AEMILIA TERTIA

'Aemilia Tertia', better known as Aemilia Paulla (c. 230-163 BC or 162 BC^[1]), was the wife of Scipio Africanus (also known as the elder Scipio), Roman general and statesman. She was the daughter, possibly the third surviving daughter, of another Roman general Lucius Aemilius Paullus (consul in 216 BC whom was killed at the Battle of Cannae of the Second Punic War) and sister of another famous Roman general Lucius Aemilius Paulus Macedonicus (consul 182 and 168 BC).^[2] Her name Aemilia was derived from her '''gens''' 'Aemilius', one of the five most important patrician families of Ancient Rome; Roman women of the Middle Republic were always known by their father's gens (family or clan), and were usually distinguished by their birth order.^[3]

Contents

Marriage to Scipio

Character of Aemilia

Scipio's death and aftermath

Aemilia as a widow

Children

Notes

See also

References

Marriage to Scipio

Nothing is known as to when Aemilia Tertia married, but the marriage probably took place sometime between 213 BC and 210 BC (when Scipio went first to Sicily and thence to Spain); it may however have taken place as late as 206 BC-205 BC.^[4] Aemilia Tertia and Scipio Africanus had a fruitful marriage, and according to Livy, Polybius, and other classical historians, they were very happily married. They had two sons and two daughters, the younger being the famous Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi.

Character of Aemilia

Aemilia Tertia was allegedly of a very mild disposition, but was fiercely loyal to her husband who upset many Senators by challenging the older leaders in their military strategy, and conservative Romans by his adoption of some parts of Greek lifestyle.^[5] The Greek historian Polybius who was living in the household of her brother Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus for some time, and who almost certainly was an eye-witness, wrote of Aemilia Tertia:
:"This lady whose name was Aemilia, used to display great magnificence whenever she left her house to take part in the ceremonies that women attend, having participated in the fortune of Scipio when he was at the height of his prosperity. .. For apart from the richness of her own dress and of the decorations of her carriage, all the baskets, cups, and other utensils for the sacrifice were either of gold or silver, and were borne in her train on all such solemn occasions, .. while the number of maids and men-servants in attendance was correspondingly large. (Polybius, translated by John Dryden, Book 31 Fragments: 26)^[6]


This passage shows that for that period, the last decades of the Middle Republic, Aemilia Tertia had unusual freedom and wealth for a patrician married woman, both given her by an unusually liberal husband. She is one of the few Roman women known to us from the Middle Republic. Because of her unusual wealth and freedom, and her own behavior, she was an important role model for many younger Roman woman, just as her youngest daughter 'Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi' (190 BC-121 BC, would be an important role model for many Late Republican Roman noblewomen, including allegedly, Aurelia, the mother of Julius Caesar.^[7]
According to other sources^[8], Aemilia was gentle, mild-mannered, but also fiercely loyal to her husband. Valerius Maximus relates an incident where Scipio was unfaithful to her with one of their own maid-servants, but Aemilia chose not to make the matter public.^[9]
Sources such as Polybius also emphasize her love of luxury and her extravagance; she drove a special chariot at women's religious processions, and was attended by a large number of servants. One source claims that she enjoyed buying tasteful although extravagant works of art.^[10]

Scipio's death and aftermath

Scipio died of a lingering illness in 183 BC after having retired to his country house at Liternum in 185 BC. During his last years, he wrote his memoirs in Greek, but those have vanished, with even Plutarch's Life of him missing. He was survived by his widow and four children; his brother Scipio Asiaticus also remained living, although in political disgrace.
According to Polybius, Scipio made generous provisions for his widow to ensure that she would retain the same lifestyle she had grown accustomed to as his wife. He also promised his daughters fifty talents of silver each, which was a very large dowry by that era's standards.

Aemilia as a widow

Aemilia Tertia long survived her husband and outlived both her sons. She had two daughters surviving upon her own death, which took place sometime around 163 BC and by 162 BC. She continued her luxurious lifestyle despite widowhood, presumably having been guaranteed a generous income by her husband's will. However, thanks to the lex Voconia (which prohibited women from inheriting much or from passing on their own wealth to females) passed in 169 BC, she was unable to dispose of her possessions as she pleased. At her death, her heir was automatically her grandson by adoption, Scipio Africanus II, or Scipio the Younger (better known to Romans as Scipio Aemilianus). He gave them to his mother Papiria Masonis, who was divorced from his own natural biological father L. Aemilius for more than two decades.^[11] At her death, he passed those same possessions over to his two biological sisters - Aemilia Paulla Prima, wife of Marcus Porcius Cato Licinianus and Aemilia Paulla Secunda, wife of Quintus Aelius Tubero. (Polybius, Book 31: 28, Plutarch. Aem. 2; Liv. xxxviii. 57).
Despite her wealth and comfortable lifestyle, her last years must have been saddened by the death of both her sons, both without natural issue.

Children

''The sources for this section are the histories of Livy and Polybius, as well as William Smith's Dictionaries, all available online.''
Aemilia Paulla and Scipio Africanus had four surviving children, two sons and two daughters. His two sons failed to become consuls, although both became praetor in 174 BC. The elder may have married but no wife nor issue are known; the younger fell into dissolute ways and never married. Both suffered from ill-health which prevented them pursuing a military career.
The daughters did better, being granted fifty talents of silver as dowry each (then a very large sum), of which the half was paid immediately upon their marriages and the other half (twenty-five talents) became due within three years of their mother's death.^[12]

★ 'Publius Cornelius P.f. P.n. Scipio Africanus' (fl 174 BC); he became a priest or , meaning that they were both in their mid-thirties if not older. Most scholars assume that Scipio and Aemilia married in or before 212 BC, since no earlier wife has been mentioned for Scipio by any contemporary Roman or Greek historian.
5. ''Scipio Africanus: Soldier and Politician'' by H. H. Scullard Cornell University Press Ithaca, New York 1970 printed in England. Standard Book Number 8014-0549-1;
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 76-98158 H. H. Scullard, ''Scipio Africanus: Soldier and Politician'', Thames and Hudson, London, 1970. ISBN 0-500-40012-1; page 24
6. ''Scipio Africanus: Soldier and Politician'' by H. H. Scullard Cornell University Press Ithaca, New York 1970 printed in England. Standard Book Number 8014-0549-1;
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 76-98158 H. H. Scullard, ''Scipio Africanus: Soldier and Politician'', Thames and Hudson, London, 1970. ISBN 0-500-40012-1; page 188
7. ''Scipio Africanus: Soldier and Politician'' by H. H. Scullard Cornell University Press Ithaca, New York 1970 printed in England. Standard Book Number 8014-0549-1;
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 76-98158 H. H. Scullard, ''Scipio Africanus: Soldier and Politician'', Thames and Hudson, London, 1970. ISBN 0-500-40012-1; page 205
8. ''Scipio Africanus: Soldier and Politician'' by H. H. Scullard Cornell University Press Ithaca, New York 1970 printed in England. Standard Book Number 8014-0549-1;
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 76-98158 H. H. Scullard, ''Scipio Africanus: Soldier and Politician'', Thames and Hudson, London, 1970. ISBN 0-500-40012-1; page ii
9. Valerius Maximus and Plutarch would have considered such behavior as honorable for Scipio, who after all, was not debauching his own wife. Marital sex was considered to be essentially procreative among Middle-Republic Romans. The year of this incident was around 191 BC or later, at which time Aemilia was either pregnant with her youngest child or had given birth recently. The fact that Aemilia chose not to expose her husband's infidelity (per Valerius Maximus) could indicate either a desire to spare him embarrassment, or her own desire to avoid embarrassment for herself. A Roman wife could not expect her husband to be faithful, and his misconduct whether at home or outside was not grounds for a divorce. Furthermore, by divorcing her husband (or rather, being divorced in that period), a woman lost custody of her children and usually had to return to her father's or brother's house. The husband could retain most of her dowry, so Aemilia could get as little as one-fifth of her dowry back. Aemilia's sister-in-law Papiria Masonis was divorced circa 183 BC by her husband, simply because he was tired of her. She was entirely blameless, having provided him with two sons and two daughters, and her chastity was not in question. After her divorce, she lived in rather straightened circumstances, and without her children who remained with their father and paterfamilias.
10. This claim is made by Michael Akinde on his website about Scipio, but he does not cite his source, be it Liddell-Hart or one of the classical historians.[2]
11. ''Scipio Africanus: Soldier and Politician'' by H. H. Scullard Cornell University Press Ithaca, New York 1970 printed in England. Standard Book Number 8014-0549-1;
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 76-98158 H. H. Scullard, ''Scipio Africanus: Soldier and Politician'', Thames and Hudson, London, 1970. ISBN 0-500-40012-1; page 238
12. Polybius, The Histories Fragments of Book XXXI: 27 "Their father had agreed to give each of his daughters fifty talents, 3 and their mother had paid the half of this to their husbands at once on their marriage, but left the other half owing on her death. 4 Thus Scipio [Aemilianus] had to pay this debt to his father's sisters. 5 According to Roman law the part of the dowry still due had to be paid to the ladies in three years, the personal property being first handed over within ten months according to Roman usage. 6 But Scipio at once ordered his banker to pay each of them in ten months the whole twenty-five talents."★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html
13. As flamens dialis, he would have needed a wife or ''flaminica''. References are made by classical historians to the fact that he had no sons, but not that he was childless. He may have been childless, or all his children might have died young.
14. It is not known if this was the first marriage between cousins of the same gens (a practice that would have been previously avoided on grounds of consanguinity i.e. sharing the same blood line descent), or whether such marriages were not totally unknown prior to Cornelia's marriage.

See also

★ Scipio Africanus

★ other Cornelias

★ Women in Rome

★ Scipio-Paullus-Gracchus family tree

References

★ ''Plutarch's Lives, Volume II'' of The Project Gutenberg EBook by Aubrey Stew

★ Additional references to husband Scipio Africanus

★ Friedrich Munzer, ''Roman Aristocratic Parties and Families'' (1920)

★ T.R.S. Broughton, ''Magistrates of the Roman Republic'' (1950-1, 1986)