Ancient history is written by men, perhaps for this reason very few women had the relevance of appearing in capital letters in the old chronicles even though they more than deserved it. I believe that the protagonist of this article was more influential for Roman politics in the throes of the Republic than many of the consuls or praetors who nominally starred in it. To understand that she was already a tremendous female in life, Fulvia Flacca Bambalia she was the first non-mythological woman to appear on a Roman coin.
Fulvia Flaca Bambalia she was born about 77 B.C. in Rome. She was the daughter of Senator Marco Fulvio Flaco Bambalio , her cognomen derives from her speech inconsistency, “ the taciturn ”, and Sempronia Graca , daughter of the famous, controversial and wealthy Gayo Sempronio Graco . A commoner, belonging to the Flaca gens of Tusculum and a direct descendant of one of the Graco brothers, this family heritage will be decisive in Fulvia's eventful life. If there was one thing young Fulvia was clear about, it was that she was not born to spin, knit, or chat in the Forum with other matrons. Fulvia was a political animal, a woman capable of intrigue who did not hesitate to soon find a husband who could serve her purpose. This is how her first marriage with Publio Claudio Pulcro came about. , a true character of his time, a populist leader branded as a demagogue by later historians such as Plutarch, who would be classified even worse by his contemporary antagonists such as Cato the Younger or Cicero, ultimately his most bitter enemy. Her father, Senator Bambalio, was still alive when the betrothal took place. In need of Fulvia's fortune, in that convenient marriage sesterces and ambitions were combined . Claudio was twenty years older than her, he had not distinguished himself in her military career in Asia, but he did promise scandals in the civilian one. Determinant was the event during the celebration of the Bona Dea , where Claudio, dressed and made up as a woman, sneaked into that exclusive ceremony of the Roman matrons, in the house of the Pontifex Maximus Gaius Julius Caesar and probably with the connivance of Pompeii Sila, the host's wife, causing a social incident upon discovering it there and giving rise to Caesar's famous phrase "Caesar's wife not only has to be pure, but also look like it ”. Claudius had committed a sacrilege and was tried for it. Cicero's acid plea did not have the desired effect, because thanks to his generous bribes he was acquitted. That scandal supposed the definitive distancing of him with the optimates.
Between 57-56 B.C. was born Claudia Pulcra , daughter of this ambitious couple, at the time of maximum power and influence of Claudius after the departure of Caesar to Gaul. Formally adopted by a plebeian, something unheard of, and openly confronted with the optimates, the already called Clodius (because he changed his name to be a plebeian) took control of the streets of Rome through the control of the guild gangs , the collegiate , which he supported and encouraged, unleashing all his hatred against his opponents, especially Quintus and Marcus Tullius Cicero. The speaker's house was demolished, his property confiscated and he himself had to go into exile to save his life. That spiral of violence turned against him and ended his life, because Milón , another gangster encouraged by the rival faction, was the one who carried out the brawl on the Via Appia where Clodio was assassinated on January 18, 52 BC. The plebs, moved by the death of that man who had legislated in his favor in such an unorthodox way, cremated him in the Forum, as years later would happen to Caesar. Fulvia and her mother testified against Milo, who was sentenced and had to go into exile, but she never forgave Cicero for being the moral inducer of her husband's violent death. After that terrible incident, the collegia related to her late husband they maintained loyalty and homage, a circumstance that kept her physically and financially unscathed. Shortly after ten months of official mourning, in early 51 BC, the young widow soon found a new husband with whom to pursue her own cursus honorum . The chosen one was Caius Scribonius Curio , another controversial aristocrat, with good speech and few scruples who, as a result of a fat bribe, left the optimates and supported the cause of César when the tensions prior to the Civil War were unleashed. That gesture earned him a tribune in 50 B.C. To understand what talent the ambitious Fulvia had in choosing husbands, here she left a very explicit description of this Curio:
Curio was a man of noble birth, eloquent, carefree, prodigal both of his fortune and chastity, and of other people, a man of the greatest intelligence in perversity, who used his skillful tongue for the subversion of the condition. No amount of wealth or pleasure was enough to satisfy his appetites. (Veleyus Paterculus, Roman History, II, 48, 3-4)
Caesar rewarded his new ally by making him commander-in-chief of the expedition to Africa against Publius Atius Varus, the provincial praetor loyal to the Optimates, and his powerful ally, neighboring King Juba I of Numidia.> But Curio, an expert in revelry but novice in combat, met his death by the Bagradas River shortly after his troops landed at Utica. He died in 49 BC. along with most of his legionnaires in a well-planned ambush by Saburra, the Numidian king's cavalry commander, stitched to death with arrows like a dramatic predecessor of General Custer.
Marco Antonio (TV series "Roma")
Again Fulvia had been widowed soon by direct action of the optimates, but she soon found a new partner to unleash revenge and ambitions. The third chosen was Marco Antonio , the great magister equitum of Caesar and his right hand. According to Cicero, his worst scourge in the Senate, Fulvia and Antony had romantic relationships from 58 B.C. He also said that Antonio chose to leave his torrid relationship with the actress Cytheris because he preferred Fulvia's fortune. The date of their marriage is not known with certainty, probably in 46 BC, but the date of the birth of Marco Antonio Antilo is. , the first son of the new couple, who happened in 47 B.C. History repeated itself:Antony, at the zenith of his military career in the shadow of Caesar, had as much financial need as Clodius had and a past as murky and controversial as Curio's, with whom he had been a friend and party partner. in his youth. In 45 BC she had a second son with him, Julio Antonio .
César's murder was decisive so that Fulvia's plans could become a reality. As of the Ides of March 44 BC, Fulvia Flaca becomes the true shadow power that influences all of Antony's decisions. He became so intriguing that, when Antonio was living in Alexandria with Cleopatra, Octavio would later say:“thanks to Fulvia, Antonio had learned to obey a woman ”. She felt very powerful when Antonio stabilized after the riots after the assassination. Despising Lepidus for her pusillanimity, and intriguing against the proclaimed "liberators" through her husband, probably her greatest gloating moment came when Lepidus, Octavian, and her impressionable husband constituted the Second Triumvirate in the 43 BC and they drew up the list of outlaws and enemies of the country to be liquidated, in which Marco Tulio Cicero figured first. Trying to ensure that the new alliance between the thriving Octavio and her husband endured and settled down, the very young Claudia was offered as a wife for the heir of Caesar, a political wedding that took place, but was never consummated by the cunning Octavio...
Marcus Tullius Cicero he was executed near his village of Formiae on December 7, 43 BC. by a centurion named Herennius. When the tribune Popilius Lenas arrived in Rome carrying Cicero's head and right hand, Antony ordered that both be nailed to the Rostra (Forum tribune that served as a pulpit from which the magistrates and orators harangued the people) for greater public ridicule of the deceased. Cassius Dion recounts in his Roman History that Fulvia approached with her two children of hers to where the head of hers hated Cicero was, she pulled a hairpin out of her hair and pierced the speaker's tongue in an explicit gesture of cold revenge...
Fulvia with the head of Cicero
Unfortunately for her, not everything went well with her plans. As a result of the pact with his triumviral colleagues, Antonio stayed with the East in the distribution of the ecumene. In addition to his political ambition and the desire to compensate Crassus with the conquest of Parthia, following the plans that Caesar himself had prepared to undertake such a huge campaign, he had other more spurious interests in Asia. The first was called Glafyra , a suggestive Cappadocian courtesan with whom Antony had a torrid affair in Ephesus while Fulvia was still gloating over her sight of Cicero's head in the Forum. But this seductive woman was not the cause of his worst ills. It is probable that the divorce of Octavio and Claudia, previously mentioned, and Antonio's new and scandalous state romance with his ally and banker Cleopatra supposed such a great trauma and spite that it led him to cajole his brother-in-law Lucio , Antony's brother, and recruit eight legions in Italy with which to rebel against Octavian in the winter of 41 BC. The ordeal ended badly, the two brothers-in-law cornered in what is now Perugia. Plutarch recounts that Fulvia walked with the gladiolus on her belt like one more officer around the guard round, giving orders to centurions and tribunes as if it were a legacy. Wave leads found there and dated during this conflict reflect the mockery of Octavio's legionnaires about who was actually in command in that army.
This epigram of Martial is attributed to the pen of Octavio, who was very sarcastic when writing things about her ex-mother-in-law. Sorry for the sleaze, but that's how it was written by the Princeps :
As Antonio sleeps with her with Glafira, Fulvia is determined to punish me by forcing me to fuck her... What if that Lucio begged me to bum-fuck him? Would he? I think not, if he were in my right mind. “Either you fuck me, or we fight”, Fulvia said… Ah, ignorant, don't you know that I love my cock more than my life? Anyway, let the trumpets sound!
After nearly four months of siege, with no supplies and no future, the brothers-in-law surrendered to the future Princeps . Fulvia ended up in exile in Sycion, a coastal city near Corinth, and Lucio Antonio sent to Tarraco as praetor of Hispania Citerior. Fulvia died a short time later under strange circumstances… Marco Antonio never got to see his wife again. His children suffered different fates. Antilo was beheaded by order of Octavian when he entered Alexandria in August 30 BC. Julius, on the other hand, became consul in 10 BC, enjoyed a certain favor at the court of Augustus, and ended up married to Claudia Marcela the Minor , the daughter of Octavia, with whom he had three children, although his great lover was Julia, the daughter of the Princeps , and cousin of his wife, a dangerous affair that cost him his life in 2 AD