Ilithyia Albinia (died 73 BC) was a Roman noblewoman, daughter of Albinus and the wife of the praetor and military commander Gaius Claudius Glaber.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Ilithyia Albinia was born in 102 BC to the wealthy patrician Albinius in Capua, Campania.
She married Gaius Claudius Glaber, an ambitious plebeian legate and praetor.
Glaber's Thracian Campaign[]
Following her husband enlistment of Thracian allies, Ilithyia unexpectedly arrived at the military camp and offered herself as a personal favour, encouraging her husband to engage Mithridates VI of Pontus' Greek forces in Thrace rather than confront the Getae barbarians. This decision inadvertently triggered a chain of events leading to Spartacus’s enslavement and subsequent transformation into a gladiator, which eventually sparked the infamous slave rebellion.
Role in Capua and the Ludus[]
Back in Capua, Ilithyia pressed her father to intercede on Glaber’s behalf. At an exhibition at the Capuan Amphitheatre, Glaber showed off the captured Thracian, Spartacus, who he had hoped would die in an uneven match. When he did not, he was purchased by Lentulus Batiatus.
Ilithyia became a frequent visitor to Batiatus' Ludus, where a complex friendship develops with Lucretia, the lanista’s wife. Ilithyia used patronage, gifts and personal entanglements to shape events at the school of gladiators: Ilithyia purchased her own gladiator, Segovax, intending to kill Spartacus after he humiliated Glaber with his defiance. She provoked rivalries, and became implicated in several scandals.
Ilithyia murdered the Vestal Licinia, cousin of Marcus Licinius Crassus after discovering her in a sexual encounter with a masked Spartacus, mistaking him for the gladiator Crixus.
Escalation and the revolt[]
Ilithyia became pregnant, likely with Spartacus’ child. As her husband pursued the rebel leader, she returned to Capua under her father’s guidance. She planned to divorce Glaber, who had grown neglectful, and remarry Publius Varinius. Glaber’s jealousy led him to assassinate her father, further escalating family and political tensions.
Decline, pregnancy and death[]
Ilithyia was later captured by Spartacus but was released. She reunited with Glaber and continued to seek vengeance against the rebels. During this period, she killed Glaber's mistress, Seppia, and plotted to assassinate her former friend Lucretia on Glaber’s orders.
During a violent confrontation with Lucretia, Ilithyia was mortally wounded; Lucretia killed Ilithyia’s servants, cut the baby from her womb, and fell off a cliff with it. Ilithyia died simultaneously from shock and blood loss.