Sulpicia was an ancient Roman poet who was active during the reign of the emperor
Domitian
Domitian (; la, Domitianus; 24 October 51 – 18 September 96) was a Roman emperor who reigned from 81 to 96. The son of Vespasian and the younger brother of Titus, his two predecessors on the throne, he was the last member of the Flavi ...
(r. AD 81–96). She is mostly known through two poems of
Martial
Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial ; March, between 38 and 41 AD – between 102 and 104 AD) was a Roman poet from Hispania (modern Spain) best known for his twelve books of ''Epigrams'', published in Rome between AD 86 and ...
; she is also mentioned by
Ausonius
Decimius Magnus Ausonius (; – c. 395) was a Roman poet and teacher of rhetoric from Burdigala in Aquitaine, modern Bordeaux, France. For a time he was tutor to the future emperor Gratian, who afterwards bestowed the consulship on him. H ...
,
Sidonius Apollinaris
Gaius Sollius Modestus Apollinaris Sidonius, better known as Sidonius Apollinaris (5 November of an unknown year, 430 – 481/490 AD), was a poet, diplomat, and bishop. Sidonius is "the single most important surviving author from 5th-century Gaul ...
, and
Fulgentius Fulgentius is a Latin male given name which means "bright, brilliant". It may refer to:
* Fabius Planciades Fulgentius (5th–6th century), Latin grammarian
*Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe (5th–6th century), bishop of Ruspe, North Africa, possi ...
. A seventy-line
hexameter
Hexameter is a metrical line of verses consisting of six feet (a "foot" here is the pulse, or major accent, of words in an English line of poetry; in Greek and Latin a "foot" is not an accent, but describes various combinations of syllables). It w ...
poem and two lines of
iambic trimeter
The Iambic trimeter is a meter of poetry consisting of three iambic units (each of two feet) per line.
In ancient Greek poetry and Latin poetry, an iambic trimeter is a quantitative meter, in which a line consists of three iambic ''metra''. Eac ...
attributed to her survive; the hexameters are now generally thought to have been a fourth- or fifth-century imitation of Sulpicia. Judging by the ancient references to her and the single surviving couplet of her poetry, Sulpicia wrote love poetry discussing her desire for her husband, and was known for her frank sexuality.
Life
Little is known of Sulpicia's life. She was married to a man named Calenus, likely a patron of
Martial
Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial ; March, between 38 and 41 AD – between 102 and 104 AD) was a Roman poet from Hispania (modern Spain) best known for his twelve books of ''Epigrams'', published in Rome between AD 86 and ...
, who is the source of most of what is known about her. Martial mentions her in two poems, and praises her faithfulness. His epigram 10.38 suggests that Sulpicia and Calenus were married for at least 15 years, at which point, judging by ancient Roman marriage norms, Sulpicia would have been at least 30. The poem is usually read as a poem of consolation after Sulpicia's death, though Amy Richlin argues that it might instead have been written about Sulpicia and Calenus having divorced, and Edward Courtney suggests that it is celebrating an anniversary. If it was written as a consolation for Sulpicia's death, she probably died between 95 and 98 AD.
As
Sulpicia
Sulpicia was the author, in the first century BCE, of six short poems (some 40 lines in all) written in Latin which were published as part of the corpus of Albius Tibullus's poetry (poems 3.13-18). She is one of the few female poets of ancient Rom ...
is also the name of the only other Roman woman poet about whom any substantial information has survived, Thomas Hubbard suggests that her name was a pseudonym borrowed from the earlier Sulpicia.
Poetry
Sulpicia seems to have written poetry that was erotic or satirical. She is the only woman known from antiquity who was associated with a comic genre. Judging by the surviving testimonia on Sulpicia, she openly discussed her sexual desire for her husband; this outspoken centring of female sexual desire is extremely unusual amongst ancient women poets. By contrast with the male love poets of ancient Rome, however, Sulpicia portrays her desire only within the context of her marriage.
Two lines of
iambic trimeter
The Iambic trimeter is a meter of poetry consisting of three iambic units (each of two feet) per line.
In ancient Greek poetry and Latin poetry, an iambic trimeter is a quantitative meter, in which a line consists of three iambic ''metra''. Eac ...
attributed to Sulpicia are quoted by a
scholiast
Scholia (singular scholium or scholion, from grc, σχόλιον, "comment, interpretation") are grammatical, critical, or explanatory comments – original or copied from prior commentaries – which are inserted in the margin of th ...
on
Juvenal
Decimus Junius Juvenalis (), known in English as Juvenal ( ), was a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century CE. He is the author of the collection of satirical poems known as the ''Satires''. The details of Juvenal's life ...
. These lines are generally accepted as the only surviving fragment of Sulpicia's poetry. The manuscript with the scholion is now lost, but it was quoted by
Giorgio Valla
Giorgio Valla (Latin: ''Georgius Valla''; Piacenza 1447–Venice 1500) was an Italian academic, mathematician, philologist and translator.
Life
He was born in Piacenza in 1447. He was the son of Andrea Valla and Cornelia Corvini. At the age of f ...
in his 1486 edition of Juvenal. The text quoted by Valla is attributed to "Sulpicius", and was first identified as a fragment of Sulpicia by the 16th century scholar
Pierre Pithou
Pierre Pithou (1 November 1539 – 1 November 1596) was a French lawyer and scholar. He is also known as Petrus Pithoeus.
Life
He was born at Troyes. From childhood he loved literature, and his father Pierre encouraged this interest. Young P ...
based on the mention of Calenus. The text transmitted by Valla is corrupt and the meaning continues to be debated, though the lines apparently come from one of the erotic poems about Calenus that are mentioned by Martial.
''Sulpiciae Conquestio''
A seventy-line
hexameter
Hexameter is a metrical line of verses consisting of six feet (a "foot" here is the pulse, or major accent, of words in an English line of poetry; in Greek and Latin a "foot" is not an accent, but describes various combinations of syllables). It w ...
poem on the expulsion from Rome of Greek philosophers by
Domitian
Domitian (; la, Domitianus; 24 October 51 – 18 September 96) was a Roman emperor who reigned from 81 to 96. The son of Vespasian and the younger brother of Titus, his two predecessors on the throne, he was the last member of the Flavi ...
was for a long time attributed to Sulpicia. The poem was preserved in an anthology from the early fifth century. The only manuscript known to have survived antiquity, the
Epigrammata Bobiensia, preserved at
Bobbio Abbey
Bobbio Abbey (Italian: ''Abbazia di San Colombano'') is a monastery founded by Irish Saint Columbanus in 614, around which later grew up the town of Bobbio, in the province of Piacenza, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. It is dedicated to Saint Columbanus. I ...
in northern Italy, is now lost; the modern text of the poem derives from four copies of a transcript made of the manuscript in the late fifth century. The poem, known as the ''Sulpiciae Conquestio'' (''Sulpicia's Complaint'') was first printed in 1498, and its authorship remained unquestioned until the second half of the 19th century. In 1868, argued that the poem was a 15th-century composition; in 1873
Emil Baehrens Paul Heinrich Emil Baehrens (24 September 1848, in Bayenthal – 26 September 1888, in Groningen) was a German classical scholar.
After completing his studies he became ''Privatdozent'' at Jena. In 1877 he was appointed ordinary professor at the Un ...
was the first to suggest it was a work of
late antiquity
Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...
. Modern scholars generally consider that the work was not by Sulpicia, and was composed in the fourth or fifth century AD. The only information about Sulpicia that the ''Conquestio'' adds to that transmitted by Martial is the mention of three metres that she wrote in:
hendecasyllable
In poetry, a hendecasyllable (sometimes hendecasyllabic) is a line of eleven syllables. The term may refer to several different poetic meters, the older of which are quantitative and used chiefly in classical (Ancient Greek and Latin) poetry, and ...
s, iambic trimeters, and
scazon
Choliambic verse ( grc, χωλίαμβος), also known as limping iambs or scazons or halting iambic,. is a form of meter in poetry. It is found in both Greek and Latin poetry in the classical period. Choliambic verse is sometimes called ''scazo ...
s. It is unclear why the poem imitated Sulpicia, as she is otherwise only associated with love poetry, rather than the political satire of the ''Conquestio''.
Reception
Martial compares Sulpicia's poetry, along with her conduct, favourably to
Sappho
Sappho (; el, Σαπφώ ''Sapphō'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her Greek lyric, lyric poetry, written to be sung while ...
. Her poetry seems to have continued to be known and well thought of into the fifth century – she is mentioned alongside
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
,
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...
, Martial, and Juvenal by
Ausonius
Decimius Magnus Ausonius (; – c. 395) was a Roman poet and teacher of rhetoric from Burdigala in Aquitaine, modern Bordeaux, France. For a time he was tutor to the future emperor Gratian, who afterwards bestowed the consulship on him. H ...
and
Sidonius Apollinaris
Gaius Sollius Modestus Apollinaris Sidonius, better known as Sidonius Apollinaris (5 November of an unknown year, 430 – 481/490 AD), was a poet, diplomat, and bishop. Sidonius is "the single most important surviving author from 5th-century Gaul ...
. She is also mentioned by the mythographer
Fulgentius Fulgentius is a Latin male given name which means "bright, brilliant". It may refer to:
* Fabius Planciades Fulgentius (5th–6th century), Latin grammarian
*Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe (5th–6th century), bishop of Ruspe, North Africa, possi ...
, though it is unclear whether he had read her work or only knew of her through Ausonius. Sulpicia's poetry was well known enough for a scholiast on Juvenal to quote, and for the author of the ''Conquestio'' to adopt her identity. During this period, Sulpicia was apparently best known for the sexual nature of her poetry. As all but two lines of her poetry are now lost, it is impossible to judge her writing today.
Notes
References
Works cited
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External links
* – Text and translation of Sulpicia and translated testimonia.
* – Translation with notes.
{{Authority control
1st-century Roman poets
1st-century women writers
1st-century Roman women
Ancient Roman women writers
Ancient women poets
Ancient Roman satirists
Silver Age Latin writers
Sulpicii