Petronia (wife of Vitellius)
Petronia was a member of the Roman senatorial class in the 1st century and the first wife of the later emperor Vitellius .
Petronia was very likely a daughter of the augur and suffect consul in AD 19 Publius Petronius , who succeeded her father-in-law Lucius Vitellius as legate (governor) of Syria in 39 , and probably also sister of Titus Petronius , known as "Arbiter", the temporary confidante Nero and author of the Satyricons .
In his first marriage Petronia was married to the future emperor Aulus Vitellius . From this marriage came a son, Vitellius Petronianus, who was blind in one eye. Petronia, who was not poor (like her brother), made him her heir on the condition that he would be released from paternal power. Vitellius therefore declared him of age, "but had him killed a short time later, as is assumed, and then claimed that he had tried to kill him and that he himself drank the poison prepared for this crime out of remorse."
Vitellius could never get over the fact that Petronia had broken up with the alcoholic with the noticeably red face after a short time. At the end of April 69 Vitellius had her second husband Gnaeus Cornelius Dolabella secretly murdered. From this second marriage with Dolabella, a relative of the later Emperor Galba , comes the son Servius Cornelius Dolabella Petronianus , consul of the year 86.
literature
- PIR² (1998) P 323
Remarks
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Petronia |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | first wife of the Roman emperor Vitellius |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1st century |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1st century |