Marcia (wife of Cato the Younger)

Marcia (c. 80 BC, † after 49 BC ) was a member of the old Roman Plebejergeschlechts the Marcii and the second wife of the late Republican Roman politician Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis.

Life

Marcia was the daughter of the consul of 56 BC, Lucius Marcius Philippus, and his first wife. The brother of approximately the same Marcia was just like his father, Lucius Marcius Philippus, held 38 BC the Suffektkonsulat and was a stepbrother of Octavian ( the future emperor Augustus ). No later than 61 BC was a marriage to Marcia about 15 years older than a Cato, who had previously divorced from his first wife Atilia. The couple had a son, who probably received the praenomen Lucius, and two daughters named Porcia; the subsequent fate of these children are not known. After Cato was 56 BC returned from Cyprus, succeeded Marcia, remove a temporary discord between her husband and his good friend Munatius Rufus.

Between about 55 and 52 BC, already about 60 -year-old orator Quintus Hortensius Hortalus asked his friend Cato, cede him his young wife, as Hortensius was hoped that such a relationship still young. Cato had no objection, but made ​​it a condition that Marcia's father must approve the marriage project. After Philip had given his consent, Cato divorced from Marcia. Then married the young woman Hortensius and lived with him until he is 50 BC wide. They inherited the large estate of the deceased and returned to her first husband Cato. As early 49 BC the Roman civil war between Pompey and Gaius Julius Caesar broke out and the latter against Italy advanced, Cato departed from Rome, Marcia left her and gave her the supervision of his house and still underage daughters.

This case was from the beginning a lot of attention and gained early entrance in the pamphlet literature. So Caesar attacked his political opponents Cato therefore in the lost Anticato and imputed to him that he had only left Marcia therefore Hortensius, so that they can take back as a rich widow after his death. A justification for Cato's conduct investigated the Stoic sympathizers to give about Seneca. Later, the case was also made the subject of exercise in rhetoric speeches. Christian writers denounced Cato procedure as an example of pagan depravity.