What Happened to the Children of Mark Antony?

Mark Antony’s defeat and death in 30 BCE did not end the story of his family. Antony had children by several women, including Fulvia, Octavia, and Cleopatra. Their lives took very different paths after his fall. Some were killed, others were raised within the household of Octavia, and several became part of the family networks surrounding Augustus and the Julio-Claudian emperors.

Antony’s children by Fulvia, his third wife, were among the most directly affected by his defeat. Their elder son, Marcus Antonius Antyllus, was born around 47 BCE and was betrothed to Julia, the daughter of Octavian. After the capture of Alexandria in 30 BCE, however, Octavian had Antyllus executed. His younger brother, Iullus Antonius, born in 43 BCE, was spared. He was raised by Octavia in Rome and went on to pursue a political career, serving as consul in 10 BCE. He later married Claudia Marcella Major, Octavia’s daughter from her previous marriage, further tying Antony’s family to the household of Augustus. Iullus eventually fell from favor and died by suicide in 2 BCE after being accused of adultery with Augustus’ daughter Julia.

Antony’s two daughters by Octavia Minor, the sister of Octavian, followed a very different path. Their survival placed them within the family that became the foundation of the early Roman Empire.

The elder daughter, Antonia Major, was born in 39 BCE and married Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus. Their son, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, became the father of the future emperor Nero. Antonia Major therefore became Nero’s paternal grandmother. She also had two daughters, Domitia and Domitia Lepida, the latter of whom was the mother of Valeria Messallina, the wife of the emperor Claudius.

Antonia’s younger sister, Antonia Minor, had an even more prominent place in the imperial family. Born in 36 BCE, she married Nero Claudius Drusus, the younger son of Augustus’ wife Livia. Their children included Germanicus, Livilla, and the future emperor Claudius. Through Germanicus, Antonia Minor became the grandmother of the emperor Caligula and Agrippina the Younger, the mother of Nero. Antony was therefore an ancestor of several members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, although that connection came through his daughters rather than through his own name or political position.

Antony’s children by Cleopatra had a different experience. The couple had three children who survived infancy: the twins Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene, born in 40 BCE, and Ptolemy Philadelphus, born in 36 BCE. After Antony and Cleopatra’s defeat and deaths in 30 BCE, the children were brought to Rome and placed in the care of Octavia.

Their subsequent lives were not equally well documented. Alexander Helios and Ptolemy Philadelphus disappear from the historical record after their arrival in Rome. Ancient sources indicate that Octavian initially spared them, but there is no reliable evidence establishing when or how they died.

Cleopatra Selene had a much better documented future. Octavia arranged her marriage to Juba II, the king of Mauretania. The marriage connected two royal families whose territories had been brought into the Roman sphere, and Juba and Selene ruled Mauretania as client monarchs. Their court at Caesarea became an important center of Greek and Roman culture, while Selene maintained connections to her Ptolemaic heritage through royal imagery and patronage.

Selene and Juba had a son, Ptolemy of Mauretania, who succeeded his father as king. Ptolemy maintained close relations with Rome and was recognized by the Roman Senate as a king, ally, and friend of the Roman people. In 40 CE, however, the emperor Caligula had him executed.

The story of Antony’s children is therefore closely connected to the transformation of the Roman Republic into the imperial system. His surviving children were absorbed into the new political order in different ways. Iullus Antonius pursued a Roman political career under Augustus, while Antonia Major and Antonia Minor became part of the family networks from which later emperors emerged. Cleopatra Selene was established as a client queen, while her brothers disappeared from the historical record.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Plutarch, Life of Antony, 87-90.

Cassius Dio, Roman History, 48-51.

Secondary Sources

Goldsworthy, Adrian. Antony and Cleopatra. Yale University Press, 2010.

Schiff, Stacy. Cleopatra: A Life. Little, Brown and Company, 2010.

Southern, Patricia. Mark Antony: A Life. Amberley Publishing, 2012.