Wikipedia

Terentia: Difference between revisions

Browse history interactively
← Previous edit
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Undid revision 1061865807 by 95.16.197.20 (talk)
Tweak
 
(13 intermediate revisions by 11 users not shown)
Line 1:
{{Short description|First wifeWife of orator and politician Marcus Cicero}}
{{otherpeople5|Terentia gens}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Terentia
| image = Terentia forcibly dragged from the Temple of Vesta.jpg
| caption = Terentia being dragged from the Temple of Vesta
| birth_date = 98 BC
| birth_place =
| death_date = 6 AD (aged 103–104)
| death_place =
| known_for = Being the wife (and ex-wife) of Cicero
| spouse = [[Cicero]]
| children = [[Tulliola]]<br>[[Cicero Minor]]
Line 22:
Terentia was born into a wealthy [[plebeian]] family by the name of [[Terentia gens|Terentius]]. She may have been a daughter of the Terentii Varrones, who were the most important senatorial branch of that family. This is suggested by the fact that Cicero had a cousin with the [[cognomen]] Varro and a friend by the name of [[Marcus Terentius Varro]]. This Varro owned a house near [[Arpinum]] not far from Cicero's own birthplace. Therefore, if Terentia was indeed the daughter of a Varro, Cicero's links to this family may have influenced his marriage to Terentia.<ref>Treggiari 30</ref>
 
Terentia had one half-sister named Fabia, who was a [[Vestal Virgin]] and the daughter of a [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patrician]] named [[Fabius]]. If Terentia’sTerentia's mother married the plebeian Terentius first, then Terentia was the older sister and probably the sole inheritor of her father’sfather's estate. Upon her father's death, Terentia became very wealthy.
 
She was endowed with a huge [[dowry]], which included at least two blocks of tenement apartments in Rome, a plot of woods in the suburbs of Rome, and a large farm.<ref name="Salisbury"/> The apartments and farm generated a considerable annual income. There is evidence that Terentia had much land in her own name. In addition to the public land she possessed, Terentia acquired a large woodland property among many other investments.<ref>[[s:Letters to Atticus/2.4]]</ref><ref>[[s:Letters to Atticus/2.15]]</ref><ref name="Treggiari 34">Treggiari 34</ref> She also owned a village which she intended to sell in the crisis of Cicero's exile.<ref name="s:Letters to friends/14.1">[[s:Letters to friends/14.1]]</ref>
Line 30:
==Marriage, family life, and children==
 
Terentia was around 18 years old when she married Cicero in 7980 or 8079 BC. Besides the connections between Cicero and the Terentii, Terentia probably married him because Cicero was an up-and-coming ''[[novus homo]]'' (new man) with a promising political career. She married Cicero in a ''sine manu'' marriage (see [[manus marriage]]), bringing with her the dowry and her private property. While the dowry passed into the control of Cicero’sCicero's ''paterfamilias'' and later to Cicero himself, Terentia herself conducted the affairs of her private property with the aid of her guardian Philotimus.<ref name="Treggiari 34"/>
 
Terentia was responsible for conducting family affairs as well. Besides assigning slaves to complete tasks such as weaving and cooking, Terentia was serious about making offerings to the gods and demonstrating proper piety. Cicero refers to her regular worship in several correspondences; in one letter he describes her piety as an act of pure devotion.<ref name="s:Letters to friends/14.4">[[s:Letters to friends/14.4]]</ref> In another, Cicero jokes that Terentia should sacrifice to the god that made him ill enough to expel his anxiety.<ref>Cicero ''Ad Familiares'' 14.7</ref> Cicero’sCicero's jest indicates that he left much of these household responsibilities in the hands of his wife. She was also involved in supporting important relations with Cicero’sCicero's friends and family. In 68, Cicero and Terentia invited Cicero's brother [[Quintus Tullius Cicero]] and his new wife [[Pomponia (sister of Atticus)|Pomponia]] (a sister to Cicero’sCicero's friend Atticus) in order to improve and solidify the marriage. In a letter of that time, Cicero writes that Terentia is just as devoted to Atticus and his family as Cicero is.<ref>[[s:Letters to Atticus/1.5]]</ref><ref>Treggiari 41</ref>
 
[[Tullia (daughter of Cicero)|Tullia]], the daughter of Terentia and Cicero, was born in 78 BC. Since at this time they had already been married for two years without children, it is likely that the couple was not very fertile. Their son [[Cicero Minor|Marcus Tullius Cicero Minor]] was not born until 65 BC. Lack of fertility is also suggested by the fact that Tullia herself had problems conceiving children later in life.<ref>Treggiari 44</ref>
Line 41:
 
==Cicero's exile and family crisis==
[[File:Terentia forcibly dragged from the Temple of Vesta.jpg|thumb|Terentia being dragged from the Temple of Vesta.]]
In 58 BC, Cicero was exiled from Rome for the allegedly illegal execution of Roman citizens in the [[Catiline]] conspiracy. [[Publius Clodius Pulcher]] enacted the bill with the purpose of getting revenge on Cicero for the fact that he had nullified Clodius' alibi in the [[Bona Dea]] affair.<ref name="Salisbury">[[Joyce E. Salisbury|Salisbury, Joyce E.]] ''Encyclopedia of women in the ancient world.'' Santa Barbara, Calif.: Abc-Clio, 2001</ref> [[Plutarch]], in his ''[[Parallel Lives]]'', tells us that Cicero was compelled to testify against Clodius by Terentia, in order to prove that he was not having an affair with [[Clodia (wife of Metellus)|Clodia]] (Clodius' sister). However, this story is most likely conceived either by Plutarch himself or a slanderer of Cicero. Plutarch's intentions were to show Terentia as an oppressive wife and thus to show Cicero as a weak man under the control of his wife.<ref>[[s:Lives (Dryden translation)/Cicero]]</ref><ref>Treggiari 49</ref>
 
Line 64 ⟶ 63:
Their time apart and the strained atmosphere of the civil war caused the letters of Terentia and Cicero to become increasingly emotionless and reserved. While Cicero was staying in [[Brundisium]], he often found time to write Terentia. However, his letters were terse and ineloquent, which was unlike most letters between the two.<ref>Burns</ref> The pair had further disagreement over Terentia's will in 47 BC, specifically about what should be left to their children.<ref>Treggiari 122 - 123</ref> At the same time, Tullia's marriage to Dolabella was going badly as his infidelity and neglect of her became more prominent. Cicero avoids blaming Terentia for making the match in the first place (despite Cicero's misgivings at the time), but it is clear that he wishes the decision had been made differently.<ref>Cicero ''Ad Atticum'' 11.25</ref> Despite the lack of affectionate feelings and the growing resentment and suspicion of Terentia, Cicero continued to trust her with the administration of their household.<ref>Treggiari 124 - 125, 129</ref>
 
The strain on their marriage led to divorce in 47 or 46 BC. Terentia was around 52 years old at the time. According to [[Jerome|Hieronymus Stridonensis]], Terentia later remarried two times, her second husband being the historian [[Sallust]] and her third the writer and general [[Marcus Valerius Messala Corvinus]].<ref>[[Jerome|Hieronymus]]. Adversus Jovinianum Libri Duo, I, 48: "Illa [Terentia][…] nupsit Sallustio […], et tertio Messalae Corvino". Read online: [http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/02m/0347-0420,_Hieronymus,_Adversus_Jovinianum_Libri_Duo,_MLT.pdf].</ref> But Hieronymus lived much later, in the fourth century AD, and his assertions are not confirmed by any other ancient writer. Prominent scholars of Roman prosopography such as [[Ronald Syme]] refute the possibility of those two marriages (for instance, both actual wives of Messala Corvinus are known).<ref>{{Cite journal|jstor = 638680|title = Sallust's Wife|last=Syme|first=Roland|year=1978|journal=The Classical Quarterly|volume=28|issue=2|pages = 292–295|doi = 10.1017/S0009838800034820|s2cid = 170773851}}</ref> She outlived her ex-husband by many years, dying at the age of 104103 in 6 AD.<ref>[[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]], [[wikisource:la:Naturalis Historia/Liber VII|Naturalis Historia, lib. vii, 158]].</ref><ref>[[Valerius Maximus]], viii. 13. s. 6.</ref> [[Susan Treggiari]] has pointed out that the later historian may have confused Terentia with Cicero's second wife [[Publilia (wife of Cicero)|Publilia]].<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2008/2008.07.06/ | title=Review of: Terentia, Tullia and Publilia. The Women of Cicero's Family | journal=Bryn Mawr Classical Review }}</ref>
 
==Notes==
Line 70 ⟶ 69:
 
==References==
{{Refbegin|30em}}
*Treggiari, Susan. ''Terentia, Tullia and Publilia: The Women of Cicero's Family.'' New York: Routledge, 2007.
*Cicero, Marcus Tullius. ''Letters to Atticus.'' Trans. [[E.O. Winstedt]].Vol.2. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1912.
Line 76:
*Lightman, Marjorie, and Benjamin Lightman. ''Biographical dictionary of ancient Greek and Roman women: notable women from Sappho to Helena.'' New York: Facts On File, 2000.
*Burns, Mary S.R., et al. "Chapter 17. Coolness towards Terentia." ''Introducing Cicero: A selection of passages from the writings of Marcus Tullius Cicero.'' London: Bristol Classical Press, 2002.
{{Refend}}
 
{{Authority control}}
Line 82 ⟶ 83:
[[Category:AD 6 deaths]]
[[Category:1st-century BC Roman women]]
[[Category:1st-century BC Romans]]
[[Category:1st-century Roman women]]
[[Category:1st-century Romans]]
[[Category:Ancient Roman centenarians]]
[[Category:Terentii]]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terentia"