Sulpicia (fl. 113 BC) was the wife of Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, and earned everlasting fame when she was determined to be the most chaste of all the Roman matrons.''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', vol. III, p. 944.

Biography

The daughter of Servius Sulpicius Paterculus, Sulpicia was one of one hundred Roman matrons who were candidates to dedicate the statue of ''

Venus Verticordia Venus Verticordia ("the changer of hearts") was an epithet of the Roman goddess Venus, alluding to the goddess' ability to change hearts from lust to chastity. In the year 114 BC, three Vestal Virgins were condemned to death for transgressing wi ...

'' (the changer of hearts), who was believed "to turn the minds of women from vice to virtue." Using a method outlined in the

Sibylline Books The ''Sibylline Books'' ( la, Libri Sibyllini) were a collection of oracular utterances, set out in Greek hexameters, that, according to tradition, were purchased from a sibyl by the last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus, and were consulted at mo ...

, ten were drawn by lot, and these examined to determine which was the purest and most virtuous. Judged the most chaste, it fell to Sulpicia to dedicate the statue. The story was so well known in ancient authors that famed

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

author

Giovanni Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio (, , ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was somet ...

included it in his book ''

On Famous Women ''De Mulieribus Claris'' or ''De Claris Mulieribus'' (Latin for "Concerning Famous Women") is a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio, composed in Latin prose in 1361–1362. ...

'', fifteen hundred years later. The statue itself predates the temple in which it stood by over a hundred years, and so must originally have been dedicated someplace else—perhaps at the Temple of ''

Venus Erycina 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 fle ...

'' on the

Capitoline The Capitolium or Capitoline Hill ( ; it, Campidoglio ; la, Mons Capitolinus ), between the Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the Seven Hills of Rome. The hill was earlier known as ''Mons Saturnius'', dedicated to the god Saturn. Th ...

or the Temple of '' Venus Obsequens''.Richardson, p. 411.

References

Bibliography

Valerius Maximus Valerius Maximus () was a 1st-century Latin writer and author of a collection of historical anecdotes: ''Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX'' ("Nine books of memorable deeds and sayings", also known as ''De factis dictisque memorabilibus'' ...

, ''Factorum ac Dictorum Memorabilium libri IX'' (Nine Books of Memorable Deeds and Sayings), Henry J. Walker, trans., Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis (2004), . * Gaius Plinius Secundus (

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' ...

), ''

Naturalis Historia The ''Natural History'' ( la, Naturalis historia) is a work by Pliny the Elder. The largest single work to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day, the ''Natural History'' compiles information gleaned from other ancient authors. ...

''. *

Gaius Julius Solinus Gaius Julius Solinus was a Latin grammarian, geographer, and compiler who probably flourished in the early 3rd century AD. Historical scholar Theodor Mommsen dates him to the middle of the 3rd century. Solinus was the author of ''De mirabilibus m ...

, ''De Mirabilis Mundi'' (The Wonders of the World). *

, ''

De mulieribus claris ''De Mulieribus Claris'' or ''De Claris Mulieribus'' (Latin for "Concerning Famous Women") is a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio, composed in Latin prose in 1361–1362. ...

'' (On Famous Women), Virginia Brown, trans., Harvard University Press (2001), {{ISBN, 0-674-01130-9.
"Sulpicia" (no. 2)
in the ''

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology The ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' (1849, originally published 1844 under a slightly different title) is an encyclopedia/biographical dictionary. Edited by William Smith, the dictionary spans three volumes and 3,700 p ...

'', William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849). * L. Richardson, Jr.,
A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome
', Johns Hopkins University Press (1992). 2nd-century BC Roman women Sulpicii

Biography

See also

References

Bibliography