Atilia
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Atilia (sometimes spelt Attilia) was the first wife of Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis and mother of his two eldest children.
Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]
It is not known for certain who Atilia's father was, but he was from the Atilii Serrani. He may have been Gaius Atilius Serranus the consul of 106 BC,[1] or Gaius' son.[2]
Marriage[edit]
Cato married Atilia c. 73 BC, after his intended wife, Aemilia Lepida married Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica.[3]
In the words of Plutarch:[4]
- [Atilia] was the first woman with whom he made love, but not the only one, as was true of Laelius, the friend of Scipio Africanus; Laelius, indeed, was more fortunate, since in the course of his long life he only ever made love to one woman, the wife of his youth.
Cato and Atilia had a son Marcus Porcius Cato, who later died in the second Battle of Philippi, and a daughter Porcia, who became the wife of her cousin Marcus Junius Brutus.
Circa 63 BC, Cato divorced Atilia on the grounds of her unseemly behaviour, later marrying Marcia.[5] Atilia is not mentioned again.
Family tree[edit]
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Notes[edit]
- ^ Drogula, Fred K. (2019). Cato the Younger: Life and Death at the End of the Roman Republic. Oxford University Press. p. 33. ISBN 9780190869045.
- ^ Treggiari, Susan (2019). Servilia and her Family. Oxford University Press. p. 98. ISBN 9780192564641.
- ^ Plutarch, Cato the Younger, 7.3.
- ^ Plutarch, Cato the Younger, 7.3.
- ^ Plutarch, Cato the Younger, 24-25
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