Claudia Marcella Major

Marcella belonged to the generation whose childhood was marred by the violence of the civil wars of the Roman Republic.[4] She was likley the first child of her parents, being followed by her brother Marcus Claudius Marcellus and sister Claudia Marcella Minor. From her mother's second marriage to Mark Antony she would also gain two half sisters, Antonia Major and Antonia Minor.

Her first marriage took place to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa in 28 BC. She was his second wife.[4] Augustus held Agrippa in the highest place of honor.[6] Agrippa was a military man loyal to Octavian throughout the civil war.[4] The marriage of Marcella and Agrippa probably occurred because of the strong bond between the two men.[7] Marcella brought Agrippa a tie to an elite republican family and to Augustus himself, for she was Augustus's niece.[4] Although Agrippa was older than Marcella but austere, he appeared to be a good husband to Marcella.[4]

Marcella and Agrippa had children,[8] however it is uncertain how many of them survived to adulthood. They appear to have had at least one daughter[4] sometimes retrospectively called Vipsania Marcella, in order to differentiate her from her half-sisters. They might also have had a second daughter who married a Lepidus. Some people such as John Pollini also believe that they had at least one son together, whom he identifies as a young boy next to Agrippa on the Ara Pacis.[9][10]

In 23 BC the brother of Marcella, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, died and thus widowed Marcella's paternal cousin Julia the Elder.[6] In 21 BC, Agrippa divorced Marcella to marry Julia the daughter of Augustus.[6] After Marcella divorced Agrippa, Octavia Minor received Marcella back in her house.[6] Octavia Minor married Marcella to the future consul Iullus Antonius, the second son of Mark Antony from his third wife Fulvia who was held in high regard by Augustus.[6] Marcella bore Iullus Antonius at least one son named Lucius Antonius, they possibly also had a second son who might have died young,[11] (he might have been named Gaius or Iullus like his father)[12] and a daughter named Iulla Antonia.[13] Lucius was sent to study in Marseilles (not an official exile) sometime after the disgrace of his father. In 2 BC, Iullus Antonius was forced to commit suicide after being found guilty of adultery with Julia the Elder.

Prior to 1939, scholars believed that Marcella married a third husband after the death of Iullus Antonius, namely the Roman Senator and her distant maternal relative, Sextus Appuleius, the grandson of Octavia Major—the older half-sister of her mother— but it has in modern times been accepted that this was not the case.[14]