Antistia (wife Of Pompey)

Antistia ( fl. 86-82 BCE) was a Roman woman and the first of the five wives of Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, later known as Pompey the Great.

Little is known of Antistia outside her marriage to Pompey. She was promised to Pompey in marriage by her father, the lawyer, orator and senator Publius Antistius, in 86 BCE. In 82 BCE, Pompey divorced her in favour of Aemilia, the stepdaughter of Sulla, at the dictator's urging.

Family

The ''gens Antistia'' were a plebeian family, relatively obscure in the early 1st century BCE. Antistia's father, Publius Antistius, rose to prominence in the early 80s BCE, judged by later observers such as Cicero as among the best of a poor crop of orators active at that time (88 BCE).

Publius Antistius belonged to a large generation of Roman orators whose members were all born around 124 BC and flourished during Cicero's youth. Having previously been regarded as a mediocre speaker and spending many years in political obscurity, Antistius was elected tribune of the plebs in 88 BCE. In this role, he gained prominence for his successful opposition to the candidacy of Gaius Julius Caesar Strabo for Consul, on the grounds that Strabo had not previously held the necessary office of praetor. Cicero records that he was considered to have argued his case exceptionally well, speaking "at greater length and with greater penetration" than a renowned orator, Publius Sulpicius, a fellow tribune who spoke on the same side of the debate as him. His success in the case greatly increased demand for his legal and oratorical services, such that Cicero recalls that 'every cause of importance' was brought to him.

Having dominated politics in the previous years, Sulla was absent from Rome for much of the First Mithridatic War (89-85 BCE), allowing his enemies, Gaius Marius and then Cornelius Cinna, to gain political supremacy. Cicero described this as a time of lawlessness and corruption, and Antistius's prominence has been taken as evidence for his implication in the judicial irregularities of the period.

The ''gens Antistia'' would later be raised to patrician status by Octavian in 29 BCE.''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', vol. I, p. 209 ("Antistia Gens").

Marriage to Pompey

In 86 BC, in his capacity as ''iudex'', Antistius presided over the trial of Pompey for embezzlement of public funds () during the Social War. The trial has been largely characterised as a sham, with its outcome assured from the start. Antistius showed favour to Pompey throughout the trial, and secretly promised Antistia to him in marriage while the proceedings were still ongoing - a fact which, however, became common knowledge: when Antistius announced the verdict of acquittal, Plutarch reports that the crowd began shouting 'Talasio!', the customary acclamation of a marriage.

Antistia's marriage to Pompey has thus been interpreted as 'the most characteristic example of political marriage, and ... the most pitiful and pathetic': as a cynically-minded attempt by Antistius to increase his standing through alliance to an up-and-coming young nobleman, and by Pompey as an equally cynical attempt to avoid any chance of an adverse verdict, as well as to gain the favour and patronage of Antistius and his family.

Divorce

In 82 BC, Sulla and his wife Metella persuaded Pompey to divorce Antistia in favour of Sulla's stepdaughter, Aemilia. The reasons for the marriage are ambiguous, and perhaps mixed: Plutarch explains the marriage through Sulla's desire to reward Pompey for his successful service in the civil war against the Marians during 83–82, and to make a marriage alliance with a capable man who could be of use to him. However, the marriage has also been characterised as Sulla's attempt to neutralise the potential threat of Pompey's popularity and growing power.

The divorce seems to have been painful for Pompey: Plutarch writes that it 'befitted the needs of Sulla rather than the nature and habits of Pompey', in that Aemilia was already pregnant (and soon to die in childbirth) by her current husband, the future consul Manius Acilius Glabrio. The remark may also allude to Pompey's passionate nature and, perhaps, his attachment to Antistia. For Antistia, the divorce was doubly unfortunate: her father had been killed during a senate-meeting at the Curia Hostilia in the same year by Marian supporters, led by the praetor Junius Damasippus, who viewed Antistius as unreliable, despite his earlier co-operation, due to his marriage alliance with Pompey. Her mother, Calpurnia, had also killed herself upon hearing the news.

Little is known of Antistia's reaction to the divorce, or of her life afterwards. The affair has been taken as evidence of Roman women's lack of control over their marital lives, and the overarching importance of political concerns over personal in aristocratic Roman marriages. However, the parallels between Plutarch's account of Pompey's divorce from Antistia and his account of Caesar's refusal to divorce his own wife Calpurnia, when ordered to do so by Sulla,Plutarch, ''Life of Caesar'' 1 have led to the suggestion that the framing of the narrative as found in Plutarch may originate with a Caesarian propagandist, perhaps Oppius, whom Plutarch consulted while working on the ''Life of Pompey''.

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1st-century BC Romans
Antistii
Year of birth unknown