List of distinguished Roman women

The list below includes Roman women who were notable for their family connections, or their sons or husbands, or their own actions. In the earlier periods, women came to the attention of (later) historians either as poisoners of their husbands (a very few cases), or as wives, daughters, and mothers of great men such as Scipio Africanus. In later periods, women exercised or tried to exercise political power either through their husbands (as did Fulvia and Livia Drusilla) or political intrigues (as did Clodia and Servilia), or directly (as did Agrippina the younger and later Roman empresses). Even the Severan dynasty from the beginning to the end was completely dominated by four powerful and calculating women.

During the Roman Republic

 * Valeria, the name of the women of the Valeria gens
 * Valeria, first priestess of Fortuna Muliebris in 488 BC
 * Aemilia Tertia (с. 230 – 163 or 162 BC), wife of Scipio Africanus and mother of Cornelia (see below), noted for the unusual freedom given her by her husband, her enjoyment of luxuries, and her influence as role model for elite Roman women after the Second Punic War. Her date of birth, marriage, and death are all unknown. Her husband's birth and death dates are also not known precisely, but approximated.
 * Cornelia (с. 190s – c. 115 BC), virtually deified by Roman women as a model of feminine virtues and Stoicism, but never officially deified. The first Roman woman, whose approximate birth year and whose year of death is known, thanks to a law she had passed to allow her granddaughter to inherit.
 * Publilia (1st century BC), the name of a woman of the gens Publilius. She was killed in 154 BC for poisoning her husband, the consul of the preceding year.

During the Classical Roman Empire

 * Agrippina the Elder (c. 14 BC – AD 33), wife of Germanicus, granddaughter of Augustus, mother of emperor Caligula and Agrippina the Younger (below)
 * Agrippina the Younger (1st century), niece and wife of emperor Claudius, mother of emperor Nero; held up as a bad example.
 * Aurelia (1st century BC), mother of Julius Caesar
 * Antonia the Elder (1st century BC), grandmother of Emperor Nero
 * Antonia Minor (1st century BC – 1st century AD), mother of Emperor Claudius and Germanicus, favorite niece of Augustus Caesar, considered a role model for women in the Roman Empire after she refused to remarry and spent the rest of her life raising her children and grandchildren.
 * Atia, mother of Augustus and Octavia Minor
 * Claudia Pulchra, wife of Publius Quinctilius Varus
 * Claudia Marcella, nieces of Caesar Augustus
 * Domitia Lepida the Elder, aunt of Emperor Nero
 * Domitia Lepida the Younger, sister of the following, Mother of the Empress Valeria Messalina
 * Domitia Longina, wife of Emperor Domitian
 * Domitia Calvilla, mother of Emperor Marcus Aurelius
 * Domitia Paulina, Aelia Domitia Paulina, Julia Serviana Paulina, female relatives of Emperor Hadrian
 * Julia the Elder, daughter of Augustus
 * Julia Livia (1st century), granddaughter of Emperor Tiberius
 * Livia Drusilla (1st century BC), wife of Tiberius Claudius Nero, mother of the Emperor Tiberius, and then wife of Augustus Caesar.
 * Livilla (1st century), granddaughter of Livia
 * Valeria Messalina, Emperor Claudius' wife, notorious for her promiscuity.
 * Octavia the Younger, sister of Caesar Augustus and fourth wife of Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony)
 * Plautia Urgulanilla, Emperor Claudius' first wife
 * Scribonia, second wife of Augustus and mother of his only legitimate child (whom she apparently ignored until her exile)
 * Vipsania Agrippina, first wife of Tiberius and the only one he loved
 * Vipsania Julia (19 BC – c. AD 29), granddaughter of Augustus
 * Claudia Metrodora (1st century AD), Greco-Roman public benefactor, lived on Kos.
 * Lucilla, (2nd century AD) Roman Empress, failed in her coup attempt on brother Commodus.
 * Aquilia Severa (3rd century), Vestal Virgin and wife of Elagabalus.
 * Clodia (1st century BC), possibly Catullus's Lesbia
 * Domitia Decidiana, wife of Roman General Gnaeus Julius Agricola and mother-in-law to historian Tacitus.