Marcia Furnilla (33 AD – 100 AD) was a Roman noblewoman of distinguished lineage and the second wife of the future emperor Titus. She belonged to the powerful gens Marcia, a patrician family with close ties to the imperial court. Through her paternal relatives, she was connected to the family of Trajan and Hadrian.
Biography[]
Family background[]
Marcia Furnilla was born into an ancient and noble Roman family. Her father, Quintus Marcius Barea Sura, served as a senator and was a friend and ally of Emperor Vespasian. Her paternal aunt, also named Marcia, was the mother of the future emperor Trajan and grandmother of Hadrian, linking Furnilla to the later Nerva–Antonine dynasty.
Furnilla’s mother, Antonia Furnilla, descended from another prominent senatorial family, ensuring her a privileged upbringing in the political and social elite of Rome.
Marriage to Titus[]
Around 63 AD, Marcia Furnilla married Titus, the elder son of Vespasian and future emperor of Rome. The marriage was politically advantageous, strengthening the Flavian family's ties with the old Roman aristocracy.
The union produced at least one daughter, Flavia.
However, the marriage proved short-lived. In 65 AD, after the exposure of the Pisonian conspiracy against Emperor Nero, Furnilla’s family was implicated through her relatives’ connections to the conspirators. To protect himself and his family’s political fortunes, Titus divorced Furnilla and distanced himself from her influential but endangered circle.