Antonia Augusta: Portrait of a Great Roman Lady

Antonia Augusta was the most powerful and influential Roman woman of her time. The daughter of Mark Antony, wife of Drusus, mother of Claudius, grandmother of Caligula and great-grandmother of Nero, she spent her entire life close to the seat of power and was a supremely important figure in Imperial Rome. In this illustrated biography, Nikos Kokkinos draws upon a variety of evidence, including inscriptions, coins, papyri and sculpture, to illuminate Antonia’s dramatic life. The literary sources are supplemented and corrected, presenting original perspectives of Antonia’s life and its bearing on the lives of those close to her. We learn about her substantial business activities, the Imperial court she ran, the people who worked for her and her own powerful character and status. Important material is presented about the position of women in Roman society, the degree of freedom they could exercise in making moral choices, their control of property and their direct influence on public life. A 13,000-word chapter in this edition updates the story of Antonia by examining additional archaeological and historical material that has emerged since the 1990s.