Ilithyia Albinia (died 73 BC) was a Roman noblewoman and the wife of Praetor Gaius Claudius Glaber.
Biography[]
Ilithyia Albinia was born into a wealthy Roman family, the daughter of Senator Albinius. She was married to the Roman legate Gaius Claudius Glaber, an ambitious Roman general, and she encouraged him to become a famous Roman by advising him to attack Mithridates VI of Pontus' Greek army during his campaign in Thrace in 73 BC rather than fight against the Getae barbarians. In doing so, she inadvertently caused Spartacus' Thracian mutiny,w hich would lead to Spartacus' enslavement, transformation into a gladiator, and his slave uprising. She purchased her own gladiator, Segovax, to murder Spartacus, who had embarrassed her husband with his rebelliousness. Ilithyia was also responsible for murdering the noblewoman Licinia when she caught her having sex with a masked Spartacus (thinking that he was the gladiator Crixus instead). Ilithyia became pregnant with Spartacus' child, and she was forced to return to Capua as her husband hunted Spartacus down. Encouraged by her father, she planned to divorce the neglectful Glaber and remarry to Publius Varinius, causing Glaber to assassinate her father. Ilithyia was later captured by Spartacus, who would release her; she would reunite with her husband and seek vengeance against the rebels. She killed Glaber's mistress Seppia before she could kill him, and she planned to assassinate her former friend Lucretia on Glaber's orders, but her water broke before she could do so. Lucretia proceeded to kill Ilithyia's servants, cut the baby from her womb, and fall off of a cliff with it, and Ilithyia died from shock and blood loss at the same time.