Atilia
{{Short description|First wife of Cato the Younger}}
Atilia (sometimes spelt Attilia) was the first wife of Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis and mother of his two eldest children.
Biography
=Early life=
It is not known for certain who Atilia's father was, but he was from the Atilii Serrani. He may have been Gaius Atilius Serranus the consul of 106 BC,{{Cite book|title=Cato the Younger: Life and Death at the End of the Roman Republic|last=Drogula|first=Fred K.|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2019|isbn=9780190869045|pages=33}} or Gaius' son.{{Cite book|title=Servilia and her Family|last=Treggiari|first=Susan|author-link=Susan Treggiari |publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2019|isbn=9780192564641|pages=98}}
=Marriage=
Cato married Atilia c. 73 BC, after his intended wife, Aemilia Lepida married Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica.Plutarch, Cato the Younger, 7.3.
In the words of Plutarch:Plutarch, Cato the Younger, 7.3.
:[Atilia] was the first woman with whom he made love, but not the only one, as was true of Laelius, the friend of Scipio Africanus; Laelius, indeed, was more fortunate, since in the course of his long life he only ever made love to one woman, the wife of his youth.
Cato and Atilia had a son Marcus Porcius Cato, who later died in the second Battle of Philippi, and a daughter Porcia, who became the wife of her cousin Marcus Junius Brutus.
Circa 63 BC, Cato divorced Atilia on the grounds of her unseemly behaviour, later marrying Marcia.Plutarch, Cato the Younger, 24-25 Atilia is not mentioned again.
Family tree
{{Brutus family tree}}
Notes
{{Reflist}}
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Category:1st-century BC Roman women
Category:1st-century BC Romans
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