Apicata

This article is about the ancient Roman woman. For the species of cicada, see Cicadetta apicata.

Apicata was a woman of the 1st century in ancient Rome. She was married to Sejanus, friend and confidant of the Roman Emperor Tiberius.

After Apicata had borne him three children, Sejanus divorced her in the year 23, when it seemed he might need to marry his lover and co-conspirator Livilla, the wife of Drusus Julius Caesar (son of Tiberius), and a woman of higher social rank than Apicata. Drusus was a challenger to Sejanus's quest for power, but died in 23 of apparent natural causes.

Accusation of Sejanus and death

Eight years later, in 31, Sejanus was accused of crimes severe enough to warrant his immediate execution, and he was killed. Sejanus's three children with Apicata were to be put to death as well, so that Sejanus's line might have no more heirs. Their eldest son, Strabo, was executed six days later, after which Apicata wrote a letter to Tiberius accusing Sejanus and Livilla of having poisoned Drusus eight years earlier. Before the executions of her younger two children, Aelia Iunilla and Capito Aelianus, Apicata herself committed suicide.

How Apicata came to be aware of Sejanus's crime is not known, as is whether the accusation was true at all, but her accusation was taken seriously. Tiberius had Livilla's slave Lygdus and Livilla's physician Eudemus tortured in order to extract a confirmation of this accusation.

We know Livilla died around this time, though not precisly how. She was either killed or committed suicide. According to the historian Cassius Dio, Livilla was given over to her mother, Antonia Minor, who had Livilla starved to death.

Legacy

The modern narrative of Apicata often renders her as an avenger on a treacherous husband and the woman of higher station who broke up her marriage, and possibly scheming as much as her ex-husband, especially if her accusations were not true; contemporary epigraphy suggests in her time she elicited little sympathy and was seen as treacherous herself, and tainted by association with Sejanus.

Notes

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