Licinia Cornelia Volusia Torquata

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Inscription on the altar of Licinia Cornelia Volusia Torquata from the Licinier tomb in Rome

Licinia Cornelia Volusia Torquata was a Roman patrician from the Imperial Era of the 1st to 2nd centuries AD.

The only epigraphic source for the existence of Cornelia Licinia Volusia Torquata is the inscription on an altar that comes from the Licinier tomb and is now kept in the Museo Nazionale Romano in the Baths of Diocletian in Rome . The added inscription and its translation read:

LICINIA CORNELIA | M (ARCI) F (ILIA) VOLUSIA | TORQUATA | L (UCI) VOLUSI CO (N) S (ULIS) | AUGURIS.
Licinia Cornelia Volusia Torquata, daughter of Marcus, (wife of) Lucius Volusius, consul , Augur .

The deceased had three gentile names , Licinia , Cornelia and Volusia , and the surname Torquata . Roman women also had a first name until about the end of the republic , but in the imperial era it was unusual to use and mention a first name. In contrast, at that time three gentile names were no longer uncommon for a woman, occasionally an epithet was added, which was then also used as a given name. Torquatus and Torquata have been given numerous nicknames.

Marcus Licinius Crassus , politician and general of the late Roman Republic from the Licinier gens

According to the Roman naming convention , Licinia indicates as the first name that the deceased came from the gens of the Licinians . Since the family grave belonged to the Licinii Crassi, Torquata came from this branch of the family. The best- known member is the triumvir Marcus Licinius Crassus (115/114 BC - 53 BC). Together with the first name from the inscription, Marcus Licinius Crassus results as the name of the father of the Torquata. It has not yet been possible to clarify without a doubt who among the numerous representatives of this name was actually her father. Perhaps Torquata was the granddaughter of Marcus Licinius Crassus Frugi, consul in AD 27. Then his son of the same name, the consul of AD 64, would be the father of Torquata.

The origin of the Cornelia part of the name is not known, but is likely to be related to the widespread Cornelier gene . The gentile name Volusia has its origin in the Gens Volusia , an initially plebeian family from which some praetors , senators and consuls had emerged. The Volusians probably rose to the patriciate under Emperor Claudius in AD 48 . The Cognomen Torquata can be found in Volusia Torquata, the daughter of the consul Quintus Volusius Saturninus (around 25 AD - after 70 AD). She had two brothers, Lucius and Quintus , who were consuls in 87 and 92 AD. She could have been the mother of the Torquata.

In older research it was believed that the husband of the Torquata was a certain Lucius Volusius Torquatus , allegedly a suffect consul in the 2nd century AD and the grandson or son of Lucius Volusius Saturninus, consul of 87 AD. However, there is no consul that name in the annals . In general, the existence of a person of this name is not proven epigraphically. Today it is assumed that the husband named in the inscription is Lucius Volusius Saturninus himself. Then, however, his sister Volusia Torquata cannot have been the mother of Licinia Cornelia Volusia Torquata.

According to a different opinion, Torquata was the cousin of the consul of 87 AD and wife of Gaius Calpurnius Piso Crassus Frugi Licianus , who was also consul in 87 AD. Licianus was the son of Marcus Licinius Crassus Frugi , consul of the year 64 AD.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum CIL 06, 31726
  2. ↑ a b Dietrich Boschung : Ancient grave altars from the necropolis of Rome. Stämpfli, Bern 1987, p. 59.
  3. ^ Prosopographia Imperii Romani PIR V, 666, Stemma .
  4. ^ Prosopographia Imperii Romani PIR V, 666.
  5. ↑ Jaś Elsner, Janet Huskinson (Eds.): Life, Death and Representation: Some New Work on Roman Sarcophagi. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2011, ISBN 9783110202137 , p. 26.
  6. ^ Marie-Thérèse Raepsaet-Charlier: Prosopographie des femmes de l'ordre sénatorial 1. Peeters, Leuven 1987, ISBN 9789068310863 , p. 421.
  7. ^ Brian W. Jones: The Emperor Domitian. Routledge, London / New York 1993, ISBN 9780415101950 , p. 176.
personal data
SURNAME Licinia Cornelia Volusia Torquata
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman patrician
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century
DATE OF DEATH 1st century or 2nd century