User:Rab20fa/Curia (wife of Quintus Lucretius)

In De Mulieribus Claris

Curia (ca. 60 BC – 5 BC) was a Roman woman, and the wife of Quintus Lucretius Vespillo. The name "Curia" is possibly derived from the nomen Curius.

Life

Curia and Quintus were married sometime between 49 BC and 42 BC, and remained married for 40 years.

During the time of the Second Triumvirate (43–32 BC), Quintus Lucretius was named as one of several proscribed Roman citizens. Rather than turn him away or submit to his banishment, Curia hid her husband in their own home. She seems to have been so successful in her secrecy that it is noted that not even close friends of relatives ever suspected that he was still in Rome – the only one savvy to this deception was a young woman - most likely, an enslaved woman (ancilla) - that seems to have aided Curia during this time. Publicly, Curia presented herself as a grieving, distraught wife – she wore old, “unkept” clothes, appeared disheveled, and perhaps even acted crazed as though her grief has driven her mad.

She is one of the three women mentioned by Valerius Maximus as examples of outstanding moral women (the other two women were Tertia Aemilia and Sulpicia). About her, he writes:

"When Quintus Lucretius [Vespillo] was proscribed by the triumvirs, his wife Turia [Curia] hid him in her bedroom above the rafters. A single maidservant knew the secret. At great risk to herself, she kept him safe from imminent death. So rare was her loyalty that, while the other men who had been proscribed found themselves in foreign, hostile places, barely managing to escape the worst tortures of body and soul, Lucretius was safe in that bedroom in the arms of his wife."

The Laudatio Turiae

The Laudatio Turiae ("In praise of Turia") is an epitaph from a husband to his deceased wife. Because the tombstone describes a wife of incredible character and unfaltering loyalty, it was one generally believed by scholars to be from Quintus to Curia. However, these claims cannot be proven as the inscription is fragmented and does not name the husband or wife, specifically.

The wife noted in the inscription was unable to bear children (infecunditas), but was so dedicated to her husband that she offered to grant him a divorce so they he might “find a suitable fertile woman” and would not “remain childless.” She seems to have also been willing to treat any future children that he fathered as her own, offering to share her inheritance and properties with them, should he bear them. Though it is entirely possible that this was an act of devotion to her husband, the Augustan legislation penalizing childlessness while rewarding multiple children (consider the Jus trium liberorum, "the right of three children").

He did not accept her offer of divorce and they remained married for the rest of their lives.

Notes

1. Valerius Maximus, Memorable Deeds and Sayings 6.7.1-3.L
2. "Valerius Maximus, Memorable Deeds and Sayings". Archived from the original on 2017-08-03. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
3. Badian, Ernst (1996). Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth, Antony (eds.). Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 822. ISBN 0-19-866172-X. "...has traditionally been assigned to this Turia, but this is now generally rejected and there are no good arguments for the identification."

References

• Appian, The Civil Wars, Book four - part 44
• Valerius Maximus, Memorable Deeds and Sayings 6.7.1-3.L

• Berg, Ria. The Material Sides of Marriage : Women and Domestic Economies in Antiquity. Edited by Ria Berg, Institutum Romanum Finlandiae, 2016.
• Boccaccio, Giovanni, and Virginia Brown. Famous Women. Harvard University Press, 2001.
• Osgood, Josiah. Turia: A Roman Woman’s Civil War. Oxford University Press, 2014.
• Tansey, Patrick. “L. Villius Annalis Praetor 43 B.C. in Magistratu Occisus est.” Rheinisches Museum Für Philologie, vol. 156, no. 1, 2013, pp. 98–102.