Cornelia Africana
Encyclopedia
Scipio Africanus
Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus , also known as Scipio Africanus and Scipio the Elder, was a general in the Second Punic War and statesman of the Roman Republic...
, the hero of the Second Punic War
Second Punic War
The Second Punic War, also referred to as The Hannibalic War and The War Against Hannibal, lasted from 218 to 201 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean. This was the second major war between Carthage and the Roman Republic, with the participation of the Berbers on...
, and Aemilia Paulla. She is remembered as the perfect example of a virtuous Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
woman.
Biography
Cornelia married Tiberius Gracchus MajorTiberius Gracchus Major
Tiberius Gracchus major or Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus was a Roman politician of the 2nd century BC...
, the father of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus may refer to:*Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus , father of Tiberius and Publius Gracchus*Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus , son of the above...
, when he was already in an advanced age. The union proved to be a happy one and together they had 12 children, very unusual for Roman standards. Unfortunately, only three survived childhood: Sempronia
Sempronia (sister of the Gracchi)
Sempronia , was a Roman noblewoman living in the Middle and Late Roman Republic, who was most famous as the sister of the ill-fated Tiberius Gracchus and Gaius Gracchus , and the wife of a Roman general Scipio Aemilianus.-Background:Sempronia was the oldest surviving child and only surviving...
, married to her cousin Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus; and the brothers Tiberius
Tiberius Gracchus
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus was a Roman Populares politician of the 2nd century BC and brother of Gaius Gracchus. As a plebeian tribune, his reforms of agrarian legislation caused political turmoil in the Republic. These reforms threatened the holdings of rich landowners in Italy...
and Gaius Gracchus
Gaius Gracchus
Gaius Sempronius Gracchus was a Roman Populari politician in the 2nd century BC and brother of the ill-fated reformer Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus...
, who would defy the political institutions of Rome, with their attempts at popular reforms. After her husband's death, she chose to remain a widow, while still enjoying a princess-like status, and set herself to educate her children. She even refused the marriage proposal of King Ptolemy VIII Physcon
Ptolemy VIII Physcon
Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II , nicknamed , Phúskōn, Physcon for his obesity, was a king of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt. His complicated career started in 170 BC, when Antiochus IV Epiphanes invaded Egypt, captured his brother Ptolemy VI Philometor and let him continue as a puppet monarch...
. Later in her life, Cornelia studied Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
and Greek language
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
and literature. Cornelia took advantage of the Greek scholars she brought to Rome, notably the philosophers Blossius from Cumae and Diophanes from Mytilene, who were to educate young men. Cornelia always supported Tiberius and Gaius, even when their actions outraged the conservative patrician families in which she was born. After their violent deaths she retired from Rome to a villa
Roman villa
A Roman villa is a villa that was built or lived in during the Roman republic and the Roman Empire. A villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper class...
in Misenum, but continued to receive guests.
Rome worshipped her virtues and, when she died at an advanced age, the city voted for a statue in her honour.
Role in Sons' Political Careers
Plutarch writes of how Gaius removed a law that disgraced Marcus Octavius, the tribune whom Tiberius had deposed, because Cornelia asked him to remove it. Plutarch states that all the people approved of this because of respect for her due to her sons and her father. Plutarch also writes that Cornelia may have helped Gaius undermine the power of the consul Opimius by hiring foreign harvesters to help provide resistance. David Stockton believed that regardless of whether it is true, this story tells us that farmers and harvesters were the usual supporters of the Gracchi.
A quip that Plutarch gives us is when Gaius gave a clever retort to a political opponent who had attacked Cornelia. Plutarch writes that Gaius stated:
If this is a true quote, we can not only assume that Cornelia's reputation as a chaste, noble woman existed during her lifetime, but that the Gracchi used this to their advantage in their political rhetoric.
“What,” said he, “dost thou abuse Cornelia, who gave birth to Tiberius?” And since the one who had uttered the abuse was charged with effeminate practices, “With what effrontery,” said Gaius, “canst thou compare thyself with Cornelia? Hast thou borne such children as she did? And verily all Rome knows that she refrained from commerce with men longer than thou hast, though thou art a man.”
Cornelia's Letter Excerpts
Cornelia is one of only four Roman women whose writings survive to present day. There are two excerpts from a letter said to have been composed in the late 2nd century BCE to Gaius Gracchus, Cornelia's younger son. But not all scholars accept these excerpts as authentic. In Cornelia's letter, it documents how Roman women wielded considerable influence in a political family. The letter is possibly dated to Gaius just before his tribunate in 122 BCE. Gaius would be killed in 121 BCE while his brother Tiberius was killed a decade prior in 133 BCE. The excerpts were preserved in the manuscripts of Cornelius Nepos, the earliest Latin biographer. (ca. 110-24 BCE)2The Text:
“You will say that it is a beautiful thing to take on vengeance on enemies. To no one does this seem either greater or more beautiful than it does to me, but only if it is possible to pursue these aims without harming our country. But seeing as that cannot be done, our enemies will not perish for a long time and for many reasons, and they will be as they are now rather than have our country be destroyed and perish.
. . . I would dare to take an oath solemnly, swearing that, except for those who have murdered Tiberius Gracchus, no enemy has foisted so much difficulty and so much distress upon me as you have because of the matters: you should have shouldered the responsibilities of all of those children whom I had in the past, and to make sure that I might have the least anxiety possible in my old age; and that, whatever you did, you would wish to please me most greatly; and that you would consider it sacrilegious to do anything of great significance contrary to my feelings, especially as I am someone with only a short portion of my life left. Cannot even that time span, as brief as it is, be of help in keeping you from opposing me and destroying our country? In the final analysis, what end will there be? When will our family stop behaving insanely? When will we cease insisting on troubles, both suffering and causing them? When will we begin to feel shame about disrupting and disturbing our country? But if this is altogether unable to take place, seek the office of tribune when I will be dead; as far as I am concerned, do what will please you, when I shall not perceive what you are doing. When I have died, you will sacrifice to me as a parent and call upon the god of your parent. At that time does it not shame you to seek prayers of those gods, whom you considered abandoned and deserted when they were alive and on hand? May Jupiter not for a single instant allow you to continue in these actions nor permit such madness to come into your mind. And if you persist, I fear that, by your own fault, you may incur such trouble for your entire life that at no time would you be able to make yourself happy.”
In the early 40s BCE, Cicero, Nepos's contemporary, portrayed his friend Atticus as arguing for the influence of mothers on children's speech in which Atticus said he read the letters of Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi. The letters style appeared to Atticus to show that the Gracchi were heavily influenced by Cornelia's speech more than her rearing. Later in history, Marcus Fabius Quintilian (ca. 35- ca. 100) would reassert Atticus's view of Cornelia's letters when he said “we have heard that their mother Cornelia had contributed greatly to the eloquence of the Gracchi, a woman whose extremely learned speech also has been handed down to future generations in her letters” (Inst. Orat. 1.1.6).4 In another excerpt recounted from Cornelius Nepos “On the Latin Historians” is a letter from Cornelia to Gaius which had been verbally recited until printed by Nepos:
“I would venture to take a solemn oath that except for the men who killed Tiberius Gracchus no enemy has given me so much trouble and toil as you have done because of these matters. You should rather have borne the care that I should have the least possible anxiety in old age, that whatever you did you thought it sinful to do anything of major importance against my views, especially since so little of my life remains. . . . Will our family ever desist from madness? . . . Will we ever feel shame at throwing the state into turmoil and confusion? But if that really cannot be, seek the tribunate after I am dead.”5
The Cornelia Statue
After her death, a marble statue of Cornelia was erected in which only the base has survived. But her statue endured during the revolutionary reign of Sulla and became a model for future Roman women culminating with the portrait said to be of Helena, Emperor Constantine's mother four hundred years later; however, the base of Cornelia's statue was altered during the conservative attempts of later Roman reformers in which the base of her statue that gave reference to her famous sons was filed away and replaced with the inscription as “daughter of Africanus” rather than “mother of the Grachii.”6Problems in Reconstructing the Historical Cornelia
The historical Cornelia remains somewhat elusive. Reconstructing the historical Cornelia proves problematic in that the figure portrayed in Roman literature likely represents more what she signified to Roman writers than an objective account. Complicating matters, this significance changed over time as Roman society evolved, in particular the role of women. The problems in interpreting the literature are compounded by the fact only one work allegedly attributed to Cornelia herself survives, and classicists have questioned its authenticity since the nineteenth century. The Cornelia Fragments, detailed above, purport to constitute what remains of a letter written in 124 BCE to her son, Gaius, and were preserved later in the manuscripts of Cornelius Nepos, who wrote on the Gracchi. In the letter, Cornelia expresses strong opposition to Gaius’ intentions to stand or the tribunate. She also urges him not to continue the revolutionary policies of his older brother Tiberius Gracchus, which led ultimately to his death. The fragments were likely included in Nepos’ Life of Gaius Gracchus, now lost.Controversy over the Fragments’ authenticity has focused on the letter’s style and content. While a consensus seems to agree that the fragments do resemble the writing style and language of an educated Roman aristocrat of the late second century BCE, several observe Cornelia’s rebuking of Gaius’ policies in the letter seems to conflict what is understood about her positions preserved in other sources. The vehemence with which she addresses Gaius seems to conflict, to some scholars, with what is believed regarding her maternal devotion. Because of these doubts, some scholars hypothesize the Fragments constitute either a later forgery created by someone wishing to separate Cornelia’s political ideologies from those of her sons, while others suggest they are a much later fabrication, representing a “rhetorical exercise” wherein the writer attempted to recreate what Cornelia might have said, and the letter was inadvertently included as legitimate source material in Aemilius Probus’ edition of Nepos’ works in the 5th century CE. These theories themselves prove problematic, as the letter constitutes only one data point, and are therefore insufficient in reconstructing broad conclusions about Cornelia’s political ideals or making inferences about nebulous ideas of “maternal devotion.” As has also been pointed out, if they do in fact represent the work of a forger, he was an expert in the grammar, language, and writing style of the late 2nd century Roman elite. A majority seems to believe that the Fragments are authentic and represent a private letter written by a highly educated woman, who never intended her stern rebuke to read by anyone but her son.
With the Fragments being the only primary source material produced by Cornelia that survive, the reconstruction of the historical Cornelia relies mainly on how later Roman writers saw her. This is problematic because Roman depictions of Cornelia clearly change over time. The earliest image of Cornelia, painted largely by Plutarch’s views, is of an aristocratic woman, spending much of her time living extravagantly in her family’s villa, who because of her family’s wealth, opportunities, and interest in education (particularly Greek), receives the best-possible education in Latin and Greek rhetoric. She is somewhat controversial, both for her sons’ political policies and for having developed (and frequently making use of) such strong rhetorical abilities, despite being a woman. These early accounts emphasize her education and abilities but place comparatively much less emphasis on her maternal role.
Over subsequent centuries Cornelia evolves in the eyes of Roman writers. Her educational achievement and abilities become de-emphasized and subordinated to her place as an example of “idealized maternity.” Her education becomes incorporated into her role as the ideal mother: she achieved her education not for its own sake but in order to pass it on to her sons. She becomes excised from the political controversy that surrounded her family and is transformed into an idealized, one-dimensional figure. The Cornelia of history ultimately became adapted to fit into the moralistic agendas of later Roman writers, who used her as a vehicle to present their ideals on motherhood. As the historian Emily Hemelrijk concludes, “the Cornelia we know is to a high degree a creation of later times.” The historical Cornelia has largely been lost in this process of her transformation into a heroine, an idealized example for aristocratic women of later periods to pattern themselves after.
Modern Representations
An anecdote, likely invented, demonstrates Cornelia's devotion to and admiration for her sons. When women friends questioned Cornelia about her mode of dress and personal adornment, which was far more simple and understated than was usual for a wealthy Roman woman of her rank and station, Cornelia indicated her two sons and said, "These are my jewels."A large statue on the grounds of the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, entitled "These Are My Jewels," makes allusion to this story. It is surmounted by a figure of Cornelia, personifying the state of Ohio, with arms wide spread, and arrayed before her are the state's "jewels" - military and political leaders who contributed to the Union Cause during the American Civil War.
"Cornelia", a poem by Susanna Roxman, is included in her poetry collection Imagining Seals (Dionysia Press, Edinburgh 2006-7). This poem contains the lines "But I never asked for heroes./Some jewels would have been enough."
See also
- Women in RomeWomen in RomeFreeborn women in ancient Rome were citizens , but could not vote or hold political office. Because of their limited public role, women are named less frequently than men by Roman historians. But while Roman women held no direct political power, those from wealthy or powerful families could and did...
- CorneliaCorneliaCornelia is a feminine given name. It is a feminine form of the name Cornelius. Nel or Nelly can be used as a shortened version of Cornelia...
— other Cornelias - Scipio-Paullus-Gracchus family treeScipio-Paullus-Gracchus family treeThe Scipio-Paullus-Gracchus family tree includes the Roman Scipio, Paullus and Gracchus families.See also: List of family trees...