Domitia (Aunt Nero)

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Domitia (* around 19 BC; † 59 AD) was a Roman noblewoman.

Life

Domitia was the eldest child of Antonia the Elder and the consul Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus . On her mother's side she was the great niece of the Emperor Augustus . She had a sister Domitia Lepida and a brother Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus , who with his wife Agrippina became the younger father of the future emperor Nero . Domitia was thus also an aunt of Nero.

It is believed that Domitia entered into several marriages; so she is likely to have married the consul Decimus Haterius Agrippa († 32 AD) and from him the mother of Quintus Haterius Antoninus , who was to become consul in 53 AD. The only thing that is certain is that she married a great-great-nephew of the historian Sallust , the wealthy and influential consul Gaius Sallustius Crispus Passienus , who stood up for her in a lawsuit against her brother that involved a lot of money. Agrippina, widowed in 40 AD, returned from exile in 41 AD and courted Passienus Crispus. This is why he divorced Domitia in the same year in order to be able to marry Agrippina, which led to a strong and longstanding hatred between the two women. In AD 55, therefore, Domitia induced two of her freedmen, Atimetus, with whom she is said to have had an affair, and the dancer Lucius Domitius Paris , to raise serious accusations against Agrippina, but without achieving anything.

Domitia was very wealthy and owned large estates in Baiae and Ravenna . The " Domitias Gardens" ( horti Domitiae ) on the other side of the Tiber in Rome , in which Emperor Hadrian later had his tomb built, also belonged to her. That is where the part of a water pipe was found that bears the name of her husband Passienus Crispus. Nero strived for his aunt's wealth and therefore allegedly had her poisoned in 59 AD. At that time Domitia, who was already quite old, was suffering from constipation and was seriously ill and bedridden when Nero visited her. She said that if he shaved his beard, she could die peacefully. Nero joked that he was about to shave, allegedly hired the doctors to give his aunt an overdose of laxatives, and usurped her vast treasures while she was dying.

On the Ara Pacis , an altar from the Augustus era, Domitia is depicted with her brother and parents.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Quintilian 6, 1, 50; 6, 3, 74.
  2. ↑ Pliny the Elder , Natural History 16, 242; Scholien to Juvenal 4, 81.
  3. ↑ Tacitus, Annalen 13, 19-22.
  4. ↑ Cassius Dio 61, 17, 2; Tacitus, Annals 13, 21; that she was nevertheless very stingy, reports Quintilian (6, 3, 74).
  5. ↑ Historia Augusta , Pius 5, 1; Aurelius 49, 1.
  6. ↑ According to Roman customs, this was a symbolic act upon reaching the age of 21.
  7. ↑ Suetonius , Nero 34, 5; Cassius Dio 61, 17, 1.
personal data
SURNAME Domitia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Aunt of the Emperor Nero
DATE OF BIRTH around 19 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 59