Did Herodes Atticus Have Eight Months Pregnant Wife, Regilla, Killed?

Summary: Did Herodes Atticus have his wife, Regilla, eight months pregnant with their sixth child, killed by a fatal abdominal kick by his freedman, Alcimedon?

statue of Annia Regilla, from Nymphaeum constructed between 159 and 153 CE by her husband, Herodes Atticus, at Olympia; Archaeological Museum of Olympia (Greek: Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο Ολυμπίας), Elis or Ilia (Greek: Ηλεία, Ileia) region, western Peloponnese peninsula (Greek: Πελοπόννησος), southern Greece; image taken April 23, 2014: Carole Raddato (Following Hadrian), CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Did Herodes Atticus have his wife, Regilla, eight months pregnant with their sixth child, murdered by a fatal kick to her abdomen by one of his freedmen, Alcimedon, who thereafter still remained in the household?

Wealthy Roman patrician Appia Annia Regilla (125-160 CE), full name Appia Annia Regilla Atilia Caucidia Tertulla, was wed, as a teenager, to Herodes Atticus (Ancient Greek: Ἡρώδης ὁ Ἀττικός; Roman name: Lucius Vibullius Hipparchus Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes; 101-177 CE), an older, wealthy Athenian Greek with Roman citizenship. Suggested dates for their marriage have ranged from 139 CE or 140 CE to circa 141 CE, the year of their first child's birth, to circa 143 CE. The range has placed their marital ages at 14 to 18 for Regilla and 38 to 42 for Herodes. The marriage took place in 139 CE, according to American classicist Barbara F. McManus (Oct. 5, 1942-June 19, 2015) in "Plancia Magna, Aurelia Paulina, and Regilla: Civic Donors" on VRoma, the "Virtual Community for Teaching and Learning Classics" that she co-directed. Herodes and Regilla were married in 140 CE, according to La Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali (Capitoline Superintendency for Cultural Heritage) website's post, "Annia Regilla -- Sant'Urbano." The wedding was held shortly before Herodes Atticus's appointment as consul in 143 CE, according to German classical archaeologist Barbara Elisabeth Borg in "Herodes Atticus in Rome: The Triopion Reconsidered" (page 317), published in 2018 in Visual Histories of the Classical World.

Herodes Atticus's prestigious Roman career included his appointment, from 140 to 146 CE, by Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius (Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius; Sep. 19, 86-March 7, 161 CE) as tutor of adoptive imperial princes Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (April 26, 121-March 17, 180 CE) and Lucius Verus (Dec. 15, 130-January 169 CE) (Borg, page 325). In 143 CE, Antoninus Pius appointed him to the consulateship.

Regilla's illustrious genealogy included her paternal kinship with two mother-daughter Roman empresses (Pomeroy, page 14). Annia Galeria Faustina (Faustina maggiore, "Faustina the Elder"; ca. 105-ca. 140 CE) was Antoninus Pius's wife. Annia Galeria Faustina (Faustina minore, "Faustina the Younger"; ca. 130-175/176 CE) married her maternal cousin, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who succeeded Antoninus Pius as emperor March 7, 161 CE.

Between 141 and ca. 160 CE, the couple welcomed six children. Claudius was born and died in 141 CE. Herodus and Regilla's first daughter, Appia Annia Claudia Atilia Regilla Elpinice Agrippina Atria Polla (Greek: Αππία Αννία Κλαυδία Ατιλία Ρήγιλλα Ελπινίκη Αγριππίνα Ατρία Πώλλα), known as Elpinice (Greek: Ελπινίκη), was born ca. 142 CE and died in 165 CE. A second daughter, Marcia Annia Claudia Alcia Athenais Gavidia Latiaria (Greek: Μαρκία Κλαυδία Άλκία Άθηναΐς Γαβιδία Λατιαρία), known as Athenais (Greek: Αθηναΐς), was born ca. 143/144 and died before 161 CE. A second son, Tiberius Claudius Marcus Appius Atilius Bradua Regillus Atticus, known as Atticus Bradua, was born ca. 145 CE and died ca. 209 CE. The couple's third son and fifth child, Tiberius Claudius Herodes Lucius Vibullius Regillus, known as Regillus, was born ca. 150 to ca. 155 CE.

The couple's fourth son and sixth child was unnamed. He either died as an eight-month-old fetus in 160 CE with his mother or he survived his murdered mother by three months, according to American classicist and social historian Sarah B. Pomeroy's Genealogical Chart in The Murder of Regilla: A Case of Domestic Violence in Antiquity, published in 2007.

The circumstances of Regilla's murder were detailed by Roman Imperial period Greek sophist Philostratus (Ancient Greek: Φιλόστρατος Philostratos; ca. 170-245/250 CE) in Βίοι σοϕιστῶν ("The Lives of the Sophists"). He wrote his two-book biography "between the years 230 and 238," according to British-born American classical philologist Emily Wilmer Cave France Wright (Jan. 21, 1868-Nov. 16, 1951) in the Introduction (page xii) of her English translation of The Lives of the Sophists, published in 1922.

"A charge of murder was also brought against Herodes, and it was made up in this way," Philostratus narrated, approximately 70 to 78 years after the event. "His wife Regilla, it was said, was in the eighth month her pregnancy, and Herodes ordered his freedman Alcimedon to beat her for some slight fault, and the woman died in premature childbirth from a blow to the belly. On these grounds, as though true, Regilla's brother Braduas brought a suit against him for murder. He was a very illustrious man of consular rank, and the outward sign of his birth, a crescent-shaped ivory buckle, attached to his sandal. And when Braduas appeared before the Roman tribunal he brought no convincing proof of the charge that he was making, but delivered a long panegyric on himself dealing with his own family. Whereupon Herodes jested at his expense and said: 'You have your pedigree on your toe-joints.'"

Bradua (Appius Annius Atilius Bradua), who had been appointed as consul in 160 CE, then boasted of his "benefactions" to a city in Italy. Herodes countered "with great dignity" that he also could enumerate his philanthropy "in whatever part of the earth I were now being tried."

Yet, beyond the verbal clashes between accuser and accused, two factors favored Herodes Atticus in the senatorial court. "First that he had given orders for no such severe measures against Regilla; secondly, his extraordinary grief at her death. Even this was regarded as a pretence and made a charge against him, but nevertheless the truth prevailed" (Emily Wilmer Cave France Wright translation, 1922; Book II.555-556, pages 158-161).

Herodes Atticus's murder trial ended in an acquittal, with an intervening declaration of innocence from the accused's former imperial pupil, Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Barbara F. McManus, "Plancia Magna, Aurelia Paulina, and Regilla: Civic Donors"). Antoninus Pius effected the acquittal, according to Annika B. Kuhn, University of Oxford Ancient History Ph.D., in "Herodes Atticus and the Quintilii of Alexandria Troas," published in 2012 in Chiron (band 42, page 437). Unpunished, Alcimedon retained his position in Herodes Atticus's retinue, according to American classicist Judith Lynn Sebesta in "Spousal Abuse of Wives (2nd - 3rd Century CE)" on the Feminae Romanae website that she co-edits with American classicist Ann R. Raia.

ca. 161 CE marble portrait of Herodes Atticus; found by French archaeologist Louis-François-Sébastien Fauvel (Sep. 14, 1753-March 12, 1838) at Probalinthos (Ancient Greek: Προβάλινθος), Attica region (Greek: Αττική; Ancient Greek Attikḗ or Attikī́), southeastern Greece; Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities, Denon, ground floor, room 25: Alphanoden, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

statue of Annia Regilla, from Nymphaeum constructed between 159 and 153 CE by her husband, Herodes Atticus, at Olympia; Archaeological Museum of Olympia (Greek: Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο Ολυμπίας), Elis or Ilia (Greek: Ηλεία, Ileia) region, western Peloponnese peninsula (Greek: Πελοπόννησος), southern Greece; image taken April 23, 2014: Carole Raddato (Following Hadrian), CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/carolemage/14003808942/

ca. 161 CE marble portrait of Herodes Atticus; found by French archaeologist Louis-François-Sébastien Fauvel (Sep. 14, 1753-March 12, 1838) at Probalinthos (Ancient Greek: Προβάλινθος), Attica region (Greek: Αττική; Ancient Greek Attikḗ or Attikī́), southeastern Greece; Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities, Denon, ground floor, room 25: Alphanoden, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Herodes_Atticus_Louvre_Ma1164_n2.jpg

For further information:

Birley, Anthony R. The Roman Government of Britain. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005.

Borg, Barbara E. "Herodes Atticus in Rome: The Triopion Reconsidered." Pages 317-330. In: Catherine M. Draycott, Rubina Raja, Katherine Welch and William T. Wootton, eds., Visual Histories of the Classical World: Essays in Honour of R.R.R. Smith. Studies in Classical Archaeology, vol. 4. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 2018.
Available via ResearchGate @ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340655030_Herodes_Atticus_in_Rome_The_Triopion_reconsidered_in_C_M_Draycott_R_Raja_K_Welch_and_W_T_Wootton_eds_Visual_Histories_of_the_Classical_World_Essays_in_Honour_of_RRR_Smith_Turnhout_Brepols_2019_317-30

Gleason, Maud W. "Making Space for Bicultural Identity: Herodes Atticus Commemorates Regilla." In: Walter Scheidel and Brent Shaw, eds., Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics Paper No. 070801. July 1, 2008.
Available via SSRN (Social Science Research Network) @ https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1427349

Gleason, Maud W. "Making Space for Bicultural Identity: Herodes Atticus Commemorates Regilla." Pages 125-162. In: Tim Whitmarsh, ed., Local Knowledge and Microidentities in the Imperial Greek World. (Cambridge University Press, 2010) 125-162.
Available via Academia @ https://www.academia.edu/8957440/_Making_Space_for_Bicultural_Identity_Herodes_Atticus_Commemorates_Regilla_in_T_Whitmarsh_ed_Local_Knowledge_and_Microidentities_in_the_Imperial_Greek_World_Cambridge_University_Press_2010_125_162

Marriner, Derdriu. "Herodes Atticus's Wife's Ancestral Estate Was Near Quintilii's Villa." Earth and Space News. Thursday, May 4, 2023.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2023/05/herodes-atticuss-wifes-ancestral-estate.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Marcus Aurelius Liking Trojan Quintilii Brothers Upset Herodes Atticus." Earth and Space News. Thursday, April 27, 2023.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2023/04/marcus-aurelius-liking-trojan-quintilii.html

McManus, Barbara F. "Plancia Magna, Aurelia Paulina, and Regilla: Civic Donors." VRoma > Resources > History & Culture (Non-MOO Resources) > Civilization and Culture Topics > Social Class and Public Display.
Available via VRoma @ http://vroma.org/vromans/bmcmanus/women_civicdonors.html

Pomeroy, Sarah B. The Murder of Regilla: A Case of Domestic Violence in Antiquity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007.
Available via Google Books @ https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Murder_of_Regilla/UsUJS9g6qHgC

Sebesta, Judith Lynn. "Spousal Abuse of Wives (2nd-3rd Century CE)." Femina Romanae > Worlds > Marriage.
Available @ https://feminaeromanae.org/abuse_wives.html

Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali. "Annia Regilla -- Sant-Urbano." Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali > Roma antica > Beni architettonici.
Available @ https://www-sovraintendenzaroma-it.translate.goog/i_luoghi/roma_antica/monumenti/annia_regilla_sant_urbano?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en

Swain, Simon. "The Reliability of Philostratus's 'Lives of the Sophists.'" Classical Antiquity, vol. 10, no. 1 (Apr., 1991): 148-163.
Available via JSTOR @ https://www.jstor.org/stable/25010945

Wright, [Emily] Wilmer Cave [France]. "A charge of murder was also brought against Herodes, and it was made up in this way. . . . This speech was reported indoors to Herodes, and when he heard it he removed the signs of mourning from his house, for fear he should become the laughingstock of wise men." Pages 158-163. Philostratus and Eunapius: The Lives of the Sophists, Book II.1.557-559, pages 162-169. The Loeb Classical Library. London: William Heinemann; New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, MCMXXII [1922].
Available via Google Books Read Free of Charge @ https://www.google.com/books/edition/Philostratus_and_Eunapius/NeYNAQAAIAAJ
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/philostratuseuna00phil/page/158/mode/1up