Marriages of Pompey the Great

Julia Caesar, in a 16th century artist's fanciful illustration; Julia, Pompey's fourth wife, was Julius Caesar's only child

Pompey the Great was a Roman statesman and military commander of the first century BCE. Per classicist Shelly P. Haley, Pompey "made use of marriage in a traditional fashion to further his political career" but emphasis on Pompey's ambition has often "caused the modern scholar to lose sight of the woman in such an alliance and to ignore the intimate relationships possible at the heart of such a marriage."

Marriage in the Late Republic

See also: Marriage in ancient Rome

Pompey's approach to marriage has been described as 'traditionalist'. For aristocrats of the Roman Republic, marriage was a significant means of forming political alliances and thereby advancing in society. It is generally considered that romantic attraction, while not necessarily absent, was not the primary consideration in the arrangement of such marriages, which were usually arranged — and, at least legally, had to be approved — by the paterfamilias of both partners. The importance of such marriage alliances has been debated: Erich Gruen has described them as a fundamental mechanism behind Roman political coalitions,, while scholars such as Peter Brunt have suggested that factions coalesced around individual personalities more than around family alliances.

Pompey's 'serial marriage' has been held up as an example of the double standard applied to elite Roman men, for whom multiple marriage was seen as usual, and to women, who were expected to ascribe to a cultural ideal of having only one husband throughout their lives.

Scholarly attention has often focused on the political aspects of such marriages, particularly for the men involved, at the expense of the personal aspects, which in turn has led to a disproportionate focus on the male partners over their wives. While these women have been likened to 'sacks of cash' handed around by their families for political, social or economic gain, scholars have also highlighted the extent to which some aristocratic women were able to use marriage to promote their own or their families' interests. Pompey, for his part, has been described as a 'faithful husband' who appears to have felt genuine love towards at least his later wives.

Antistia (86–82 BCE)

Main articles: Antistia (wife of Pompey) and Publius Antistius

Antistia was the daughter of Publius Antistius, a Roman lawyer, orator and statesman from the gens Antistia. She married Pompey in 86 BCE, and he divorced her in 82 BCE in favour of Aemilia, the stepdaughter of Sulla.

Antistia's father, Publius Antistius, was of a relatively obscure background, but rose to prominence in the early 80s BCE as one of the better orators working at the time. He was elected tribune of the plebs in 88 BCE, and gained further prominence during the absence of the dictator Sulla from Rome during the First Mithridatic War (89-85 BCE). During this period, Sulla's enemies, Gaius Marius and then Cornelius Cinna, gained political supremacy. Cicero described this as a time of lawlessness and corruption, and Antistius's prominence has been taken as evidence for his implication in the judicial irregularities of the period.

Marriage to Pompey

In 86 BCE, in his capacity as iudex, Antistius presided over the trial of Pompey for embezzlement of public funds (peculatus) during the Social War. The trial has been largely characterised as a sham, with its outcome assured from the start. Antistius showed favour to Pompey throughout the trial, and secretly promised Antistia to him in marriage while the proceedings were still ongoing — a fact which, however, became common knowledge: when Antistius announced the verdict of acquittal, Plutarch reports that the crowd began shouting 'Talasio!', the customary acclamation of a marriage.

Antistia's marriage to Pompey has thus been interpreted as 'the most characteristic example of political marriage, and … the most pitiful and pathetic': as a cynically-minded attempt by Antistius to increase his standing through alliance to an up-and-coming young nobleman, and by Pompey as an equally cynical attempt to avoid any chance of an adverse verdict, as well as to gain the favour and patronage of Antistius and his family. Erich Gruen has described it as the first of Pompey's marriages intended to give him 'access to the inner citadels of senatorial power'.

No children are known from the marriage, which is generally assumed to have been childless.

Divorce

In 82 BCE, Sulla and his wife Metella persuaded Pompey to divorce Antistia in favour of Sulla's stepdaughter, Aemilia. The reasons for the marriage are ambiguous, and perhaps mixed: Plutarch explains the marriage through Sulla's desire to reward Pompey for his successful service in the civil war against the Marians during 83–82, and to make a marriage alliance with a capable man who could be of use to him. However, the marriage has also been characterised as Sulla's attempt to neutralise the potential threat of Pompey's popularity and growing power.

The divorce seems to have been painful for Pompey: Plutarch writes that it 'befitted the needs of Sulla rather than the nature and habits of Pompey', in that Aemilia was already pregnant by her current husband, the future consul Manius Acilius Glabrio. The remark may also allude to Pompey's passionate nature and, perhaps, his attachment to Antistia. For Antistia, the divorce was doubly unfortunate: her father had been killed during a senate-meeting at the Curia Hostilia in the same year by Marian supporters, led by the praetor Junius Damasippus, who viewed Antistius as unreliable, despite his earlier co-operation, due to his marriage alliance with Pompey. Her mother, Calpurnia, had also killed herself upon hearing of the divorce, which Plutarch described as an 'indignity'.

Little is known of Antistia's reaction to the divorce, or of her life afterwards.

Antistia has been described as a 'political victim', and the affair has taken as evidence of Roman women's lack of control over their marital lives, and the overarching importance of political concerns over personal in aristocratic Roman marriages. However, the parallels between Plutarch's account of Pompey's divorce from Antistia and his account of Caesar's refusal to divorce his own wife Calpurnia, when ordered to do so by Sulla, have led to the suggestion that the framing of the narrative as found in Plutarch may originate with a Caesarian propagandist, perhaps Oppius, whom Plutarch consulted while working on the Life of Pompey. Susan Jacobs has also situated Plutarch's narrative of Antistia's marriage and divorce in a tradition of 'advice literature' to statesmen, and viewed Plutarch's portrayal of the affair as a warning of how marriage alliances could serve both as political tools and as reputational risks.

Aemilia (82 BCE)

Aemilia was the daughter of Sulla's fourth wife, Caecilia Metella, who had married Sulla after the death of Aemilia's father, Marcus Aemilius Scaurus.

Caecilia Metella died around the time of Aemilia's marriage to Pompey in 82 BCE. At this point, Pompey was around twenty-four years old. According to Plutarch, Aemilia was reluctant to divorce her previous husband, Manius Acilius Glabrio, and had to be 'torn away' from the marriage. The persistence of Aemilia's doubts in the historical record has been taken as evidence against the suggestion that all Roman women were content to be used by their families for political gain.

Aemilia, who had already been pregnant by her previous husband Glabrio, died giving birth to her son, named Manius Acilius Glabrio after his father, soon after the marriage was concluded.

As with Pompey's relationship with Antistia, the facts of his marriage to Aemilia are known entirely from Plutarch's Lives. Keith Hopkins has suggested that Plutarch's implications as to the motives behind the marriage may be 'suspect'.

Mucia Tertia (79–61 BCE)

Main article: Mucia Tertia

Mucia was a half-sister of Quintus Metellus Celer and Quintus Metellus Nepos, both members of the powerful gens Caecilia, which may have been a significant factor behind the marriage. She had either been betrothed or married to Gaius Marius the Younger, who died by suicide in 82 BCE. Her family had previously been allies of Sulla, Pompey's patron, and Sulla himself had married into it.

Mucia was the mother of all three of Pompey's children that survived to adulthood: a daughter, Pompeia, and two sons, Sextus and Gnaeus.

Pompey divorced Mucia in 61 BCE, for reasons that remain unclear. Contemporary sources, such as Cicero, give little explanation: in his letters, which Plutarch cited as a source for the cause of the divorce, Cicero claims that 'Mucia's divorce is heartily approved of' Shelley Haley has suggested that 'politics seem to have been the overriding concern' in the divorce: specifically, that Pompey wished to divorce Mucia in order to make a further marriage alliance through another match. From 67 BCE, the interests of the Metelli diverged from Pompey's over his treatment of Lucullus, their relative, whom Pompey deprived of command in the Third Mithridatic War.

A later tradition, possibly beginning with Plutarch, claimed that Mucia had been unfaithful: Suetonius alleged that Julius Caesar had seduced her, leading to his acquisition of the nickname 'Aegisthus' after the seducer of Agamemnon's wife Clytemnestra in Greek mythology. Erich Gruen has suggested that Pompey's divorce from Mucia was motivated by a desire to render himself eligible for remarriage to a niece of Cato the Younger, and thereby to create a marriage alliance with the latter's family.

Pompey's divorce broke his alliance with the Metelli and attracted the enmity of her brothers Celer and Nepos. After the divorce, Mucia retained a respected position in Roman society. Around 61 BCE, she married Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, with whom she had at least one son, named after his father. During the conflict between Octavian, Mark Antony and her son Sextus in 40–39 BCE, Mucia represented Octavian in talks with Sextus Pompey. After the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE, she successfully negotiated for the life of her youngest son. This is the last mention of Mucia in the historical record; her date of death is unknown.

Julia (59–54 BCE)

Main article: Julia (daughter of Caesar)

In 61 BCE, Pompey proposed to marry one of Cato the Younger's two nieces, the other of whom would be married to Pompey's son. Cato rejected the offer, against, according to Plutarch, the protestations of both his sister and his wife. According to Erich Gruen, Pompey likely intended the proposal as a means to increase his own dignitas and status within the Roman aristocracy, as well as a means of creating an alliance with what Gruen considers to have been his most influential political opponent.

Along with Caesar's contemporary marriage to Calpurnia (the daughter of the powerful Lucius Calpurnius Piso), his betrothal of Julia to Pompey has been described as 'a design to cover all his [Caesar's] flanks'.

Plutarch reported that the marriage was received in Rome as a surprise.

Cornelia Metella (52–48 BCE)

Main article: Cornelia Metella

Pompey's marriage to Cornelia has been seen as a means of establishing a marriage alliance with one of Rome's most powerful families.

Bibliography

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