Atia

Family: Julio-Claudian · Role: mother · First appears: Augustus 4

Atia was the daughter of Marcus Atius Balbus and Julia, sister to Julius Caesar. She was the parent of Octavia the younger and Augustus.

Atia was married to Octavius. According to the account, she attended a midnight religious ceremony for Apollo, where she “fell asleep on her couch in the temple”; after a serpent approached her, she found a lasting serpent-shaped mark on her body. Augustus was born in the tenth month afterward and “was thought to be the son of Apollo.”

Relationship record

Augustus 4

• child: Octavia the younger “and another daughter, Octavia the younger, as well as Augustus, by Atia”
• child: Augustus “and another daughter, Octavia the younger, as well as Augustus, by Atia”
• parent: Marcus Atius Balbus “Atia, who was the daughter of Marcus Atius Balbus”
• parent: Julia (sister of Julius Caesar) “Atia, who was the daughter of Marcus Atius Balbus, and Julia, sister to Caius Julius Caesar”

Augustus 94

• child: Augustus “I find in the theological books of Asclepiades the Mendesian, that Atia, upon attending at midnight a religious solemnity in honour of Apollo, when the rest of the matrons retired home, fell asleep on her couch in the temple, and that a serpent immediately crept to her, and soon after withdrew. She awaking upon it, purified herself, as usual after the embraces of her husband; and instantly there appeared upon her body a mark in the form of a serpent, which she never after could efface, and which obliged her, during the subsequent part of her life, to decline the use of the public baths. Augustus, it was added, was born in the tenth month after, and for that reason was thought to be the son of Apollo.”
• married with Octavius “Atia, upon attending at midnight a religious solemnity in honour of Apollo, when the rest of the matrons retired home, fell asleep on her couch in the temple, and that a serpent immediately crept to her, and soon after withdrew. She awaking upon it, purified herself, as usual after the embraces of her husband; and instantly there appeared upon her body a mark in the form of a serpent, which she never after could efface, and which obliged her, during the subsequent part of her life, to decline the use of the public baths. Augustus, it was added, was born in the tenth month after, and for that reason was thought to be the son of Apollo. The same Atia, before her delivery, dreamed that her bowels stretched to the stars, and expanded through the whole circuit of heaven and earth. His father Octavius, likewise, dreamt that a sun-beam issued from his wife’s womb.”

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Extracted from the original text of The Lives of the Twelve Caesars. Made with Rho MD.