Atia: Encyclopedia II - Atia - Atia Balba Caesonia

Atia - Atia Balba Caesonia

Atia Balba Caesonia (85 BC-43 BC) married the Macedonian governor and senator Gaius Octavius. Their children were Octavia Thurina Minor and a younger Gaius Octavius, later Caesar Augustus. In 59 BC, Octavius died on his way to Rome to stand for the consulship, and Atia married Lucius Marcius Philippus, the consul of 56 BC and a supporter of Julius Caesar. He loved raising his stepchildren alongside his own son and daughter from a previous marriage and arranged Octavia's first marriage, to the consul and senator Gaius Claudius Marcellus.

Atia was a religious and caring matron. Tacitus considered her as an ideal Roman Matron. Suetonius’ account of Augustus, mentions the divine omens she experienced before and after his birth:

When Atia had come in the middle of the night to the solemn service of Apollo, she had her litter set down in the temple and fell asleep, while the rest of the matrons also slept. On a sudden a serpent glided up to her and shortly went away. When she awoke, she purified herself, as if after the embraces of her husband, and at once there appeared on her body a mark in colours like a serpent, and she could never get rid of it; so that presently she ceased ever to go to the public baths. In the tenth month after that Augustus was born and was therefore regarded as the son of Apollo. Atia too, before she gave him birth, dreamed that her vitals were borne up to the stars and spread over the whole extent of land and sea, while Octavius dreamed that the sun rose from Atia's womb.

The day he was born the conspiracy of Catiline was before the House, and Octavius came late because of his wife's confinement; then Publius Nigidius, as everyone knows, learning the reason for his tardiness and being informed also of the hour of the birth, declared that the ruler of the world had been born.

Clause 94.

She had doubts about her son's legitimacy as Caesar's heir, and attempted to dissuade him from accepting his inheritance. She died during her son's first consulship, in August/September 43 BC. Octavian gave her the highest honours at her funeral. Philippus later married one of her sisters.

A highly fictionalized version of Atia is a major character in the HBO/BBC 2 television series Rome.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Atia Balba Caesonia", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki