves her! Cicero is the only primary source that mentions Fadia, and it was in an assault against Antonius, in one of  fourteen speeches, known as the Philippics. So what do we know about her? First, she was the daughter of a freedman, Quintus Fadius. Whether or not she was actually a slave within the domus Antonii is unknown. Some Classicists suggest that perhaps Fadius was a man of great wealth and that Antonius chose the marriage to assist in his great debt. However, that cannot be proven, so it was delightful coming up with my own material concerning her.

Fadia and Antonius may have been parents, as Cicero mentions it, but if so, both mother and children were dead by the end of 44 BC. It is not impossible that she may have been a slave in the domus Antonii, as was the case in my novel, Son of Rome. 

High-born ladies, such as Julia Antonia, Antonius's mother, would indeed have had slave women to dress them, do their hair, make-up, and even accompany them shopping, the baths, or to cater to their needs at dinner-parties. As depicted in Sir Lawrence Alma-tadema's rich painting at right, "The Frigidarium", personal slaves, attached to wealthy nobles would have been at their disposal night and day.

Many question why Antonius would have married Fadia, since he was of a noble family and she was the daughter of a former slave. We'll probably never know his motives, so it was a fun thing upon which to build my story. Did they love one another? Were there children? Was there an awful tragedy as I wrote into my story in Son of Rome? Some scholars don't believe they were married at all and that Fadia may have simply been Antonius's first great love-affair.

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​It is well-known that Antonia Hybrida (daughter of Marcus Antonius's uncle, Gaius Antonius Hybrida) was Antonius's first marriage to a noble lady. Antonia was also his first cousin. Though we consider such marriages incestuous in our culture today, Romans in the 1st century BC allowed the practice. However, they frowned upon unions to any closer blood relatives than that. 

Antonius's marriage to his cousin probably took place after his first adventures in the East as a cavalry officer under Gabinius. They remained married at least until after Caesar's victory at Alesia (52 BC). Alledgedly, Antonia formed a romantic relationship with Publius Dolabella. He and Antonius probably endured a rather stormy relationship, since Dolabella was married to Tullia, the daughter of Cicero, who was already at odds with the Antonii by that time. It's unclear exactly when, but once Antonius learned of the affair, he promptly divorced his cousin. Together, Antonius and Antonia had a daughter--another Antonia! (I swear the ancient Romans had ZERO imagination whatsoever when it came to names!)

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At right, is a coin bearing the likeness of Fulvia Bambula, the 3rd wife of Marcus Antonius. Interestinly enough, it is the first coin bearing the profile of a mortal woman in Roman coinage. I say "mortal", as it was common practice to place representations of female deities on coinage.

Fulvia was first married to Publius Clodius, the politician and well-known riot-monger of Rome's late Republic. Cicero claimed in his Phillipics that Antonius was having an affair with Fulvia. (In my book Second in Command, she is the one who actually makes moves on him!) And there was a recorded altercation between Antonius and Clodius in the Forum Romanum (again mentioned in Cicero's Philippics.)


After Milo murdered Clodius, it wasn't long before Fulvia remarried another one of Antonius's colleagues--Gaius Scribonius Curio, the younger. When Antonius finally married her after Curio's death, he indeed had a wife of noble lineage, as Fulvia could boast descent from the famous Punic War hero Scipio Africanus. 

Like her heroic ancestor, Fulvia had no interest in household matters, though such was expected of women. She enjoyed being around men who wielded power, so as Antonius rose to prominence at Caesar's side she was undoubtedly involved in many aspects of his career. Possibly too much so, as was revealed while Antonius was in Egypt in 41-40 BC, when she and Antonius's brother Lucius Antonius were involved in the siege at Perusia. 

Fulvia was the mother of Marcus Antonius's Roman heir, named for his father but called "Antyllus". She also bore him a second son, Iullus Antonius. Iullus is mentioned in my final book, but his fate was as tragic as his father's. He fell into a romantic relationship with Octavian Augustus's daughter, Julia. When Augustus learned of this, he had Iullus imprisoned and the young man chose suicide. Fulvia's eventual fate was also tragic, and is an integral scene in my last book in the trilogy, Antonius: Soldier of Fate.

Next week, I'll be sharing about two very important ladies who share leading roles in Antonius's later life: Octavia and Cleopatra VII, Philopater. I hope you'll join me next week to learn a few fun-facts about both of them! In the meantime, READ ON and I'll be sharing my big cover reveal SOON!

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