Antonia Major

Cultural depictions

Many scholars think the Ara Pacis (an altar from the Augustan Era) displays Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and his elder sister. The woman behind Domitia and Domitius is allegedly their mother Antonia Major and the man next to Antonia Major is allegedly her husband Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, so identified in 1903 by Alfred von Domaszewski. However, the only son of Antonia and Ahenobarbus was born in 1 BC, which is after the Ara Pacis was completed and inaugurated. This means the boy on the frieze cannot be the infamous Gnaeus (father of Nero). Sir Ronald Syme has argued the two children are actually a lost elder son Lucius and another unknown sister. In reality, the family seems to be another family entirely, probably the family of one of Augustus's other three nieces. Gnaeus was born in 1 BC and had two older sisters. No surviving source mentions older siblings who died in childhood, whereas there are other branches of the imperial family that had exactly one son and one daughter between 21 and 15 BC.