Antonia Minor
36 BC – 37 · Generation III
Antonia (36 BC – AD 37). Married Drusus around 16 BC. 2 of their children are recorded in this archive. Daughter of Antony and Octavia — grandmother of Caligula, mother of Claudius. Born in Athens, she never knew her father, who divorced Octavia in 32 BC and killed himself two years later; her upbringing in Rome fell to Octavia, to Augustus and to Livia, and she came to own estates in Italy, Greece and Egypt. Of her children only Germanicus, Livilla and Claudius survived. After Drusus died in 9 BC she refused, despite Augustus’s pressure, ever to marry again. From Livia’s death in AD 29 she brought up Germanicus’s younger children in her house. When her daughter Livilla was exposed in AD 31 as Sejanus’s accomplice and handed over to her for punishment, Antonia, by Cassius Dio’s account, confined her until she starved. Caligula secured her all of Livia’s honours and offered the title Augusta, which she declined. Ancient writers blamed him for her death weeks later, though a modern historian doubts it; Claudius later granted the title.
Place in the family
- Antonia Minor was a niece of Augustus Caesar.
- The archive records 7 of her descendants, across 3 generations.
Line of descent: Gaius Octavius of Velitrae → Octavia the Younger → Antonia Minor.
Parents
- Mark Antony the Triumvir (83 BC – 30 BC)
- Octavia the Younger (69 BC – 11 BC)
Partners
- Married Drusus the Elder (38 BC – 9 BC) in 16 BC — 2 children together
Children
- Germanicus Caesar (15 BC – 19)
- Claudius Caesar (10 BC – 54)
Life
- 36 BC — Born
- 16 BC — Married Drusus
- 37 — Died