Appius Claudius Pulcher (consul 79 BC)

Appius Claudius Pulcher (130 or 129 BC – 76 BC) was Consul in 79 BC

filiation: Ap. f. C. n.

youngest son of Appius, Consul in 143 BC, possibly born shortly after the father's death

q. c.103/100 aed.cur. 91 pr. 89 Commander Campania (siege of Nola), pro cos., 88-7 in spring 87 BC the illegally deposed consul L. Cornelius Cinna in turn deposed Appius from the command of his army and led it against Rome in the bellum Octavianum of that year. Thereafter Appius largely disappears from record until his consulate in 79 BC ; most likely he fled to Sulla in the east 86 and returned with him to Italy in 83 BC. cos. 79 pro cos. 78-76 (ill at Tarentum through 78) interrex primus at the beginning of the 77(R) year, from the Kalends to the Nones of Ianuarius. Commander Roman Macedonia 77-76

Illness prevented him taking up his Macedonian command for the better part of a year after his consulate ; he seems to have sent out Manius Fonteius (later praetor 75) as his legatus pro praetore in charge of the province from spring 78 to spring 77 BC. But he eventually took up the command in spring or summer 77 and subsequently conducted some hard and successful campaigns, dying in the Balkan Rhodope Ranges in the autumn of 76 BC.

His wives are not directly attested ; the second of them is one of the most intriguing problems of 1st century aristocratic prosopography, and was probably a Servilia daughter of Q.Caepio cos.106 and former wife of Livius Drusus, who divorced her about 96 BC. Appius had 5 daughters and 3 sons of which the first two girls are to be inferred from the names of their sisters.

childen by ignota ;

• Claudia maior born c.102 wife of Catulus ??
• Claudia minor born c.101 wife of a Fonteius ? (i.e. mother of Clodius' adoptor in 59), or died young in 80s
• Claudia Tertia Regis (c.99-c.30s) ; wife of Quintus Marcius Rex until his death in 62 BC
• Claudia Quarta Metelli (c.98-c.30s) ; wife of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer, whom she seems to have poisoned during the winter of 60-59 BC at the instigation of the Gang of Three
• Appius Claudius Pulcher (97-49)
• Gaius pr.56 (96-40s)

children by Servilia (married c.94) ;

• Publius Claudius Pulcher q.61, tr.pl.58, aed.cur.56, pr.cand.for 53 (93-53) who changed his name to Publius Clodius
• Claudia (Quinta) Luculli (c.91-post 46) ; first wife of Lucius Licinius Lucullus, who divorced her in 66 BC

other children of Servilia by her two earlier marriages ;

• Q.Metellus Celer cos.60 (c.103-59) husband of Claudia Quarta
• Q.Metellus Nepos cos.57 (c.100-c.54) homosexual, never married
• Mucia Tertia (c.96-20s) wife of Pompeius Magnus, then of M.Scaurus pr.56

The assumption that Servilia was Q.f. daughter of Caepio cos.106, and thus paternal aunt of Cato's uterine brother and sister Q.Caepio (q.67) and Servilia Bruti is the simplest explain of Cato's kinship with Pompeius' wife Mucia Tertia (cf. Plut.Cato 13?) No evidence supports the traditional theory that he was married to Caecilia Metella Balearica.

References

• Christian Settipani. Continuité gentilice et continuité sénatoriale dans les familles sénatoriales romaines à l'époque impériale, 2000, p 62.

Preceded by Lucius Cornelius Sulla and Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius

Consul of the Roman Republic with Publius Servilius Vatia 79 BC

Succeeded by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and Quintus Lutatius Catulus