Antonius Felix - Marriages and Issues

Marriages and Issues

Felix married three times. His first wife was princess Drusilla of Mauretania, a maternal second cousin of Emperor Claudius. Drusilla was an only child to Claudius’ late maternal cousin King Ptolemy of Mauretania and his wife Queen of Mauretania Julia Urania. Claudius arranged for Felix and Drusilla to marry around 53 in Rome. Like Felix, Drusilla was partly of Greek descent. Felix and Drusilla had no children. Felix between 54-56, divorced Drusilla to marry another woman.

Felix’s second wife was a Judean princess, also named Drusilla, and the daughter of King of Judea Herod Agrippa I, from his wife and cousin Cypros. Felix and the Judean Drusilla, had a son, Marcus Antonius Agrippa, who died along with this Drusilla and many of the inhabitants of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius on 24 August 79, and a daughter, Antonia Clementiana. The Judean Drusilla was one of only two major figures reported as dying in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the other being Pliny the Elder. Antonia Agrippina may have been a daughter from their son's marriage (this name was graffiti in a Royal Tomb in Egypt). Clementiana became a grandmother to a Lucius Anneius Domitius Proculus. Two possible descendants from this marriage are Marcus Antonius Fronto Salvianus (a quaestor) and his son Marcus Antonius Felix Magnus a high priest in 225. After the eruption, Felix married for a third time, but little is known about his third wife.