Lucius Antonius (grandson of Mark Antony) explained

Lucius Antonius
Birth Date:20 BC
Death Date:25 AD
Children:Marcus Antonius Primus (possibly)
Mother:Claudia Marcella Major
Father:Iullus Antonius
Relatives:Octavia Minor, maternal grandmother
Family:Julio-Claudian dynasty

Lucius Antonius (20 BC  - AD 25) was the son of Iullus Antonius (son of Mark Antony) and Claudia Marcella Major (niece of emperor Augustus).

Biography

Early life

From his mother’s earlier marriage to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa he had two older attested siblings, two half-sisters named Vipsania Marcella and Vipsania Marcellina. Some epigraphic evidence suggests he had a sister named Iulla Antonia[1] and a brother named Iullus.[2] Around 1 BC he had probably already been betrothed to a girl of high birth.[3]

In 2 BC his father was charged with adultery with Julia (daughter of Augustus) and was forced to commit suicide. Lucius was sent to Marseille as a result of his father's indiscretion. Lucius was described as a adulescentulus at the time, meaning that he was quite young.[3] He was sent there under the pretence of "studying", and it was not an official exile but was in practise the same as one.[4] Once there he studied law.

Later life

G. V. Sumner proposed that Lucius may have been a progenitor of a Junius Blaesus who was descended from Marcus Antonius.[3]

Tacitus records his death in AD 25 at Ann. 4.44.4-5.[5] Despite his father's actions the senate decreed that he should be honoured with a burial at the Tomb of the Octavii, which was the tomb of his maternal grandmother Octavia Minor. This was likely done at the request of a relative (or relatives) in the imperial family, possibly his mother Marcella if she was still alive at the time.[4]

Cultural depictions

A boy on the Ara Pacis has been identified by some to possibly be Lucius.[6] [7]

Sources

Notes and References

  1. . She must have survived infancy if a freedman set up an inscription about her.
  2. http://www.strachan.dk/family/antonius.htm Antonius
  3. Book: Syme, Ronald. The Augustan Aristocracy. Clarendon Press. 1989. 9780198147312. 144.
  4. Book: Phoenix. University of Toronto Press. 1964. University of Michigan. 143. 18–19.
  5. Web site: The Annals of Tacitus ...: Books I-VI - Cornelius Tacitus - Google Books . 2015-08-17. Tacitus . Cornelius . 1904 .
  6. Book: Rehak, Paul. Imperium and Cosmos: Augustus and the Northern Campus Martius. Univ of Wisconsin Press. 2009. 9780299220143. 131.
  7. Book: Pollini, John. The Portraiture of Gaius and Lucius Caesar. Fordham University Press. 1987. 9780823211272. 28.