# Marcus Atius Balbus > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Marcus_Atius_Balbus > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Marcus_Atius_Balbus.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Atius_Balbus > Source revision: 1321932136 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Roman Republican praetor}} {{no footnotes|date=June 2016}} {{Infobox person | name = Marcus Atius Balbus | image = | caption = | spouse = [Julia Minor](/source/Julia_Minor_(sister_of_Caesar)) | children = Atia Balba "Prima" (possibly)
[Marcus Atius Balbus](/source/Marcus_Atius_Balbus_(proconsul_of_Sardinia)) (possibly)
[Atia Balba "Secunda"](/source/Atia_(mother_of_Augustus))
[Atia Balba "Tertia"](/source/Atia_(wife_of_L._Philippus_consul_38_BC)) | father = [Marcus Atius Balbus](/source/Marcus_Atius_Balbus_(great-grandfather_of_Augustus)) | mother = [Pompeia](/source/Pompeia_(sister_of_Pompeius_Strabo)) | birth_date = 105 BC | birth_place = [Aricia](/source/Aricia%2C_Italy), [Italy](/source/Roman_Italy), [Roman Republic](/source/Roman_Republic) | death_date = 51 BC }} '''Marcus Atius Balbus''' (105 – 51 BC) was a 1st-century BC Roman who served as a [praetor](/source/praetor) in 62 BC; he was a cousin of the general [Pompey](/source/Pompey) on his mother's side and a brother-in-law of the Dictator [Julius Caesar](/source/Julius_Caesar) through his marriage to Caesar's sister [Julia Minor](/source/Julia_Minor_(sister_of_Caesar)). Through his daughter, [Atia](/source/Atia_(mother_of_Augustus)), he became the maternal grandfather of [Augustus](/source/Augustus) the first [Roman Emperor](/source/Roman_Emperor). ==Early life== Balbus was born and raised in [Aricia](/source/Aricia%2C_Italy) into a political family and was the son and heir of the elder Marcus Atius Balbus (148 – 87 BC). His mother was [Pompeia](/source/Pompeia_(sister_of_Pompeius_Strabo)), the sister to consul [Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo](/source/Gnaeus_Pompeius_Strabo), father of [Pompey Magnus](/source/Pompey), a member of the [First Triumvirate](/source/First_Triumvirate) with [Julius Caesar](/source/Julius_Caesar) and [Marcus Licinius Crassus](/source/Marcus_Licinius_Crassus). The family of the elder Balbus came from a [Roman](/source/Ancient_Rome) senatorial family of [plebs](/source/plebs) status from Aricia (modern Ariccia, [Italy](/source/Italy)). "Balbus" in Latin means ''[stammer](/source/stammer)''. ==Career== During the consulship of Julius Caesar in 59 BC, Balbus was appointed along with Pompey to a board of commissioners under a [Julian Law](/source/Julian_laws) to divide estates in [Campania](/source/Campania) among the commoners. [Cicero](/source/Cicero) stated that Pompey would say as a joke about Balbus, that he was not a person of any importance. ==Personal life== He married [Julia Minor](/source/Julia_Minor_(sister_of_Caesar)), the younger of the two elder sisters of the dictator [Julius Caesar](/source/Julius_Caesar). Julia bore him two or more daughters and possibly a son named [Marcus Atius Balbus](/source/Marcus_Atius_Balbus_(proconsul_of_Sardinia)).{{Cite book|title=Ten Studies in Tacitus|last=Syme|first=Ronald|publisher=Clarendon P.|year=1970|isbn=9780198143581|pages=63}} One [of the daughters](/source/Atia_(mother_of_Augustus)) married [Gaius Octavius](/source/Gaius_Octavius_(proconsul)) and became the mother of [Octavia Minor](/source/Octavia_Minor) (fourth wife of triumvir [Mark Antony](/source/Mark_Antony)) and of the first Roman emperor [Augustus](/source/Augustus). A [younger daughter](/source/Atia_(wife_of_L._Philippus_consul_38_BC)) married [Lucius Marcius Philippus](/source/Lucius_Marcius_Philippus_(consul_38_BC)) and became the mother of [Marcia](/source/Marcia_(wife_of_Maximus)).{{Cite book|title=All Things Julius Caesar: An Encyclopedia of Caesar's World and Legacy|last=Lovano|first=Michael|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2014|isbn=9781440804212|pages=72}} Another Atia, who was married to a Gaius Junius Silanus, has been speculated to have existed by Madvig and Syme.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G4QXAQAAIAAJ&q=%22appia%22+%22claudia%22+silanus|title = Roman Female Praenomina: Studies in the Nomenclature of Roman Women|isbn = 9789519690216|last1 = Kajava|first1 = Mika|year = 1995 | publisher=Institutum Romanum Finlandiae }}{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VEbCDwAAQBAJ&q=silanus+%22Claudia%22+daughter+%22pulcher%22&pg=PT81|title = The Imperial Families of Ancient Rome|last1 = Craven|first1 = Maxwell|date = 8 December 2019}} This Atia may have been a granddaughter of Balbus and Julia through their son and his marriage to a [Claudia](/source/Claudia_gens).{{cite book | last1 = Syme | first1 = Ronald | author-link1 = Ronald Syme | title = The Augustan Aristocracy | publisher = Oxford Clarendon Press | year = 1989 | location = Oxford | page = 194 | isbn = 978-0-19-814731-2 | quote = A third Atia can now be conjured up.}} (Limited Previes: [https://books.google.com/books?id=fj8oQ4lzteIC&q=Atia&pg=PA194 "Atia, wife of Marcius Philippus (suff. 38 BC)"] and [https://books.google.com/books?id=fj8oQ4lzteIC&q=Atia&pg=PA194 "A daughter (Atia) would supply a wife for C. Silanus"] of this page in [Google Books](/source/Google_Books)) ==Death== Balbus died in 51 BC. ==See also== * [Atia gens](/source/Atia_gens) * [Julio-Claudian family tree](/source/Julio-Claudian_family_tree) == References == {{Reflist}} == Sources == * [Suetonius](/source/Suetonius), ''The Lives of the Twelve Caesars'', Augustus * https://web.archive.org/web/20060511155339/http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0464.html ==External links== * {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20060511155339/http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0464.html Coinage of Balbus (or possibly his son)]}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Atius, Marcus}} Category:Roman Republican praetors Category:1st-century BC Romans Category:105 BC births Category:51 BC deaths Balbus, Marcus Category:Family of Augustus --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Marcus Atius Balbus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Atius_Balbus) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Atius_Balbus?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.