Aemilia Scaura

Who was Aemilia Scaura?

Aemilia Scaura was the daughter of the patrician Roman Marcus Aemilius Scaurus and his second wife Caecilia Metella Dalmatica.

By the time of her birth, Scaurus was around 70 and, as princeps senatus, the speaker of the Senate, was one of the most important politicians of Rome. After her father's death, Aemilia was raised by her mother's second husband Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who took care of her education and fortune.

Sulla also used his stepdaughter for political alliances. In 82 BC, Aemilia was married and pregnant by a man who dared to criticize the dictator's conduct. Sulla was most displeased and forced the divorce. Immediately afterwards, Aemilia was married to Gnaeus Pompey Magnus, while still pregnant by her first husband. This marriage boosted Pompey's political career because Aemilia was an aristocratic patrician, while he was from a recent senatorial family. Aemilia died in childbirth shortly afterwards.

Via Aemilia Scaura is a Roman road built by Marcus Aemilius Scaurus.