[3] Claudia Pulchra was the sister of Messallina's father, the short-lived Marcus Valerius Messala Barbatus (died c. AD 20).

In late AD 6 or 7, his father was appointed to govern and organize the newly conquered Germania Inferior across the Rhine.

But in September AD 9, due to his defeat at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest Varus the Elder committed suicide.

[4][5][6][1] After the death of his father, his mother never remarried and in AD 26, Pulchra died in exile as a victim of the treason trials of Sejanus.

Varus was betrothed to his distant maternal cousin Julia Livilla, one of the daughters of Agrippina the Elder and Germanicus, although they did not marry.