Cornelia Metella

Biography

Cornelia was first married to Publius Licinius Crassus, son of Marcus Licinius Crassus, in 55 BC, when he was in Rome between service with Julius Caesar in Gaul and his father in Syria. After the younger Crassus' death at the Battle of Carrhae, Cornelia became the fifth wife of the significantly older Pompey in 52 BC.

At the start of the civil war between Pompey and Caesar, Cornelia and Pompey's son Sextus Pompey were sent to the Aegean Lesbos. During her stay there, a statue was erected in Pergamum in her honour for services to that city. After Pompey's defeat at Pharsalus in 48 BC, she rejoined Pompey in August at Mytilene and went with him on his ill-fated flight to Ptolemaic Egypt. Landing on the shore, Pompey was murdered with Cornelia watching from the ship. After Pompey's death, she fled to Cyprus with Sextus and afterwards returned to Italy with Caesar's permission to bury Pompey's ashes on his Alban estate.

Plutarch described her as a beautiful woman of good character, well read, and a skilled player of the lyre. She was also very well educated in geometry and philosophy.