Milonia Caesonia (died AD 41) was Roman empress as the fourth and last wife of the Roman emperorCaligula from their marriage in AD 39 until they were both assassinated in 41.
Milonia was married first to a man of uncertain name, some historians have speculated that he was the Rufus mentioned to be married to a woman named Caesonia who was born on the same date as Domitian (24 October) in a poem by Martial.[3] Marco Agosti identified him as Instanius (sometimes corrected as Instantius, Insantius, Istantius or Istanius) Rufus, a patron of Martial.[1]
Suetonius says that when Caligula married her, she was neither beautiful nor young, and was already the mother of three daughters by her first marriage. He describes her as a woman of reckless extravagance and wantonness, whom Caligula nonetheless loved passionately and faithfully.[4] According to Cassius Dio, the two entered into an affair some time before their marriage, either late in AD 39 or early in 40, and the emperor's choice of a bride was an unpopular one.[5] The satiristJuvenal suggests that Caligula's madness was the result of a love potion administered to him by Milonia.[6]
Milonia was pregnant at the time of the marriage, and gave birth to a daughter, Julia Drusilla, only one month later (or according to Suetonius, on her wedding day).[7][4]
In the account given by Suetonius, the emperor would parade Milonia in front of his troops, and sometimes displayed her naked in front of select friends.[4] In an odd demonstration of affection, he would jokingly threaten to have her tortured or killed.[8]
On 24 January, AD 41, Caligula was slain by an assassin. As part of the wider conspiracy, Milonia and her daughter Julia Drusilla were murdered just hours after Caligula's demise. Josephus reports that she died bravely: stricken with grief at her husband's death, she willingly offered her neck to the assassin, telling him to kill her without hesitation.[9]
In popular culture
Milonia has been portrayed several times on film and television:
^ abValverde, Juan Fernández; Castillo, Alberto Marina; Soldevila, Rosario Moreno (2019). A Prosopography to Martial's Epigrams. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 98. ISBN9783110624755.
Italics indicates a consort to a junior co-emperor, underlining indicates a consort to an emperor variously regarded as either legitimate or a usurper, and bold incidates an empress regnant.