Drusilla of Mauretania (born 38)

This article is about Drusilla of Mauretania (born 38) for her paternal aunt of the same name; see Drusilla of Mauretania (born 5).

Drusilla from Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum

Drusilla of Mauretania (Greek: Δρουσìλλη, 38-79) was a Princess of Mauretania, North Africa and was the great grandchild of Ptolemaic Greek Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt and Roman Triumvir Mark Antony.^[1]

Ancestry & Family

Drusilla was a monarch of Berber, Greek, Roman and possibly of Assyrian ancestry. She was the daughter and only child born to the Roman Client Monarchs Ptolemy of Mauretania and his wife, Julia Urania.^[2]

Her mother Julia Urania may have been a member of the Royal family of Emesa, a Syrian Roman Client Kingdom^[3], while her father Ptolemy of Mauretania was a son of the Roman Client Monarchs Juba II and Cleopatra Selene II.^[4] Her father’s maternal grandparents were Ptolemaic Greek Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt and Roman Triumvir Mark Antony.^[5] Drusilla was the great granddaughter of Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony.^[6]

Early Life & First Marriage

Drusilla was most probably born in Caesaria (modern Cherchell Algeria), the capital of the Roman Client Kingdom of Mauretania in the Roman Empire. She named in honor of her father’s second maternal cousin Julia Drusilla, one of the sisters of the Roman Emperor Caligula who died around the time of her birth^[7] and is also the namesake of her paternal aunt Drusilla.

Her father was executed while visiting Rome in 40. Mauretania was annexed by Rome and later became two Roman provinces. Drusilla was probably raised in the Imperial Family in Rome. Around 53, the Roman Emperor Claudius arranged for her to marry Marcus Antonius Felix, a Greek Freedman who was the Roman Governor of Judea.^[8] Between the years 54 til 56, Felix divorced Drusilla as he fell in love and married the Herodian Princess Drusilla.

Drusilla held the Latin honorary title of Regina.^[9] The Roman Historian Suetonius, only uses the word Regina to describe a ruling Queen or the wife of a King. She is one of the three Queens which Suetonius ascribes to Felix.^[10] Her title may have been just purely honorary and possibly reveals Felix’s influence and status in the Imperial Court; his royal descent as according to the Roman Historian Tacitus, Felix and his brother Marcus Antonius Pallas had descended from the Greek Kings of Arcadia and the position that Claudius appointed him to at the time of his first marriage. At the time of her first marriage, Drusilla was the only daughter of a King of a former Kingdom. Her title may also reveal the identity of her second husband.

Second Marriage

In 56 Drusilla married as her second husband; her distant relative the Emesene Priest King, Sohaemus^[11][12], who ruled from 54 until his death in 73. Sohaemus was the Priest of the Syrian Sun God, known in Aramaic as El-Gebal. Through marriage she became a Roman Client Queen of the Emesani Kingdom and a Queen consort to Sohaemus. Drusilla and Sohaemus had a son Gaius Julius Alexio also known as Alexio II, who later succeeded his father as Emesene Priest King. A possible descendant of Drusilla was the Syrian Queen of the 3rd century, Zenobia of Palmyra.^[13][14]

References

1. ^ Ptolemaic Affiliated Lines: Descendant Lines
2. ^ Ptolemaic Genealogy - Cleopatra Selene, Footnote 10
3. ^ Ptolemaic Genealogy - Cleopatra Selene, Footnote 10
4. ^ Suetonius, Caligula, 26
5. ^ Ptolemaic Genealogy - Cleopatra Selene
6. ^ Ptolemaic Genealogy - Cleopatra Selene, Footnote 10
7. ^ Ptolemaic Genealogy - Cleopatra Selene, Footnote 10
8. ^ Ptolemaic Genealogy - Cleopatra Selene, Footnote 10
9. ^ Ptolemaic Genealogy - Cleopatra Selene, Footnote 10
10. ^ Ptolemaic Genealogy - Cleopatra Selene, Footnote 10
11. ^ Ptolemaic Affiliated Lines: Descendant Lines
12. ^ Ptolemaic Points of Interest: Cleopatra VII & Ptolemy XIII
13. ^ Ptolemaic Affiliated Lines: Descendant Lines
14. ^ Ptolemaic Points of Interest: Cleopatra VII & Ptolemy XIII

Sources

• Ptolemaic Genealogy - Cleopatra Selene
• Ptolemaic Affiliated Lines: Descendant Lines
• Ptolemaic Points of Interest: Cleopatra VII & Ptolemy XIII

Ancestors of Drusilla of Mauretania

16. Hiempsal II of Numidia

8. Juba I of Numidia

4. Juba II of Numidia

2. Ptolemy of Mauretania

20. Marcus Antonius Creticus

10. Mark Antony

21. Julia Antonia

5. Cleopatra Selene II of Egypt

22. Ptolemy XII Auletes

11. Cleopatra VII Philopator, Queen of Egypt

23. Cleopatra V of Egypt

1. Drusilla of Mauretania

3. Julia Urania