Papianilla (''floruit'' 455) was an aristocrat of

Roman Gaul Roman Gaul refers to GaulThe territory of Gaul roughly corresponds to modern-day France, Belgium and Luxembourg, and adjacient parts of the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany. under provincial rule in the Roman Empire from the 1st century ...

. She was the daughter of

Eparchius Avitus Eparchius Avitus (c. 390 – 457) was Roman emperor of the West from July 455 to October 456. He was a senator of Gallic extraction and a high-ranking officer both in the civil and military administration, as well as Bishop of Piacenza. He o ...

, who rose from the Gallo-Roman senatorial aristocracy to become Western Roman Emperor from 455 to 456. Papianilla had two brothers,

Agricola Agricola, the Latin word for farmer, may also refer to: People Cognomen or given name :''In chronological order'' * Gnaeus Julius Agricola (40–93), Roman governor of Britannia (AD 77–85) * Sextus Calpurnius Agricola, Roman governor of the mi ...

and

Ecdicius Ecdicius Avitus (c. 420 – after 475) was an Arverni aristocrat, senator, and ''magister militum praesentalis'' from 474 until 475. As a son of the Emperor Avitus, Ecdicius was educated at ''Arvernis'' (modern Clermont-Ferrand), where he lived an ...

, and possibly some sisters; she was related to another Papianilla (wife of the prefect Tonantius Ferreolus). Before her father's rise to the throne (455), she married

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 ...

, another aristocrat, with whom she had three or four children: Apollinaris, Severiana, Roscia and Alcima (the latter, mentioned only in Gregory of Tours and not in Sidonius letters, being possibly another name for Severiana or Roscia). Papianilla brought her husband the estate called ''Avitacum'' in

Auvergne Auvergne (; ; oc, label= Occitan, Auvèrnhe or ) is a former administrative region in central France, comprising the four departments of Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal and Haute-Loire. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region Au ...

. Her husband gave away silver vessels from their home to the poor, but she criticised him so he bought them back. Gregory of Tours, ''History of the Franks'', II, 22

Notes

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Sources

* "Papianilla 2", ''

Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire ''Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire'' (abbreviated as ''PLRE'') is a work of Roman prosopography published in a set of three volumes collectively describing many of the people attested to have lived in the Roman Empire from AD 260, the date ...

'', Volume 2, p. 830. 5th-century Roman women 5th-century Romans Daughters of Roman emperors