Fulvia

Origin

Fulvia was the only daughter of Mark Fulvius Bambalion and Sempronia. On her father, she belonged to the noble plebeian family Fulviev , whose representatives moved to Rome from Tusculum in the middle of the IV century or a little later and first reached the consulate in 322 BC. e. In the future, they regularly held top positions, but after the death of Mark Fulvius Flaccus , an ally of Guy Gracchus (121 BC), Fulvias ceased to appear on the lists of magistrates ^[1] . In the sources there is no information clarifying the origin of Mark Fulvius Bambalion or reporting anything about his career ^[2] ; probably he did not play any noticeable role in the life of Rome ^[3] . The question of the property status of this branch of the genus remains open: Cicero in one of his speeches called Fulvia a rich woman ^[4] , and some researchers take this definition on faith ^{[5] [6]} , while others believe that she has at least hereditary wealth was not ^{[7] [8]} .

Mother Fulvia was the last representative of one of the branches of the noble plebeian family Semproniev ^[2] . According to a hypothetical genealogy compiled by the German anti- historian F. Münzer , she was the granddaughter of Guy Sempronius Tuditan , consul of 129 BC. e. ^[9]

The Early Years and First Marriage

The date of birth of Fulvia is unknown. In historiography, it is assumed that she was about 10 years younger than her first husband and about the same age as her third husband, that is, she was born in 83 or 82 BC. e. ^{[10] [3]} Her first marriage is dated either to the year 62 ^{[11] [12]} , or by the time shortly before 58 BC. e. ^[13]

Fulvia’s husband was Publius Claudius Pulhr , a representative of one of the most influential patrician families of Rome, who moved for a plebeian career. He was a tribune in 58 BC. e. The marriage, apparently, was happy: it is known that the couple almost never parted and were very close to each other in temperament and outlook on life. Valery Maxim reports that Claudius “attached the dagger to Fulvia’s table , thereby putting the military distinction under the power of a woman” ^[14] . Two friends of Claudius later became, one after the other, husbands of Fulvia, and Clodius' main enemy - Mark Tullius Cicero - later turned out to be the enemy of Fulvia too ^{[3] [15]} . True, Cicero, often speaking of Claudia in his speeches and letters, mentioned his wife only once in connection with him ^{[16] [17]} ; some researchers conclude from this that this woman at that time did not play an independent role from the point of view of Cicero and did not influence her first husband at all ^{[11] [18]} . There is an opposite opinion - about the significant influence of Fulvia on Publius Claudius ^{[19] [20]} .

Already in January 52 BC. e. Publius Claudius was killed by the people of his political opponent Titus Annius Milon . This happened when Pulhr made a suburban trip - contrary to custom, without a wife. His wounded body was brought to Rome, and Fulvia, showing inconsolable grief, showed the corpse to the people gathered at their house on the Palatine ^[21] . The crowd, excited, including her screams, broke into the curia and organized there the burning of the body. In the ensuing trial, Cicero, defending Milon, tried to prove that Publius Claudius had ambushed his enemy, and his murder had become simple self-defense; the argument for him was the fact that Pulhr did not take his wife with him on that trip ^[22] . Fulvia was present in court and, together with her mother, cried so much that she shocked everyone present. Milon was convicted and went into exile ^{[23] [13]} .

Fulvia has two children left from Claudius: a daughter and a son .

Second marriage

Fulvia did not stay long as a widow. Already in 51 BC. e. or even at the end of 52, she married a second time - to Guy Scribonius Kourion , one of Clodius's friends, who belonged to a rather noble plebeian family. Only one thing is known about this marriage: Fulvia gave birth to another son from her second husband. Guy Scribonius sided with Guy Julius Caesar in what began in 49 BC. e. civil war , led a campaign in Africa , but was defeated and died. The next few years, Fulvia is not mentioned at all in the sources ^[24] .

Third marriage

In 47 or 46 BC e. Fulvia married a third time. Her husband again became a friend of Publius Claudius, a noble plebeian and one of the prominent figures of the Caesarian party - Mark Anthony , who had also been married twice before. Cicero hints that Fulvia was cheating with Anthony on her first husband ^[25] . To conclude this marriage, Mark Anthony (also according to Cicero) drove out his previous wife, who was his cousin, from the house ^[26] . The veracity of these allegations is in question, but it is certain that the close acquaintance of Anthony and Fulvia began many years before the marriage ^[27] .

Spouses were bound by strong feelings. This is not denied even by Cicero ^[27] , who had a strong antipathy towards Anthony, who said in one of his Philippi : “At home you had at least an excuse - love” ^[28] . The speaker told a story characterizing the relationship between Anthony and Fulvia (later Plutarch ^[29] outlined his version):

He came to his home, wrapping his head in his own. The gatekeeper to him: "Who are you?" - "Letter-carrier from Mark." He was immediately brought to the one for whom he came, and he handed her a letter. When she, while crying, read the letter (for the content of this love message was as follows: he would no longer have anything with the actress, he would deny love for that and transferred all her love to this woman), when she burst into tears, this a compassionate man could not stand it, opened his face and threw herself on her neck.

- Mark Tullius Cicero. Second Philippi vs. Marc Anthony 77 ^[30] .

At the same time, the calculation was present in this marriage ^[27] . According to Plutarch, Anthony married to “curb his recklessness and profligacy” to please Caesar ^[29] . Fulvia played an important role in the exaltation of her third husband due to the breadth of her political horizons and her ability to navigate in specific situations. Without exception, all researchers agree that Fulvia had a huge influence on Anthony ^[31] . Antique authors saw in a certain sense the predecessor of Cleopatra :

It was not enough for her to keep a humble and invisible spouse subordinate, but she wanted to rule over the ruler and rule over the boss. Fulvia remarkably taught Anthony to obey the female will and would have the right to demand a fee for these lessons from Cleopatra, who received from her hands Anthony already quite meek and used to obeying women.

- Plutarch. Anthony 10 ^[29] .

Intervention in Politics (44-42 BC)

After the death of Caesar in March 44 BC. e. Marc Anthony, and with it Fulvia, came to the fore in the political life of Rome. In the spring and summer, Fulvia was actively engaged in public affairs, participating in the distribution of provinces and kingdoms (Cicero called it an “auction” ^[32] ); True, the sources give only one example of such participation - the story of the return to Deiotaru of his possessions in Galatia and Ponte ^[13] . In October, she accompanied her husband on his trip to Brundisy - to the legions that arrived from Macedonia . Here a rebellion broke out, which was brutally crushed; while Anthony "in front of his wife ... killed the best centurions of the Mars Legion" ^[33] . According to Cicero, Fulvia’s face “was splattered with the blood of the dying” ^{[34] [35] [36]} .

Soon civil war broke out . Anthony moved to Mutina against one of Caesar's killers - Decimus Junius Brutus , leaving his wife in Rome. During the protracted conflict, Fulvia tried to prevent political forces opposing him from uniting against her husband, but failed: in May 43 BC. e. Anthony was declared the "enemy of the fatherland." His family was subjected to real persecution: opponents of Anthony, according to Cornelius Nepot , "sought to completely rob his wife Fulvia, and they were even ready to kill the children." In this difficult situation, Fulvia helped as best he could only Titus Pomponius Attik ^{[37] [38] [39]} .

Autumn 43 BC e. Anthony made an alliance ( triumvirate ) with one of his main opponents - Guy Julius Caesar Octavian , as well as with Mark Emilius Lepidus . One of the conditions of this union was the marriage of Octavian to the daughter of Fulvia - Claudia ^[40] . Together, the triumphs occupied Rome and included their enemies in the descriptive lists . In this situation, Fulvia gave vent to its cruelty and thirst for revenge ^[41] . So, she insulted and drove away from the door of her house the deputation of the matron, who came to ask her for deliverance from the extraordinary tax ^[42] ; a certain Rufus, who had previously refused to sell his house to Fulvia, now handed it as a gift, but was still killed. Anthony sent his head to his wife, and she put her in front of the same house ^[43] . But the most famous example of Fulvia’s revenge was the story with Cicero’s head:

... Before the head was taken away, [Fulvia] took it in her hands and began to spit on her and viciously vilify her, after which she laid on her knees, opened her mouth, pulled out her tongue and pierced it with hairpins, which she used for her hair, accompanying this action with a stream rude ridicule.

- Dion Cassius. Roman History, XLVII, 8 ^[44] .

When Anthony went to war with the Republicans (42 BC), Fulvia remained in Rome as the main defender of his interests ^[39] or even the actual ruler of Italy ^[45] ; G. Ferrero even writes about the "tyranny of Fulvia" ^[46] .

The Peruzian War

After the victory at Philippi, Anthony remained in the East, and Octavian returned to Italy. In accordance with the agreement, he was to endow Caesar's veterans with land. But his plans were opposed by Fulvia and the brother of Mark Anthony Lucius , who was elected consul for 41 years BC. e.: they were afraid that Octavian, having distributed the earth, would appropriate all the merits and disposition of the soldiers. Fulvia herself, holding the children in her arms, spoke to the legionnaires, urging them not to forget their commander (Mark Anthony). Octavian, assuming that Mark himself could stand behind the protesters, agreed to a compromise and included Anthony's friends in the land commissions ^[47] .

Soon, discontent spread over Italy over the activities of the commissions, which took the land from the local communities in order to transfer it to veterans. Lucius Anthony sided with the disgruntled. At first, Fulvia was unhappy with this (according to Appian, she “said that Lucius did not start a feud on time” ^[48] ), but soon changed her position and even began to incite Lucius to aggravate the situation. She left Rome in Prenest , stating that Marc Emilius Lepidus, an ally of Octavian, was in danger of her children; for his part, Octavian sent Claudia to his mother, stating that she remained a virgin. ^[40] Due to a number of incidents, by the fall of 41 BC e. it came to a full-fledged war ^{[49] [47]} .

Lucius Anthony occupied Rome in September 41, but then retreated to Perusia , where he was besieged by Octavian. The siege lasted until the end of the winter of 40; at this time, Fulvia tried to push the decisive actions of the commanders of her husband who were in Gaul - Guy Asinius Pollion , Publius Ventidius Bass , Quint Fufiy Kalen . They tried to break through the blockade of Perusia, but not energetically enough, because they did not know how Mark Anthony would react to this, and failed. The same fate befell the army assembled by Fulvia itself, which was headed by Lucius Munacy Plank ^[50] .

During the conflict, Octavian launched a propaganda war, the purpose of which was to convince the soldier and Roman society that Fulvia does not act in the interests of Anthony, but only at the behest of his female egoism. One of the important motives for his propaganda was the motive of sexual dissatisfaction with Fulvia, which allegedly led to war. This theme is developed by a poem written either by someone close to Octavian or by himself (according to Russian researcher M. Belkin, the text is so rude that only a “smoothed” translation is possible ^[51] ):

The fact that Anthony slept with Glafira blames me
Fulvia, telling me to sleep with her.
Can I sleep with Fulvia? Well, if Mania asks,
So I slept with him? No, I'm not such a fool!
“Sleep or fight with me!” She says. Oh really
Is life dearest to me? Well, blow the hike!

- Mark Valery Martial. Epigrams, XI, 20, 3-8. ^[52]

The success of such propaganda is confirmed by the inscriptions on the lead cores for the sling used in the siege of Perusia. Before launching them into the enemy, the legionnaires often scratched at them various obscenities; the name of Fulvia is mentioned in these inscriptions more often than any other, although it was not in the besieged city ^[53] .

Another direction in the propaganda of Octavian was the spread of rumors that Fulvia as if wants herself to lead the army to war. The Romans said that in Prenest, she girdles herself with a sword, speaks to soldiers and gives out passwords to patrols herself. Information about such unheard-of behavior for a woman, having spread even outside Italy, seriously compromised both Fulvia herself and Mark Anthony; it was this factor that could have led to the indecisive behavior of the Calen, Pollion, Ventidius Bass during the Peruvian war ^[54] .

Finally, in late February or early March 40, Lucius Anthony capitulated. After this, Fulvia fled to Greece through Brundisy; in Athens, she met with her husband, who "condemned" her very much ^[55] for the outbreak of war. For his part, Fulvia rebuked Mark for not helping Perusia, and urged him to form an alliance against Octavian with Sextus Pompey , who then controlled Sicily , Sardinia and Corsica . The couple did not manage to agree. Anthony left, leaving Fulvia sick, and soon (approximately in the middle of the year ^[56] ) she died in Sikion ^[57] .

Fulvia had a total of five children. In her first marriage, the daughter of Claudia, who was the wife of Octavian, was born, and after the divorce, 41 BC e. it is no longer mentioned in the sources, and the son of Publius Claudius Pulhr, who went through cursus honorum up to the prelude, inclusive - either surrounded by Marc Anthony, or after his death, under the rule of Octavian ^[58] . From his second husband, Fulvia had a son, Guy Scribonius Kourion, who was captured by Octavian at the battle of Aktion and was immediately killed (31 BC) ^[59] . In the third marriage, two more sons were born - Mark Antony Antill and Yul Antony ^[60] . The eldest of them was executed in 30 in Egypt ^[61] , and Yula Octavian spared and even married his niece, but later nevertheless executed or forced to commit suicide in connection with the story of the adultery of Julia the Elder ^[62] .

One of the most important sources telling about Fulvia was the works of her contemporary Cicero. According to M. Belkin, Mark Tullius already after the death of Claudius realized that he had acquired a sworn enemy in the person of Fulvia ^[63] . Later, he became convinced that this woman had a huge influence on Mark Anthony, and therefore paid much attention to her in his philippics. He calls Fulvia cruel (“the cruelest of all” ^[33] ), greedy (for the sake of profit Fulvia, according to Cicero, organized a real sale of provinces, kingdoms and privileges) and bringing unhappiness to all her husbands ^[64] . In the second philippic, the speaker turned to Anthony with the words: “Claudia’s fate awaits you, as it was destined for Guy Kourion, since in your house there is one that for both of them was evil rock” ^[65] ; he later added: “your ... spouse - of whom I speak without any desire to offend her - is too slow in paying her third installment to the Roman people” ^[66] .

The subsequent tradition was greatly influenced by the memoirs of Octavian Augustus, in which Fulvia received an extremely negative characterization. Directly or through other authors, Dion Cassius and Appian obtained information from there. In the image of Dion, Cassius Fulvia is an imperious woman who keeps under her influence a brother-in-law, Lucius Anthony, and everywhere provokes a feud ^[67] . The Peruzian war, according to some ancient historians, began only because Fulvia wanted to force her husband to return to Italy, thus tearing him out of Cleopatra's arms ^{[68] [48] [69]} .

In honor of Fulvia, the asteroid (609) Fulvia , discovered in 1906, is named

Sources

1. Appian of Alexandria . Roman history. - M .: Ladomir, 2002 .-- 878 p. - ISBN 5-86218-174-1 .
2. Asconius Pedian . Comments on the speeches of Cicero (neopr.) . Attalus Date of appeal September 14, 2016.
3. Valery Maxim . Memorable deeds and sayings. - SPb. : Publishing House of St. Petersburg State University, 2007. - 308 p. - ISBN 978-5-288-04267-6 .
4. Mark Valery Martial . Epigrams. - SPb. : JSC "Komplekt", 1994. - 448 p.
5. Dion Cassius . Roman history (neopr.) . Date of appeal September 14, 2016.
6. Cornelius Nepot . T. Pomponius Attik (Neopr.) . Date of appeal September 14, 2016.
7. Plutarch . Comparative biographies. - M .: Nauka, 1994. - T. 2. - ISBN 5-02-011570-3 , 5-02-011568-1.
8. Guy Suetonius Tranquill . Life of the Twelve Caesars // Suetonius. The lords of Rome. - M .: Ladomir, 1999 .-- S. 12-281. - ISBN 5-86218-365-5 .
9. Mark Tullius Cicero . Speech (neopr.) . Date of appeal September 14, 2016.
10. Mark Tullius Cicero . Speech. - M .: Nauka, 1993 .-- ISBN 5-02-011169-4 .

Literature

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5. Belkin M. The language of Cicero and the Fulvia hairpin // Mnemon. - 2006. - No. 5 . - S. 299-306 .
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17. Münzer F. Sempronii Tuditani // RE. - 1923 .-- T. II, 2 . - S. 1440 .
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