Claudia Marcella was the name of the two daughters of Octavia Minor, the sister of Roman emperor Augustus, by her first husband, the consul Gaius Claudius Marcellus. According to the Roman Historian Suetonius, they were known as the The Marcellae sisters, and they are also known as the two Marcellae. The sisters were born in Rome. Between 40 BC-36 BC, they lived with their mother and their stepfather Triumvir Mark Antony in Athens, Greece. After 36 BC they accompanied their mother when she returned to Rome with their siblings. They were raised and educated by their mother, their maternal uncle, Roman emperor Augustus, and their maternal aunt-in-marriage Roman Empress Livia Drusilla. These two daughters of Octavia Minor and Gaius Claudius Marcellus with their siblings, provide a critical link between the past of the Roman Republic and the new Roman Empire. The marriages of the sisters and the children born to their unions assured republican family lines into the next generation.
Claudia Marcella Major (PIR2 C 1102; Major Latin for the elder, born 41 BC) also known as Claudia Marcella Maior;Marcella Maior;Claudia Marcella the Elder and Marcella the Elder.
Marcella belonged to the generation whose childhood was marred by the violence of the civil wars of the Roman Republic. Her first marriage took place to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa in 28 BC. She was his second wife. Augustus held Agrippa in the highest place of honor. Agrippa was a military man loyal to Octavian throughout the civil war. The marriage of Marcella and Agrippa probably occurred because of the strong bond between the two men. Marcella brought Agrippa a tie to an elite republican family and to Augustus himself, for she was Augustus's niece. Although Agrippa was older than Marcella but austere, he appeared to be a good husband to Marcella.