Julia Balbilla

Iulia Balbilla ( Greek Ἰουλία Βαλβίλλα ; * after 72 in Rome ; † after 130) was a distinguished Roman woman and poet.

Iulia Balbilla's parents were Claudia Capitolina, the daughter of the scholar Tiberius Claudius Balbillus , and Gaius Iulius Archelaus Antiochus Epiphanes (38-92), the son of King Antiochus IV of Kommagene . She had a brother, Gaius Iulius Philopappus . Her grandfather had ruled Kommagene for 34 years as the vassal king appointed by Rome. Before she was born, Lucius Junius Caesennius Paetus , governor of the province of Syria , wrongly accused him of conspiracy with the Parthians and deprived him of power. Kommagene became a Roman province, while the royal family, which had first fled, from Emperor Vespasianwas received in Rome with great honor. So Julia Balbilla grew up in Rome until her parents moved to Athens after Antiochus' death .

130 Emperor Hadrian traveled to Thebes in Egypt with his wife Vibia Sabina . She accompanied Iulia Balbilla as court poet. The emperor had four Greek poems engraved by Iulia Balbilla on the base of one of the Colossi of Memnon . This makes her one of the few Roman women who are known to have been active as a poet. However, Balbilla wrote poetry in the ancient Aeolian dialect of Greek in the style of the famous poet Sappho . The epigrams recall how the emperor and his wife listened to the mysterious chants of Memnon. Iulia Balbilla dates the exact time of the visit (November 20 and 21, 130), gives the names of her grandfathers and thus reminds of her own royal ancestry.

Apart from this trip, nothing is known about Iulia Balbilla's life.

literature

Emmet Robbins: Julia [10]. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 6, Metzler, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-476-01476-2 .

Individual evidence

↑ Flavius Josephus , De bello Iudaico 7, 7, 219-243.
↑ Ian Michael Plant: Women Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome. An Anthology. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman 2004, ISBN 0-8061-3621-9 , p. 152.
^ André Bernand, Étienne Bernand: Les inscriptions grecques et latines du Colosse de Memnon (= Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale. Bibliothèque d'étude. Volume 31). Adrien-Maisonneuve, Paris 1960, No. 28 ; 29 ; 30 ; 31 .

personal data
SURNAME	Julia Balbilla
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Balbilla, Julia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Roman poet
DATE OF BIRTH	1st century
DATE OF DEATH	2nd century

[1] Flavius Josephus , De bello Iudaico 7, 7, 219-243.

[2] Ian Michael Plant: Women Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome. An Anthology. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman 2004, ISBN 0-8061-3621-9 , p. 152.

[3] André Bernand, Étienne Bernand: Les inscriptions grecques et latines du Colosse de Memnon (= Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale. Bibliothèque d'étude. Volume 31). Adrien-Maisonneuve, Paris 1960, No. 28 ; 29 ; 30 ; 31 .