Fabia Numantina was a member of the patrician Fabia gens. Precisely how she fits into this family is not certain; while she is generally believed to be the daughter of Paullus Fabius Maximus and Marcia, a maternal first cousin of Augustus,[1] it is possible that she was the daughter of Paullus' brother, Africanus Fabius Maximus.[2]

Marriages

Fabia Numantina was married twice: first to Sextus Appuleius, a half-great-nephew of Augustus, by whom she had a son, also named Sextus Appuleius. This child died young, and Fabia described him on his tombstone as 'last of the Appuleii'.[3]

Fabia's second husband was Marcus Plautius Silvanus, praetor in AD 24. He was the son of Marcus Plautius Silvanus, who had been consul in 2 BC, and Lartia. However, Fabia and Silvanus seem to have been divorced prior to Silvanus' praetorship, as Silvanus was then married to a woman named Apronia, whom he apparently murdered by throwing her out of a window.[4][5]

Shortly after Apronia's murder, Fabia was "charged with having caused her husband's insanity by magical incantations and potions", but she was acquitted.[4]

Other children

It is uncertain if Fabia had any children apart from Sextus Appuleius. She may have been the mother of a young man named Fabius Numantinus, who was admitted to a sacerdotal college in the Neronian era.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Ronald Syme, Augustan Aristocracy, p. 59.
  2. ↑ Syme, Augustan Aristocracy, pp. 417 ff.
  3. ↑ CIL XI, 1362 = ILS 935; Luna.
  4. 1 2 Tacitus, Annales, iv. 22.
  5. 1 2 Syme, Augustan Aristocracy, p. 418.

Bibliography

  • Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Annales.
  • Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae (ILS), Berlin (1892-1916).
  • Ronald Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy, Oxford University Press (1989), ISBN 0-19-814731-7, ISBN 978-0-19-814731-2.
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