Sulpicia (fl. late 3rd century BC) was an ancient Roman woman whose outstanding sexual integrity (pudicitia) earned her the honor of instituting the cult of Venus Verticordia.
Sulpicia (fl. late 3rd century BC) was an ancient Roman woman whose outstanding sexual integrity (pudicitia) earned her the honor of instituting the cult of Venus Verticordia.
The historicity of Sulpicia is generally accepted, though doubted by T. P. Wiseman, who regarded her as legendary. [2] She was the daughter of a Paterculus, possibly Servius Sulpicius Paterculus or his brother, [3] the Gaius Sulpicius Paterculus who was consul in 258 BC. [4] Her husband is identified as the four-time consul Quintus Fulvius Flaccus. [5]
Historical or not, she served as an exemplar of Roman female morality that could be invoked in particular to the credit of women from the gens Sulpicia . During the investigation that led to the scandal and suppression of the Bacchanals in 186 BC, a Sulpicia touted as a gravis femina (a "serious woman" or moral "heavyweight") played a role in investigating the legitimacy of the claims and the character of the participants. [6] If the statue of Venus Verticordia was dedicated during Flaccus's last consulship (209 BC), it's possible that the same Sulpicia was playing the role of elder stateswoman as a widow. [7] [3]
The cult of Venus Verticordia has two founding narratives, first the installation of a statue in the last 3rd century BC, during the time of the Second Punic War, and then the building of a temple in 114 BC. Sulpicia became an emblem of excellence as the woman who earned the honor of dedicating the statue. She is one of the few women Valerius Maximus features in his catalog of worthies.
The Punic Wars (264–146 BC) were a time of social upheaval for the Romans, and as women of the propertied classes stepped in to manage domestic matters in the absence of men deployed continually at war, their position in society was renegotiated through both legislation and religious cultivation. [8] The form of marriage cum manu, which placed a wife under the paternal power or in the control (manus, literally "hand") of her husband, declined. Anxieties about women with more agency and at greater liberty were often mediated through the articulation of standards of conduct, particularly the virtue of pudicitia, and new or theologically reinterpreted religious practices. Violations of the sexual and religious purity (castitas) of the Vestals were detected, and married women of the respectable classes (matronae) were investigated and sometimes prosecuted for criminal debauchery. Prodigies were identified, and expiations prescribed by the state priests, sometimes in consultation with the Sibylline books. These expiations often called for the establishment of women-centered cults, but the circumstances that led to the need for a new image of Venus (simulacrum) in the form of Verticordia are not recorded.
Pliny the Elder implies that it was the first time a woman who was not a priestess was charged with carrying out an official religious task on behalf of the state, [9] and sees Sulpicia as a precedent for Claudia Quinta, who was granted a similar responsibility when the cult of Magna Mater was imported to Rome. [10]
Since the statue predates the temple by over a hundred years, it must originally have been dedicated at a site such as the Temple of Venus Erycina on the Capitoline or at the Temple of Venus Obsequens. [11]
In the Italian Renaissance, the story appears in Boccaccio's book De mulieribus claris ("On Illustrious Women") (1361–1362). The Sulpicia of Boccaccio is, paradoxically, outstanding primarily for being unobtrusive. Her virtues are described in terms of "denial and restraint". [12] She is the model wife who confines her interests to the household and avoids gossip, dinner parties, dancing, cosmetics, and perfume. She speaks only when spoken to, and in Christian manner submits to sex with her husband only blushingly and for the sake of procreation. [12] Even her gaze is constrained, allowed to wander no further than the edges of her own dress. [12] Hers is one of only seventeen biographies of "good" wives among the total of 106 famous women Boccaccio sketches. [13]
The painting Sulpitia by Orioli (1458–1496) is one of eight surviving panels thought to have been made to celebrate a wedding in 1493, [lower-alpha 1] each depicting an ancient Roman who could serve as a moral example. Sulpicia holds a symbolic model of the goddess's temple, which was not built until at least century after her death, and stands before a view of the ancient city as imagined by Orioli. [14] It is the only known work by Orioli that is not on a Christian theme. [17] The Latin inscription on the pedestal [lower-alpha 2] erroneously identifies Sulpicia as the temple founder, with the moral "An altar of chastity (pudicitia) is that breast which is chaste unto itself. All earthly things fall into ruin; reputation and illustriousness remain."
The Book of the City of Ladies, or Le Livre de la Cité des Dames, is a book written by Christine de Pizan believed to have been finished by 1405. Perhaps Pizan's most famous literary work, it is her second work of lengthy prose. Pizan uses the vernacular French language to compose the book, but she often uses Latin-style syntax and conventions within her French prose. The book serves as her formal response to Jean de Meun's popular Roman de la Rose. Pizan combats Meun's statements about women by creating an allegorical city of ladies. She defends women by collecting a wide array of famous women throughout history. These women are "housed" in the City of Ladies, which is actually the book. As Pizan builds her city, she uses each famous woman as a building block for not only the walls and houses of the city, but also as building blocks for her thesis. Each woman introduced to the city adds to Pizan's argument towards women as valued participants in society. She also advocates in favour of education for women.
Venus is a Roman goddess whose functions encompass love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity, and victory. In Roman mythology, she was the ancestor of the Roman people through her son, Aeneas, who survived the fall of Troy and fled to Italy. Julius Caesar claimed her as his ancestor. Venus was central to many religious festivals, and was revered in Roman religion under numerous cult titles.
In ancient Roman religion, Ceres was a goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships. She was originally the central deity in Rome's so-called plebeian or Aventine Triad, then was paired with her daughter Proserpina in what Romans described as "the Greek rites of Ceres". Her seven-day April festival of Cerealia included the popular Ludi Ceriales. She was also honoured in the May lustration (lustratio) of the fields at the Ambarvalia festival: at harvest-time: and during Roman marriages and funeral rites. She is usually depicted as a mature woman.
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Carmenta was a goddess of childbirth and prophecy, associated with technological innovation as well as the protection of mothers and children and a patron of midwives. She was also said to have invented the Latin alphabet.
In ancient Roman religion, Ops or Opis was a fertility deity and earth goddess of Sabine origin. Her equivalent in Greek mythology was Rhea.
Quintus Lutatius Catulus was a consul of the Roman Republic in 102 BC. His consular colleague was Gaius Marius. During their consulship the Cimbri and Teutones marched south again and threatened the Republic. While Marius marched against the Teutones in Gaul, Catulus had to keep the Cimbri from invading Italy. In this he failed; the Cimbri succeeded in invading the Po Valley. In 101 BC Catulus, as proconsul, continued the war against the Cimbri. Marius, elected consul for the fifth time, joined him and together they campaigned against the Germanic invaders in the Po Valley. At the Battle of Vercellae Marius and Catulus decisively defeated the Cimbri and ended the Germanic invasion. After Vercellae the two feuded, and Catulus consequently committed suicide following Marius's victory in the civil war of 87 BC.
The gens Sulpicia was one of the most ancient patrician families at ancient Rome, and produced a succession of distinguished men, from the foundation of the Republic to the imperial period. The first member of the gens who obtained the consulship was Servius Sulpicius Camerinus Cornutus, in 500 BC, only nine years after the expulsion of the Tarquins, and the last of the name who appears on the consular list was Sextus Sulpicius Tertullus in AD 158. Although originally patrician, the family also possessed plebeian members, some of whom may have been descended from freedmen of the gens.
Tanaquil was the queen of Rome by marriage to Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth King of Rome.
The Veneralia was an ancient Roman festival celebrated April 1 in honor of Venus Verticordia and Fortuna Virilis.
Artemisia II of Caria was a naval strategist, commander and the sister and the successor of Mausolus, ruler of Caria. Mausolus was a satrap of the Achaemenid Empire, yet enjoyed the status of king or dynast of the Hecatomnid dynasty. After the death of her brother/husband, Artemisia reigned for two years, from 353 to 351 BCE. Her ascension to the throne prompted a revolt in some of the island and coastal cities under her command due to their objection to a female ruler. Her administration was conducted on the same principles as that of her husband; in particular, she supported the oligarchical party on the island of Rhodes.
De Mulieribus Claris or De Claris Mulieribus is a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio, composed in Latin prose in 1361–1362. It is notable as the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in post-ancient Western literature. At the same time as he was writing On Famous Women, Boccaccio also compiled a collection of biographies of famous men, De Casibus Virorum Illustrium.
Timarete, was an ancient Greek painter.
Iaia of Cyzicus, sometimes (incorrectly) called Lala or Lalla, or rendered as Laia or Maia, was a Greek painter born in Cyzicus, Roman Empire, and relatively exceptional for being a woman artist and painting women's portraits. She was alive during the time of Marcus Terentius Varro. In De Mulieribus Claris, his book of women's biographies, Boccaccio refers to her as "Marcia", possibly confusing her with the Vestal Virgin of that name. According to Pliny the Elder: "No one had a quicker hand than she in painting".
Lucius Volumnius Flamma Violens was a consul of the Roman Republic, a novus homo who was the first consul to come from his plebeian gens. Volumnius served as consul twice, in 307 BC and 296 BC, both times in partnership with the patrician Appius Claudius Caecus. He took an active role in leading Roman forces during the Third Samnite War.
Verginia, sometimes spelled Virginia, was the daughter of Aulus Verginius, a Roman patrician. Her example of modesty and virtue in the face of adversity became famous in antiquity, and during the Middle Ages, she was celebrated as one of Boccaccio's Famous Women.
The Temple of Artemis or Artemision, also known as the Temple of Diana, was a Greek temple dedicated to an ancient, localised form of the goddess Artemis. It was located in Ephesus. By AD 401 it had been ruined or destroyed. Only foundations and fragments of the last temple remain at the site.
The Feast of Venus is an oil on canvas painting by Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens, created in 1635–1636, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It is a fanciful depiction of the Roman festival Veneralia celebrated in honor of Venus Verticordia.
The Temple of Pudicitia Plebeia was an ancient Roman temple on the Quirinal Hill, along the Vicus Longus, on what is now via Nazionale. It was dedicated to 'plebeian chastity' and built in 296 BC by Virginia, wife of the future consul Lucius Volumnius, in a section of her own house.
Venus Verticordia was an aspect of the Roman goddess Venus conceived as having the power to convert either virgins or sexually active women from dissolute desire (libido) to sexual virtue (pudicitia). Under this title, Venus was especially cultivated by married women, and on 1 April she was celebrated at the Veneralia festival with public bathing.
Venus Obsequens was the first Venus for whom a shrine (aedes) was built in ancient Rome. Little is known of her cult beyond the circumstances of her temple founding and a likely connection to the Vinalia Rustica, an August wine festival.