Bissula (flourished in 4th century AD) was an Alemannic woman in the 4th century. She was captured by the

Romans 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 lette ...

in 368 at a young age, and became a

slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

of the Roman poet

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 ...

. Ausonius fell deeply in love with Bissula, and released her from slavery. He wrote a poem on her, ''de Bissula'' ("About Bissula"), which he sent to his friend Paulus.

Sources

Latin text
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a German translation by M. W. Besser, 1908 * Friedrich Marx: Ausonius 3. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (RE). Band II,2, Stuttgart 1896, Sp. 2562–2580, hier Sp. 2564 und Sp. 2571. * Felix Dahn: Gesammelte Werke. Erste Serie, Band 3. Berlin 1884. 4th-century Germanic people Alemannic women Imperial Roman slaves and freedmen 4th-century women {{Germany-bio-stub