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Tertia Aemilia is the wife of Scipio Africanus (also known as the elder Scipio). Nothing is known of the date of the marriage of Tertia Aemilia (also known as Aemilia Paulla) to Scipio Africanus. She was the daughter of Lucius Aemilius Paullus (consul in 216 BC whom was killed at the Battle of Cannae of the Second Punic War) and sister of another consul Lucius Aemilius Paulus Macedonicus. The female name Aemilia was a given name for women of the gens Aemilius, one of the five most important patrician families of Ancient Rome. Tertia Aemilia and Scipio Africanus had a fruitful marriage and it is written they were very happily married. Tertia Aemilia with her husband Scipio Africanus had two sons and two daughters.

Polybius wrote of Tertia Aemilia: This lady used to display great magnificence whenever she took in women's religious ceremonies. For apart from the righness of her own dress and the decorations of her carriage, all the baskets, cups and other utensils of the sacrifice were of gold or silver and were borne in her train on such solemn occasions, while the number of her maids and servants in attendance was correspondingly large. (Polybius. xxxii, 12 ; Diod. Exc. xxxi.; Val. Max. vi. 7. § 1}

Tertia Aemilia had unusual freedom and wealth for a patrician married woman, and she was an important role model for many younger Roman woman, just as her youngest daughter Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi, would be an important role model for many Late Republican Roman noblewomen, including allegedly, the mother of Julius Caesar. Cornelia Scipionis Africana was the mother of Tiberius Gracchus and Gaius Gracchus ("Mother of the Gracchi", infamous brothers).

She had two daughters surviving upon the death of her husband in 183 BC. The elder Cornelia married her second cousin Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum (son of the consul of 191 BC who was himself son of Scipio's elder paternal uncle Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus). Upon "Aemilia's" husband's death (Scipio Cornelius Africanus) they had one surviving son.

Tertia Aemilia was of a very mild disposition and long survived her husband. Her possessions, that were large, were inherited by her grandson by adoption, Scipio Africanus II. He in turn gave them to his mother Papiria, whom was divorced from his own natural biological father L. Aemilius. (Plutarch. Aem. 2; Liv. xxxviii. 57.)

References

• Scipio Africanus: Soldier and Politican by H. H. Scullard Cornell University Press Ithaca, New York 1970 printed in England. Standard Book Number 8014-0549-1;
  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 76-98158 H. H. Scullard, Scipio Africanus: Soldier and Politician, Thames and Hudson, London, 1970. ISBN 0-500-40012-1
• Plutarch's Lives, Volume II of The Project Gutenberg EBook by Aubrey Stew http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14114/14114-0.txt
• Additional references to husband Scipio Africanus: http://www.fenrir.dk/history/index.php?title=Scipio_Africanus_:_References
• Friedrich Munzer, Roman Aristocratic Parties and Families (1920)
• T.R.S. Broughton, Magistrates of the Roman Republic (1950-1, 1986)

Children

• Publius Cornelius Scipio, grandson of Publius Cornelius Scipio consul 218 BCE
• Lucius Cornelius Scipio, grandson of Lucius Cornelius Scipio consul 259 BCE
• Cornelia Major, eldest daughter of Aemilia was born approximately 194 BCE
• Cornelia Scipionis Africana, youngest daughter, was born about 190 BCE

See Also

• other Cornelias
• Women in Rome
• Scipio-Paullus-Gracchus family tree

• Ancient Roman women
• Roman Republican consuls
• Natives of Rome
• Second Punic War commanders
• Ancient Roman generals
• Families of Rome