Claudia Antonia

Who was Claudia Antonia?

Claudia Antonia was the daughter of the Roman Emperor Claudius and his second wife Aelia Paetina. Antonia was a great great-niece of the Emperor Augustus, great-niece of the Emperor Tiberius, first cousin of the Emperor Caligula, half-sister to Claudia Octavia and Britannicus, cousin, stepsister and sister-in-law of the Emperor Nero.

Until 37, she was raised by her paternal grandmother Antonia Minor. From then until 43, she was raised by her father. In 43, she first married Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, a descendant of Pompeia. His parents were consul Marcus Licinius Crassus Frugi and Scribonia. According to Suetonius he died several years later, because he was stabbed to death while in bed with a favorite boyfriend. Cassius Dio states that the Empress Valeria Messalina, out of fear of Pompeius being a rival to Britannicus, ordered his execution, so that Antonia could marry Messalina's half-brother Faustus Cornelius Sulla Felix.

Faustus Sulla and Antonia married in 47. They had a son who was of little strength, and died before his second birthday. In 58, Faustus Sulla was exiled, and murdered in 62 on the orders of the Emperor Nero. In 65, Tacitus records the rumour that Gaius Calpurnius Piso intended to marry Antonia, as an element of his conspiracy against Nero.