- Lollia Paulina
Lollia Paulina (PIR2 L 308) (died 49) was a noble Roman woman who lived in the 1st century.
Life
Her father was
Marcus Lollius Paulinus , who was a formal consul, and her mother wasVolusia Saturnina , a sister of senator and consulLucius Volusius Saturninus . Her maternal grandmother was a distant relative of the EmperorTiberius . Her father’s maternal uncle was senator and consulMarcus Aurelius Cotta Maximus Messalinus , and her paternal grandfather was the generalMarcus Lollius Paulinus. Paulina’s younger sister wasLollia Saturnina , who married the consulDecimus Valerius Asiaticus and had a son.Paulina became quite rich as the heir to her relatives' estates. Her first husband,
Publius Memmius Regulus , wassuffect consul in 31 and a Roman Governor.Tacitus describes him as a man of ‘dignity, who was a person of influence and good name‘. Regulus died in 62. The EmperorCaligula ordered Paulina to leave Regulus (she was, at the time, in the province that Regulus was governing) after the Emperor heard a remark about the beauty of her grandmother.Paulina was forced to divorce Regulus in order to marry Caligula, who took her as his third wife in 38 CE. He divorced her six months later, because she had not become pregnant, and forbade her to sleep with, or go near, another man.
Later, Paulina became a rival to Caligula‘s sister
Agrippina the Younger and was considered a possible wife for the EmperorClaudius . In 49, Agrippina charged her withblack magic ; Paulina did not get a hearing. Her property was confiscated and she left Italy.Tacitus tells us that Paulina was forced to commit suicide, under the watch of a colonel of the Guards, and suggests that the suicdie was ordered by Agrippina.
She is mentioned in
Pliny the Elder 's Natural history as an example of ostentation and as reportedly wearing a large share of her inheritance to a dinner party in the form of jewellery, worth some 40 millionsestertius . A sepulchre to her honour was erected in the reign of the EmperorNero .References
* [http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/1904.html Ancient Library 1904]
*Suetonius , "The Twelve Caesars"
*Tacitus , "The Annals of Imperial Rome"
* (edd.), "Prosopographia Imperii Romani saeculi I, II et III", Berlin, 1933 - . ("PIR2")
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