Verginia
Verginia is the central figure in an almost certainly fictional, legendary story from the early Roman Republic , which the Roman storyteller Livius mentions in Libri Ab urbe condita to illustrate the malevolent character of Decemvir Appius Claudius .
Legend and history
The events are dated 448/447 BC. Dated. That time was marked by the struggle for the restoration of the political institutions and the civil battles . The Decemviri, who were supposed to reform the legislation and fix it in writing , had been given all political functions. The plebeians could not veto the decisions of the consuls and the senate because they were not represented by anyone. Ultimately, the Twelve Tables Law came into being .
The Roman people were already upset about the Decemviri because of their corruption and their handling of elections and other abuses. It seemed as if they wanted to make Rome a monarchy again, in keeping with the Roman royal era , which they had just overcome a few decades earlier. 451 BC Appius Claudius showed his desire for Verginia, a beautiful plebeian girl. She was the daughter of the army officer Lucius Verginius and the fiancée of the former tribune Lucius Icilius. When she rejected Claudius, he got one of his protégés or clients , Marcus Claudius, to claim that Verginia was actually his slave who, after her birth, was foisted on Lucius Verginius. Marcus Claudius kidnapped her on the way to school, but the crowd in the Roman Forum came up to him and forced him, as Verginius and Icilius were respected men, to take the case to the Decemviri. However, these were cited by Appius Claudius himself. Verginius, who was out of town at the time, was called in to defend his daughter. Despite the threat of violence, Icilius managed to bring Verginia to her parents' house, where she was supposed to wait for her father to return. Appius Claudius tried too late to use his followers to stop the messengers who were supposed to fetch Verginius.
When Verginius arrived in Rome two days later, his followers gathered in the forum. Appius Claudius, who had brought an armed escort with him, refused to let him speak and instead announced that Verginia was indeed the slave of Marcus Claudius. He accused the citizens of rioting, whereupon the followers of Verginius left the forum to avoid a violent confrontation. Verginius asked to be allowed to question the nurse and his daughter himself. Claudius agreed. Verginius stabbed Verginia with a stolen butcher knife with the words: "In this only way that is possible for me, daughter, I will keep your freedom" . Verginius and Icilius were arrested, but their followers came back to attack the lictors and destroy their fasces . The Decemviri government was overthrown and the republic restored.
As a result of these events, there was increased unrest in the city. Verginius managed to get the soldiers in the camp to end the fight against the Sabines. The Senate was thus forced to negotiate with the plebeians. While the Decemviri resigned, the tribunate and the people's assembly were reinstated. Appius committed suicide in prison.
Livy compares his story with that of the rape of Lucretia and the overthrow of the monarchy in 509 BC. Chr.
Adaptation
"Verginia" is an incorrect or different spelling of the name Virginia . The legend of the Roman woman of the same name was taken up in many dramas . From the Middle Ages through the early modern period to the 18th century and beyond, a literary treatment of the Verginia material can be proven, and this in many European literatures. Among other things, the legend was treated in Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's 1772 bourgeois tragedy " Emilia Galotti ".
Even Shakespeare leaves Titus Andronicus in the second scene of the fifth act relate to "Virginius" who sacrificed his daughter before Andronicus then even kill his daughter Lavinia to her death, the enduring shame of their disgrace and mutilation by the sons of Finish gothic queen and roman empress tamora.
The figure of Verginia also appears in pictorial representations of the Nine Good Heroines . In this iconographic series, she is a representative of paganism .
The Hessian painter Johann Nikolaus Reuling (1697–1780) depicts the killing scene in his painting "Virginia and Virginius"; he places them on the stage of a contemporary baroque theater. The picture is now in Giessen , Oberhessisches Museum .
Historical source
- Livy: From Urbe Condita , 3.44–48.
literature
- Gesa Dane: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: Emilia Galotti. Explanations and documents. Reclam , Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-15-016031-6
- Marie Theres Fögen : Roman legal histories. About the origin and evolution of a social system . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2002 (publications by the Max Planck Institute for History 172), pp. 61–63.
- Harald Norbert Geldner: Lucretia and Verginia, studies on the virtus of women in Roman and Greek literature. Dissertation University of Mainz 1977 DNB 780808940 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Titus Livius 3: 44-48.
- ↑ from a legal point of view by putting on hands ( Manus iniectio ), cf. Marie Theres Fögen : Roman legal histories. About the origin and evolution of a social system . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2002 (publications by the Max Planck Institute for History 172), pp. 61–63.
- ↑ Livy 3, 48, 5.