TERENTIA, PUBLILIA, and TULLIA THE WIVES AND DAUGHTER OF CICERO TERENTIA, as we will see, was in every way a complete contrast to CLODIA.

Transcription

1 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 (without her coming under Cicero s guardianship ) 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 with Cicero 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 (after over 20 years of marriage) reveal considerable affection on his part.

2 MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO LATER IN LIFE

3 5. 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]. 6. 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].

4 7. 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 9 th 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]

5 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 6 th 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)

6 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.

7 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 Hill.

8 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 from exile 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 their daughter 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 ( head of the family ) for Terentia to do what she could to find someone suitable for their daughter.

9 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)

10 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 getting back 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).

11 b) He corresponded, often rather curtly, with TERENTIA from there, but doesn t appear eager to return to Rome (although his own safety may have been of prime importance). 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 (in Brundisium) - although his daughter TULLIA did for a time.

12 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 it difficult to unravel. 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...

13 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 1 st 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?]

14 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 after some 32 or so years of marriage.

15 ANOTHER MARRIAGE 1. In late 46 BC Cicero, now 60, married his ward, PUBLILIA, who was about 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. 3. 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)). 4. Cicero was grief-stricken over Tullia s death and could not be consoled. 5. 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. 6. 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.

16 THE WIVES OF JULIUS CAESAR AND FULVIA 1. We have had occasion to refer to the growing power of JULIUS CAESAR when referring to CICERO and TERENTIA. 2. a) It was suggested that one of the reasons for TERENTIA s choice of Publius Cornelius DOLABELLA as TULLIA s third husband (in the summer of 50 BC when Cicero himself was away serving as governor of Cilicia and had to leave matters to his wife) - other, that is, than Tullia s apparent infatuation with Dolabella - was Dolabella s closeness to CAESAR and his rising star. b) Despite their totally opposite political stances, it could prove useful for Cicero to have a son-in-law who was part of Caesar s close circle. c) With the divorce of Tullia and Dolabella, of course, that plan came to little. 3. But what of JULIUS CAESAR himself? 4. Did his wives enhance his political opportunities?

17 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 13 th 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 Italy [as we saw] 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.

18 5. The marriage, in political terms, brought the young Caesar soundly into the populist camp - Caesar s aunt JULIA was, at the time, married to the aging populist MARIUS himself. 6. a) Sulla, once victorious and establishing himself as dictator, ordered Caesar to divorce CORNELIA and when he refused, Caesar 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 out of fear for his life. c) BUT there were supporters of Sulla in his mother s family and Sulla was persuaded, reluctantly (we are told), 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 about sixteen years managed Caesar s household until her death in 69 BC during childbirth aged about 28.

19 GAIUS JULIUS CAESAR BC

20 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 although she had not played a political role publicly along side Caesar himself. 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 which we have talked about before in connection with Publius Clodius Pulcher s scandalous intrusion dressed in female attire.

21 12. The rumour-mill had it that PUBLIUS CLODIUS PULCHER violated those ceremonies 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 on the part of Pompeia. 13. The affair was enough, however, (as we saw) for Caesar to divorce her. 14. Plutarch (Life of Caesar 10.8 and 9) reported the outcome of Publius Clodius trial for sacrilege 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. [the apparent origin, in English, of Caesar s wife must be above suspicion used by The Goon Show!] 15. It is usually assumed that Caesar s real reasons for the divorce were that marriage to POMPEIA no longer served a useful political purpose in any way.

22 16. In late 59 BC Caesar married again - this time to 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, one of the two men whom 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 the major motive for the marriage, and little else. 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.

23 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 Caesar 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 Although widowed at 31, CALPURNIA apparently never remarried, being (we are told) 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) with at least two of them very publicly active politically.

24 MARCUS ANTONIUS FULVIA Third wife of Marcus Antonius the first living woman to appear on a Roman coin OCTAVIA sister of Octavian, fourth wife of Marcus Antonius

25 CLEOPATRA fifth wife (?) of Marcus Antonius (if they married legally)

26 After looking at these three we will 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 in society 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 eventually, in the early AD 200s, actually running the state and empire. [And we have pictorial representations of leading women now in the form of statues, busts, and images on coins!]