Tullia (5 August 79 or 78 BC – February 45 BC), sometimes referred to affectionately as Tulliola ("little Tullia"), was the first child and only daughter of
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
* Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...
orator and politician
Marcus Tullius 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 esta ...
, by his first marriage to
Terentia
Terentia (; 98 BC – AD 6) was the wife of the renowned orator Marcus Tullius Cicero. She was instrumental in Cicero's political life both as a benefactor and as a fervent activist for his cause.
Family background
Terentia was born into a wea ...
. She was the sister of
Marcus Tullius Cicero Minor, born in 65 BC, and who became
consul
Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throu ...
in 30 BC.
Life
What is known of Tullia's life is from
Plutarch
Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...
's account of Cicero and the letters that Cicero wrote to others, particularly to her mother, and to his friend, the
eques Titus Pomponius Atticus
Titus Pomponius Atticus (November 110 BC – 31 March 32 BC; later named Quintus Caecilius Pomponianus Atticus) was a Roman editor, banker, and patron of letters, best known for his correspondence and close friendship with prominent Roman ...
.
In 66 BC, Tullia was betrothed to
Gaius Calpurnius Piso Frugi
Gaius, sometimes spelled ''Gajus'', Kaius, Cajus, Caius, was a common Latin praenomen; see Gaius (praenomen).
People
* Gaius (jurist) (), Roman jurist
*Gaius Acilius
*Gaius Antonius
* Gaius Antonius Hybrida
*Gaius Asinius Gallus
*Gaius Asinius ...
. They were married in 63, when Tullia was fifteen or sixteen, and Piso not much older. He embarked on the ''
cursus honorum
The ''cursus honorum'' (; , or more colloquially 'ladder of offices') was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. It was designed for men of senatorial rank. The ''c ...
'', the course of a Roman political career, serving as
quaestor
A ( , , ; "investigator") was a public official in Ancient Rome. There were various types of quaestors, with the title used to describe greatly different offices at different times.
In the Roman Republic, quaestors were elected officials who ...
in 58 BC, but he died the following year. In 56, Tullia married
Furius Crassipes. By all accounts they had a happy marriage, but nonetheless divorced in 51 BC, for reasons that remain obscure.
During the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...
, Tullia visited her father at
Brundisium
Brindisi ( , ) ; la, Brundisium; grc, Βρεντέσιον, translit=Brentésion; cms, Brunda), group=pron is a city in the region of Apulia in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea.
Histo ...
. In Cicero's letters, he complains that Terentia had failed to provide Tullia a proper escort, or sufficient money for her expenses.
In the summer of 50, Tullia married
Publius Cornelius Dolabella. Her father had not consented to the match, and instead wished for her to marry
Tiberius Claudius Nero. However, Tullia and her mother
Terentia
Terentia (; 98 BC – AD 6) was the wife of the renowned orator Marcus Tullius Cicero. She was instrumental in Cicero's political life both as a benefactor and as a fervent activist for his cause.
Family background
Terentia was born into a wea ...
had selected Dolabella to be Tullia's next husband while Cicero was away from Rome governing
the province of Cilicia. Tullia and Dolabella were married even before Cicero returned to Rome. The pair had two sons but their marriage was not a happy one. The first boy was born May 19, 49 BC, and died the same year. Tullia divorced Dolabella in November 46, during her second pregnancy. She died in February 45, one month after giving birth to her second son (who survived, but would die soon after Tullia's death). Tullia died at Cicero's
villa
A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became ...
in
Tusculum
Tusculum is a ruined Classical Rome, Roman city in the Alban Hills, in the Latium region of Italy. Tusculum was most famous in Roman times for the many great and luxurious patrician country villas sited close to the city, yet a comfortable dist ...
. Cicero's friends and colleagues wrote letters of condolence to the grief-stricken orator; some of these have survived. His second wife,
Publilia, showed little sympathy; Publilia had always been jealous of the attention her husband lavished on his daughter and was in fact much younger than Tullia herself. Consequently, Cicero divorced Publilia.
Legend of the perpetual lamp
In the fifteenth century, a tomb discovered at
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus ( legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
was identified as Tullia's burial place. Reports of the discovery claimed that the corpse inside looked and felt like it had been buried that very day, and a lamp that the discoverers supposed to have been
burning perpetually since Tullia's burial, more than fifteen hundred years earlier. The seventeenth century English poet
John Donne
John Donne ( ; 22 January 1572 – 31 March 1631) was an English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary born into a recusant family, who later became a cleric in the Church of England. Under royal patronage, he was made Dean of St Paul's Cathe ...
alludes to this legend in the eleventh stanza ("The Good-Night") of his "
Epithalamion, 1613. Decemb. 26", composed for the marriage of the
Earl of Somerset
Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form ''jarl'', and meant "chieftain", particul ...
and
Frances Howard:
:Now, as in Tullias tombe, one lamp burnt cleare,
::Unchang'd for fifteene hundred yeare,
::May these love-lamps we here enshrine,
:In warmth, light, lasting, equall the divine. . . .[Donne, i, 140.]
Notes
Sources
*
Browne, Thomas. ''
Pseudodoxia epidemica
''Pseudodoxia Epidemica or Enquiries into very many received tenents and commonly presumed truths'', also known simply as ''Pseudodoxia Epidemica'' or ''Vulgar Errors'', is a work by Thomas Browne challenging and refuting the "vulgar" or common ...
: or, Enquiries into very many received tenants, and commonly presumed truths''
Vulgar Errors" Book III, ch. 21. 1662. In ''The Works of Sir Thomas Browne'', ed. Charles Sayle. 3 vols. Edinburgh: John Grant, 1927. An online text may be found throug
Luminarium.org Note that Browne refers in his work to Tullia as the sister of Cicero, rather than as his daughter.
*
Donne, John. ''The Poems of John Donne: edited from the Old Editions and Numerous Manuscripts with Introductions & Commentary by Herbert J. C. Grierson, M.A.'' 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1912. The complete "Eclogue" in modern English may be found a
Luminarium.org*
Lemprière, John. "Tulliola or Tullia". ''A Classical Dictionary: Containing a copious account of all proper names mentioned in ancient authors...
'' '">ibliotheca Classica' .'' 3rd American Edition. Philadelphia: J. Crissy, 1822.
*Plutarch – Cicero
*http://www.atrium-media.com/thisday/tullia.html
*http://www.chlt.org/sandbox/perseus/abb.cic_eng/page.11.a.php#n206.
{{Authority control
70s BC births
45 BC deaths
Tullii
1st-century BC Romans
1st-century BC Roman women
Deaths in childbirth