Calpurnia (wife of the younger Pliny)

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Calpurnia was the (presumably third) wife of the Roman senator and writer Pliny the Younger .

Calpurnia's grandfather Lucius Calpurnius Fabatus was a Roman knight who, like the family of Pliny, came from Comum (now Como ). Calpurnia herself was raised by her aunt Calpurnia Hispulla after the death of her parents . Pliny, who had known the family since his own youth, married the very young Calpurnia during the reign of Trajan in AD 104. He wrote to Calpurnia Hispulla that this was a model of virtue, diligence and loyalty. In this letter he presents his wife as the ideal wife.

Calpurnia was interested in her husband's literary activities and allegedly received regular reports from express couriers about the course of the trials in which he was working as a lawyer. She set her husband's poems to music without the guidance of a musician, just out of love.

Calpurnia suffered a miscarriage; the marriage remained childless. Their poor health required several cures, which meant that the couple had to live apart for a long time. She accompanied her husband during his governorship of the province of Bithynia et Pontus , but returned to Rome with a special permit from the emperor when her grandfather died.

There are three letters to her in Pliny’s collection of letters; it is mentioned in further letters.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ TO Sherwin-White : The Letters of Pliny. A historical and social commentary. Reprint, Oxford University Press, New York 1998, ISBN 0-19-814435-0 , pp. 71, 264, 559 f.
  2. ↑ Jacqueline M. Carron: Plinys Women. Constructing Virtue and Creating Identity in the Roman World. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2009, ISBN 978-0-521-76132-1 , pp. 104 f.
  3. ↑ Pliny, epistulae 4, 19 .
  4. ↑ Pliny, epistulae 6, 4 ; 6, 7 ; 7, 5 .
personal data
SURNAME Calpurnia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION third wife of the younger Pliny
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century
DATE OF DEATH 2nd century