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
- ^ Ronald Syme, Augustan Aristocracy, p. 59.
- ^ Syme, Augustan Aristocracy, pp. 417 ff.
- ^ CIL XI, 1362 = ILS 935; Luna.
- ^ a b Tacitus, Annales, iv. 22.
- ^ a b Syme, Augustan Aristocracy, p. 418.
Bibliography
