Transcript terentia

TERENTIA, PUBLILIA, and TULLIA – THE WIVES AND DAUGHTER OF
CICERO
TERENTIA, as we will see, was in every way a complete contrast to CLODIA.
1. She and CICERO married sine manu in 80 or 79 BC when she was about 18 and
he was 27 and judged likely to have a good political career ahead of him.
2. a) When her father died she became sui iuris (legally independent) and a very wealthy
woman.
b) Cicero’s freedman Philotimus became her ‘guardian’ and helped her manage
her substantial property holdings.
3. She had brought to the marriage a significant dowry.
4. Even though it was likely a marriage of convenience, the first letters of
November 58 BC written to her by Cicero from exile reveal considerable
affection on his part.
MARCUS TULLIUS
CICERO
LATER IN LIFE
5.
6.
“Cicero sends greetings to his Terentia, his ‘little’ Tullia [now 20] and young Cicero [aged 7].
I know from others’ letters and their conversations that you are demonstrating an
incredible strength and courage and that you are showing no signs of tiredness in mind
or body from all your labours. And to think that such troubles should have fallen on a
woman of your virtue, fidelity, uprightness and kindness because of me! …….. If they
came about, as you have said, because of ‘fate’, I would have been able to bear them
more easily, but they are to be laid soundly at my door. …..” [14.1].
And he had already written a month earlier [14.2]:
“ ……. Don’t suppose that I write longer letters to anyone else. …. To you and my dear
‘little’ Tullia I cannot write without many tears. For I see you reduced to great misery - the
very people whom I truly wanted to enjoy always complete happiness, …… a happiness
which I would have secured for you if I had not been such a coward. …. .”
And, again, in November, the very day after letter 1 (above), after he had received
three letters, which, he says, he drenched in tears because of his family’s situation,
he wrote to his family:
“ ……. My dear Terentia, I am totally weakened by sorrow, but it is not my own
sorrows that torture me more than yours – and yours, my children. …..” [14.3].
While some of the language used in 58 BC is a little formal, the genuine
affection he feels for his family seems to come through - especially his
affection for Terentia - but, as we will see, ten years later his communications
become very short and his comments very curt as divorce looms on the
horizon.
8. For example, Cicero wrote to Terentia from the Italian port city of Brundisium
on 9th July 47 BC about transferring funds to him:
“I wrote to Atticus [his close friend] later than I ought to have done about
what I want done. If you have a talk with him, you will learn what my
wishes are. There is no need to be more explicit here, seeing that I have
written to him. On that business and on all others please let me have a
letter from you. Take good care of your health. Good-bye.” [14.10]
7.
9.
After Terentia took action as a result of that letter, we find Cicero writing to Atticus
on various issues – including what Terentia has done in reply to his request.
Brundisium 6th August 47 BC
“………… As for Terentia— and I’ll omit innumerable other incidents—doesn’t
the following top it all? You wrote to her and asked her to send me twelve
thousand sestertii, saying that that was the total balance of the money. She sent
me ten thousand, with a note declaring that that was the total balance. When she
has deducted such a petty amount from such a trifling total, you can feel pretty
sure what she has been doing where very large transactions are involved!
And Philotimus [Terentia’s guardian and her and Cicero’s steward who was supposed to oversee Terentia’s
management of Cicero’s affairs] not only does not come to see me himself, but also does not
let me know by letter even or through a messenger what he has been doing.
………….” (Letters to Atticus 11.24)
10. And so what do we know, in general terms, about Terentia’s role in Cicero’s
distinguished career and about their relationship – since, to judge from the
letters to her, Cicero had felt close to her for over twenty years but something
had then gone wrong?
11. She was independently wealthy (as noted) owning
a) agricultural land;
b) a large woodland property;
c) a village (which was to be sold during Cicero’s exile in 58/57 BC to generate funds);
and she rented some state-owned land too, because at some point there was an issue over
paying the rent on it..
12. a) The dowry which accompanied her when she married Cicero was worth some
400,000 sesterces – the amount needed for senatorial status.
b) As well as landed property, the dowry included two tenement blocks in Rome.
13. She probably contributed significantly to Cicero’s political career financially from
her own private funds.
14. When Cicero was exiled in 58 BC TERENTIA was left to deal with his affairs
which seem to have ben in chaos. She had
a) to manage the houses and villas that he owned;
b) to handle his revenues on his behalf;
c) to oversee his slaves;
d) to raise (alone) their son, Marcus, who was 7 at the time his father was
driven from Rome;
e) to see to the safety, too, of their daughter, Tullia, when things turned ugly.
15. a) Although Terentia did not, herself, let Cicero know all the details at the
time, she was forced to take refuge with the Vestal Virgins (where she probably
had a half-sister) when Publius Clodius Pulcher (the brother of Clodia), who
was the one who had brought about Cicero’s exile, sent his thugs to burn
down Cicero’s house on the Palatine.
b) She also seems to have been dragged on one occasion from her place of
refuge and manhandled and forced to attend some sort of financial court.
16. Despite everything, Terentia and Tullia together worked tirelessly in Rome, to
the extent they could as women, for Cicero’s recall by going around in
mourning attire and with unkempt hair and lobbying all his friends and contacts.
17. When Cicero (after his recall from exile in 57 BC) had to leave Rome again in 51 BC to be
governor (for a year) of the province of “Cilicia” (in southern Asia Minor), Terentia was
again left in charge of Cicero’s affairs in Rome and Italy.
18. It also fell to her, in her husband’s absence, to find a husband for TULLIA, who
had just been divorced from her second husband.
19. a) Cicero could not arrange a marriage for her from so far away and must have
given his authority as paterfamilias for Terentia to do what she could to find
someone suitable.
b) Terentia and Tullia rejected the ‘suitable’ men Cicero himself suggested and
opted for Publius Cornelius DOLABELLA who became Tullia’s third husband
in the summer of 50 BC - a man TULLIA seems to have been besotted by.
c) i) Dolabella had shining ‘aristocratic’ credentials but was at heart “an engaging
rogue” (to use Mary Beard’s comment).
ii) TERENTIA likely chose him because of his closeness to Julius Caesar
(whose growing power could not be ignored) as a sort of “insurance”.
d) But Dolabella was a disaster as a husband and the marriage (which lasted only
four years) was a very unhappy one, the couple living apart after the death of
their first son in his first year in 49 BC.
20. Cicero doesn’t ever criticize Terentia in his correspondence for her choice of
Dolabella but appears to express the wish to his friend Atticus that things had
been different. (Letters to Atticus Book 11.25)
DIVORCE ON THE HORIZON
1 a) Although we get the impression that TULLIA had been besotted (as noted) with
DOLABELLA, Cicero did not think much of him and he was of little use to
his father-in-law (despite his links with Julius Caesar) once he and Tullia
became estranged.
b) Worse still, Cicero, who seems to have been short of funds, had great
difficulty reclaiming from Dolabella the dowry which had been passed to him
at the time of Tullia’s marriage once their divorce was formalized.
2. Cicero had always favoured Pompey politically and, when Julius Caesar
“crossed the Rubicon” and Pompey left Italy, it was not long before Cicero
followed him eastwards and joined his military camp.
3. a) But it was only a matter of a few months before Cicero was back in Italy, in
the port city of Brundisium where he seems to have lived for up to ten
months (rather than returning to Rome).
b) He corresponded, often rather curtly, with TERENTIA from there, but
doesn’t appear eager to return to Rome.
.
4. a) It is unclear when Cicero began to feel totally disaffected with Terentia or
when he began to have concerns about whether she had handled his
financial affairs honestly.
b) His letter to Atticus in which he expresses his suspicions is late - dated to
August 47 BC – but clearly by then he was feeling very cool towards her.
5. It was from Brundisium that he wrote his often short, curt letters to
TERENTIA – although he did, we have to admit, usually end them with
“Take good care of your health”.
6. But, while he may have had good reasons not connected with his relationship
with his wife, he was unenthusiastic about the idea of TERENTIA joining him
there - although his daughter TULLIA did for a time.
7.
In early November 48 BC he wrote from Brundisium:
“You say that your are glad about my safe arrival in Italy. I only hope that you may
continue to be glad. But I am afraid that …..I have taken steps involving complications
which I may find difficulty unravelling. Do your best to help me, although what you
can do I cannot think. And it is no use your starting on a journey at such time as this.
The way is both long and unsafe; and I don’t see what good you can do if you do come
here. Goodbye.”
[Provide emotional support?]
8.
a) Yet a letter of 23 January 49 BC [from Minturnae in southern Latium] had still had
endearing phrases.
His letter had begun:
“Tullius to TERENTIA, and to TULLIA, his two sweethearts”
and he had gone on to express his worries about their safety in Rome if Julius
Caesar were to seize control of the city.
b) Cicero ended by writing: “My dearest hearts (meae carissimae animae) write
to me as often as possible and tell me how you are. …..”
9. In terms, then, of Cicero and Terentia’s relationship things changed
significantly sometime between 49 and 47 BC
10. One of the very last letters Cicero wrote to Terentia is particularly indicative of
the increasing lack of affection between the two, at least on Cicero’s part.
11. He clearly intended, at last, to make his way back to Rome from southern Italy
(having left Brundisium already) and intended to break his journey by calling in at
his estate in Tusculum (about 20 miles from Rome).
12. a) His letter of 1st October 47 BC from Venusia is often quoted.
b) It does not even have the ‘standard’ opening ‘endearments’ of all formal
Roman letters (always abbreviated): s.v.b.e.e.v. (si vales, bene est, ego valeo) (If you
are well, that is good, and I am well). [=“I trust that this finds you well”?]
c) The letter (as already noted) is short and curt:
“I think I’ll be arriving at my house at Tusculum either on the 7th or the day after.
See that everything is ready there. There will perhaps be several others with me,
and I think we’ll be staying there for a considerable time.
If there is no basin in the bathroom, have one put in. The same with everything
else necessary for supporting life and health.
Good-bye.”
13.
Cicero and Terentia divorced either at the end of 47 BC or in 46 BC.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
ANOTHER MARRIAGE
Cicero, now 60, married his ‘ward’, PUBLILIA, who was about
In late 46 BC
15.
a) Whatever other motives may have come into play, there is no doubt that
Cicero married her in order to get access to her money.
b) He had found himself in financial straits with Terentia’s dowry to repay.
He had been married only a few months when, in February 45 BC, his beloved daughter
TULLIA died (about a month after giving birth to a boy (who also died)).
Cicero was grief-stricken over Tullia’s death and could not be consoled.
And very soon after this he divorced PUBLILIA who, allegedly, had been
jealous of Tullia and who had not shown much sympathy over Tullia’s death.
a) TERENTIA, divorced by Cicero at the age of 52 after a marriage of 32 or 33 years,
is said to have married twice more – although this cannot be confirmed.
b) She survived for another 51 years, outliving Cicero by 48 years and dying aged 103.
JULIUS CAESAR’S THREE MARRIAGES
1. Julius Caesar married three times.
2. His marriages, while for the most part political, are not perhaps as important of
those of Sulla and Pompey, but worth a glance.
3. Born into a “patrician” family (which had not distinguished itself greatly in recent years) on 13th
July 100 BC Caesar married for the first time in 84 BC at the age of 16, having
suddenly found himself head of the family on the death of his father.
4. His bride was the 13 year-old CORNELIA, daughter of Lucius Cornelius
Cinna, a “Marian” and one of the leading “populist” politicians in the 80s, in
fact a man who held four consecutive consulships from 87 to 84 BC and who
took a bold stand against the conservative outlook of Sulla in the period between
Sulla leaving to Italy to fight Mithridates of Pontus (in Asia Minor) in 88 BC and
Sulla’s return and second march on Rome to establish his “dictatorship” in 83 BC.
5. The marriage, in political terms, brought the young Caesar soundly into the
“populist” camp - Caesar’s aunt JULIA being, at the time, married to the
aging MARIUS himself.
6. a) Sulla, once victorious, ordered Caesar to divorce CORNELIA and when he
refused, he found himself on Sulla’s proscription lists, deprived of his
inheritance, deprived of the dowry Cornelia had brought to the marriage, and
stripped of the significant priesthood he had acquired.
b) He had to go into hiding.
c) BUT there were supporters of Sulla in his mother’s family and Sulla was
persuaded, reluctantly, to lift the ban.
7. CORNELIA gave birth about 76 BC to Caesar’s only child, JULIA (who
eventually became POMPEY’s fourth wife [as we saw]), and for sixteen years managed
Caesar’s household until her death in 69 BC during childbirth aged about 28.
GAIUS JULIUS CAESAR
100 – 44 BC
8. Upon her death, Caesar delivered a public oration in praise of both his aunt Julia
(who had died in the same year) and of Cornelia.
9. a) Returning to Rome in 67 BC after serving in Spain as a quaestor for a year, he
married POMPEIA, the daughter of a former consul and of SULLA’s
daughter Cornelia. [Her year of birth is not known]
b) The marriage was purely political, to bring together two families which in the
past had been antagonists - in an atmosphere where Sulla’s more extreme
reforms had been dismantled.
10. It is difficult to get any real sense of POMPEIA.
11. In 63 BC Caesar had been elected to the position of Pontifex Maximus and it fell
to POMPEIA the next year, as wife of the high priest, to host the secret
ceremonies of the Bona Dea (‘the Good Goddess’) at the Pontifex Maximus’
official residence.
12. The rumour-mill had it that PUBLIUS CLODIUS PULCHER had violated the
ceremonies (as we have seen) in an attempt to see POMPEIA, whose lover he
allegedly was - but the circumstances are fraught with uncertainty and there is
no evidence of impropriety.
13. The affair was enough (as we also saw) for Caesar to divorce her.
14. Plutarch (Life of Caesar 10.8 and 9) reported the outcome of Publius Clodius’ trial
as follows:
‘Caesar divorced Pompeia at once, but when he was summoned to testify at the trial, he
said he knew nothing about the matters with which Clodius was charged. His statement
appeared strange, and the prosecutor therefore asked, "Why, then, did you divorce your
wife?" "Because," said Caesar, "I thought my wife ought not even to be under
suspicion.”’
15. It is usually assumed that Caesar’s reasons for the divorce were that marriage to
POMPEIA no longer served a useful political purpose.
16. In late 59 BC Caesar married CALPURNIA.
17. Caesar was 41, Calpurnia 16 (and likely younger than Caesar’s daughter JULIA).
18. She was the daughter of one of the consuls elect for 58 BC, Lucius Calpurnius
Piso Caesoninus, the two men Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus (as the partners in
‘the Triumvirate’) had arranged to hold office to protect Caesar’s legislation of 59
BC.
19. Again the firming up of a political understanding seems to be a major motive
for the marriage.
20. Little is known about the life of Caesar and Calpurnia together, only that, when
he was assassinated in 44 BC, she delivered all his personal papers (including
notes about his political plans for the future) to Marcus Antonius.
21. CALPURNIA is not often mentioned in surviving narratives , although
Nicolaus of Damascus, born about 64 BC, reports that she had a dream the night
before her husband’s assassination about the danger her husband was in:
“His wife Calpurnia, who was terrified by a dream that night, clung to him and said that she
would not let him go out on that day. But Brutus, one of the conspirators, though he was at
that time thought to be one of his most intimate friends, came up to him and said, 'What do
you say, Caesar? Are you going to pay any attention to a woman's dreams ….., a man such
as you? Are you going to insult the Senate which has honoured you and which you yourself
convened, by not going out? No; if you take my advice you will dismiss from your mind this
dream and go, for the Senate has been in session since morning, and is awaiting you.' He was
persuaded and went out.”.
22.
Although widowed at 31, CALPURNIA apparently never remarried, being
humble in her bearing and shy.
Before leaving the Republic in its final throes, we should say something about
FULVIA, about Octavian’s sister OCTAVIA, and about CLEOPATRA (all wives
of Marcus Antonius).
MARCUS
ANTONIUS
FULVIA
Third wife of Marcus Antonius
The first living woman to
appear on a Romn coin
OCTAVIA
Sister of
Octavian,
Fourth wife
of Marcus
Antonius
CLEOPATRA
Fifth wife (?)
of Marcus Antonius
We will then move on to the period of “the Empire” where the political dynamic
changes rapidly (with a centralized authority and a developing “Court”) and,
although the legal position of women changes very little, the ‘womenfolk’,
especially the wives but also the mothers, of “emperors” could and often did
have an impact on state policy and the ‘atmosphere’ at the political centre – a
grandmother and a mother in the early AD 200s actually running the state.
[And we have pictorial representations of those leading women in the form of
statues, busts, and images on coins!]