Aufidia or Alfidia was a woman of Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

. She was a daughter to Roman Magistrate

Roman Magistrates

The Roman Magistrates were elected officials in Ancient Rome. During the period of the Roman Kingdom, the King of Rome was the principal executive magistrate. His power, in practice, was absolute. He was the chief priest, lawgiver, judge, and the sole commander of the army...

 Marcus Aufidius Lurco

Aufidius Lurco

Marcus Aufidius Lurco or known as Aufidius Lurco, was a Roman magistrate who lived in the 1st century BC. Lurco was a member of the gens Aufidia, a Roman family of Plebs status, who appeared in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire. They became a family of consular rank...

 and an unknown mother. She was a member of the gens

Gens

In ancient Rome, a gens , plural gentes, referred to a family, consisting of all those individuals who shared the same nomen and claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a stirps . The gens was an important social structure at Rome and throughout Italy during the...

 Aufidia

Aufidia (gens)

The gens Aufidia was a plebeian family at Rome, which is not known till the later times of the Republic. The first member to obtain the consulship was Gnaeus Aufidius Orestes, in 71 BC.-Praenomina used by the gens:...

, a Roman family of Plebs

Plebs

The plebs was the general body of free land-owning Roman citizens in Ancient Rome. They were distinct from the higher order of the patricians. A member of the plebs was known as a plebeian...

 status which appeared in the Roman Republic

Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...

 and Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

, and became a family of consular rank. Her father originally came from Fundi (modern Fondi

Fondi

Fondi is a city and comune in the province of Latina, Lazio, central Italy, halfway between Rome and Naples. Before the construction of the highway between the latter cities in the late 1950s, Fondi had been an important settlement on the Roman Via Appia, which was the main connection from Rome to...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

).

She married the future praetor

Praetor

Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, usually in the field, or the named commander before mustering the army; and an elected magistratus assigned varied duties...

, Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus

Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus

Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus was a senator of the Roman Republic. He was born with the name Appius Claudius Pulcher, into the patrician family of the Claudii. According to Suetonius, Drusus was a direct descendant of the consul and censor Appius Claudius Caecus...

. They had at least two children: a daughter Livia

Livia

Livia Drusilla, , after her formal adoption into the Julian family in AD 14 also known as Julia Augusta, was a Roman empress as the third wife of the Emperor Augustus and his adviser...

 Drusilla (58 BC-29) and a son Marcus Livius Drusus, who served as a Roman consul. Livia was to become the first Roman Empress and third wife of the first Roman Emperor

Roman Emperor

The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...

 Augustus

Augustus

Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...

. Aufidia would be the maternal grandmother to Roman Emperor

Roman Emperor

The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...

 Tiberius

Tiberius

Tiberius , was Roman Emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced Nero and married Augustus in 39 BC, making him a step-son of Octavian...

 Claudius Nero and Roman General Nero Claudius Drusus

Nero Claudius Drusus

Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus , born Decimus Claudius Drusus also called Drusus, Drusus I, Nero Drusus, or Drusus the Elder was a Roman politician and military commander. He was a fully patrician Claudian on his father's side but his maternal grandmother was from a plebeian family...

. The Roman Emperors Caligula

Caligula

Caligula , also known as Gaius, was Roman Emperor from 37 AD to 41 AD. Caligula was a member of the house of rulers conventionally known as the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Caligula's father Germanicus, the nephew and adopted son of Emperor Tiberius, was a very successful general and one of Rome's most...

, Claudius

Claudius

Claudius , was Roman Emperor from 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, he was the son of Drusus and Antonia Minor. He was born at Lugdunum in Gaul and was the first Roman Emperor to be born outside Italy...

 and Nero

Nero

Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....

 were her direct descendants.

Aufidia in Literature and Popular Culture

Deborah Moore

Deborah Moore

Deborah Moore is an English actress and the daughter of actor Roger Moore and Italian actress Luisa Mattioli.She made her debut on TV as a child in the The Persuaders! episode "The Long Goodbye" in which her father co-starred alongside Tony Curtis, and early on in her career, she was often billed...

 appears as Alfidia

Minor characters of Rome

There are several minor but significant characters featured in the HBO/BBC/RAI television series Rome.NOTE: Characters are listed in alphabetical order by character's first/only name-Noble characters:...

, the mother of a fictionalized Livia

Minor characters of Rome

There are several minor but significant characters featured in the HBO/BBC/RAI television series Rome.NOTE: Characters are listed in alphabetical order by character's first/only name-Noble characters:...

, in two 2007 episodes of the HBO/BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 series Rome

Rome (TV series)

Rome is a British-American–Italian historical drama television series created by Bruno Heller, John Milius and William J. MacDonald. The show's two seasons premiered in 2005 and 2007, and were later released on DVD. Rome is set in the 1st century BC, during Ancient Rome's transition from Republic...

. In A Necessary Fiction

A Necessary Fiction

"A Necessary Fiction" is the eighth episode of the second season of the television series Rome. The air date is March 11, 2007.-Plot summary:...

, she is present when a married Livia catches the eye of young Octavian, and both women are pleased when he insists that Livia divorce her current husband to marry him. Later, in De Patre Vostro

De Patre Vostro (About Your Father)

"De Patre Vostro" is the tenth and final episode of the second season of the television series Rome. It originally aired on March 25, 2007....

, Alfidia lightly questions Octavian's sister Octavia

Octavia of the Julii

Octavia of the Julii is a fictional character in the HBO/BBC2 original television series Rome, played by Irish actress Kerry Condon. The character is based on the Roman matron Octavia Thurina Minor, sister of Roman Emperor Augustus.-Season One:...

's loyalty to her family at dinner, and is present when Octavian's mother Atia of the Julii

Atia of the Julii

Atia of the Julii is a fictional character from the HBO/BBC/RAI original television series Rome, played by Polly Walker. The niece of Julius Caesar and mother of Octavian/Augustus and Octavia, she is depicted as a cheerfully amoral and opportunistic manipulator...

 finally puts daughter-in-law Livia in her place.

Sources

• Livia: Wife of Augustus Roman-Emperors.org
• Suetonius
  Suetonius
  Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius , was a Roman historian belonging to the equestrian order in the early Imperial era....
  
  , The Twelve Caesars, Tiberius and Caligula
• http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/1088.html
• http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/1089.html