Tullia Ciceronis, also Tulliola (as affectionately known to her father) (5 August 79 BC or 78 BC – February 45 BC) was the only daughter and first child to 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....

 orator and politician Marcus Tullius Cicero from his first marriage to Terentia. Her younger brother was Marcus Tullius Cicero Minor

Cicero Minor

Marcus Tullius Cicero Minor , or Cicero the Younger, was born in 64 BC. He was the son of Marcus Tullius Cicero, who as a distinguished orator and consular senator was one of the leading figures of the Roman Republic during the 1st century BC. His mother was Terentia, Cicero senior’s first wife...

 (born 65 BC), a consul of 30 BC.

History

What is known of Tullia's life is from Plutarch

Plutarch

Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...

's account of Cicero and the letters that Cicero wrote to others, particularly to her mother and to his friend, Roman equestrian

Equestrian (Roman)

The Roman equestrian order constituted the lower of the two aristocratic classes of ancient Rome, ranking below the patricians , a hereditary caste that monopolised political power during the regal era and during the early Republic . A member of the equestrian order was known as an eques...

 Titus Pomponius Atticus

Titus Pomponius Atticus

Titus Pomponius Atticus, born Titus Pomponius , came from an old but not strictly noble Roman family of the equestrian class and the Gens Pomponia. He was a celebrated editor, banker, and patron of letters with residences in both Rome and Athens...

. While growing up, Tullia had an interesting home life.

Tullia in 66 BC was betrothed to Gaius Calpurnius Piso Frugi (quaestor of 58 BC); she married him in 63 BC, but Piso died in 57 BC.

In 56 BC, Tullia was betrothed to and married Furius Crassipes. Although they had a happy marriage, they divorced in 51 BC for unknown reasons.

During the Roman Civil War

Caesar's civil war

The Great Roman Civil War , also known as Caesar's Civil War, was one of the last politico-military conflicts in the Roman Republic before the establishment of the Roman Empire...

, Tullia visited her father at Brundisium. Terentia failed to provide Tullia a proper escort or sufficient money for her expenses.

In the summer of 50 BC, Tullia married Publius Cornelius Dolabella

Publius Cornelius Dolabella

Publius Cornelius Dolabella was a Roman general, by far the most important of the Dolabellae. He arranged for himself to be adopted by a plebeian so that he could become a Tribune.. He married Cicero's daughter Tullia Ciceronis...

, consul of 44 BC. They had an unhappy marriage. She bore him two sons. The first was born on 19 May 49 BC and died the same year.

Tullia and Dolabella divorced in November 46 BC. In February 45 BC, Tullia died at Dolabella’s house the month after giving birth to her second son (who survived).

Cicero was stricken by grief when Tullia died. His friends and political peers tried to comfort him and sent him letters of condolence, some of which have survived. His grief led him to divorce his second wife Pubilia, who had been jealous of Tullia and showed little sympathy over her death.

Legend of the perpetual lamp

In the fifteenth century, a tomb was found in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 which was identified as Tullia’s burial place. Among other things found in the tomb was a perpetual lamp which was supposedly still burning after more than 15 centuries. The 17th-century English poet and preacher John Donne

John Donne

John Donne 31 March 1631), English poet, satirist, lawyer, and priest, is now considered the preeminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His works are notable for their strong and sensual style and include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs,...

 alludes to this legend in the eleventh stanza ("The Good-Night") of his "Eclogue

Eclogue

An eclogue is a poem in a classical style on a pastoral subject. Poems in the genre are sometimes also called bucolics.The form of the word in contemporary English is taken from French eclogue, from Old French, from Latin ecloga...

, 1613. Decemb. 26" for the marriage of the Earl of Somerset

Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset

Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, , was a politician, and favourite of King James I of England.-Background:Robert Kerr was born in Wrington, Somerset, England the younger son of Sir Thomas Kerr of Ferniehurst, Scotland by his second wife, Janet, sister of Walter Scott of Buccleuch...

 to Frances Howard

Frances Carr, Countess of Somerset

Frances Carr, Countess of Somerset was an English noblewoman who was the central figure in a famous scandal and murder during the reign of King James I...

:

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. . . .

Sources

• Browne, Thomas
  Thomas Browne
  Sir Thomas Browne was an English author of varied works which reveal his wide learning in diverse fields including medicine, religion, science and the esoteric....
  
  . Pseudodoxia epidemica
  Pseudodoxia Epidemica
  Pseudodoxia Epidemica or Enquries into very many received tenets and commonly presumed truths, also known simply as Pseudodoxia Epidemica or Vulgar Errors, is a work by Thomas Browne refuting the common errors and superstitions of his age. It first appeared in 1646 and went through five subsequent...
  
  : 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 through Luminarium.org. Note that Browne refers in his work to Tullia as the sister of Cicero, rather than as his daughter.

• Donne, John
  John Donne
  John Donne 31 March 1631), English poet, satirist, lawyer, and priest, is now considered the preeminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His works are notable for their strong and sensual style and include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs,...
  
  . 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 at Luminarium.org

• Lemprière, John.
  John Lemprière
  John Lemprière , English classical scholar, lexicographer, theologian, teacher and headmaster...
  
    "Tulliola or Tullia." A Classical Dictionary: Containing a copious account of all proper names mentioned in ancient authors . . . [Bibliotheca Classica]
  Lemprière's Bibliotheca Classica
  The Bibliotheca Classica , or Classical Dictionary containing a full Account of all the Proper Names mentioned in Ancient Authors is the best-known work of John Lemprière, an English classical scholar. Edited by various later scholars, the dictionary long remained a readable if not absolutely...
  
  . 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.