Cornelia
1. Κορνηλία, One of the noble women at Rome, who was said to have been guilty of poisoning the leading men of the state in B. C. 331, the first instance in which this crime is mentioned in Roman history. The aediles were informed by a slave-girl of the guilt of Cornelia and other Roman matrons, and in consequence of her information they detected Cornelia and her accomplices in the act of preparing certain drugs over a fire, which they were compelled by the magistrates to drink, and thus perished. (Liv. 8.18; comp. V. Max. 2.5.3; August. de Civ. Dei, 3.17 ; Dict. of Ant. s. v. Veneficium.)
Family of the Cinnae.
2. Daughter of L. Cinna, one of the great leaders of the Marian party, was married to C. Caesar, afterwards dictator. Caesar married her in B. C. 83, when he was only seventeen years of age; and when Sulla commanded him to put her away, he refused to do so, and chose rather to be deprived of her fortune and to be proscribed himself. Cornelia bore him his daughter Julia, and died before his quaestorship. Caesar delivered an oration in praise of her from the Rostra, when he was quaestor. (Plut. Caes. 1, 5; Suet. Jul. 1, 5, 6 ; Vell. 2.41.)
3. Sister of the preceding, was married to Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, who was proscribed by Sulla in B. C. 82, and killed in Africa, whither he had fled. [Ahenobarbus, No. 6.]
Family of the Scipiones.
4. The elder daughter of P. Scipio Africanus the elder, was married in her father's life-time to P. Scipio Nasica. (Liv. 38.57; Plb. 32.13.)
5. The younger daughter of P. Scipio Africanus the elder, was married to Ti. Sempronius Gracchus, censor B. C. 169, and was by him the mother of the two tribunes Tiberius and Caius. Gracchus espoused the popular party in the commonwealth, and was consequently not on good terms with Scipio, and it was not till after the death of the latter, according to most accounts, that Gracchus married his daughter. According to other statements, however, Cornelia was married to Gracchus in the life-time of her father, and Scipio is said to have given her to Gracchus, because the latter interfered to save his brother L. Scipio from being dragged to prison. (Plut. Ti. Gracch. 1; Liv. 38.57.) Cornelia was left a widow with a yong fimily of twelve children, and devoted herself entirely to their education, rejecting all offers of a second marriage, and adhering to her resolution even when tempted by Ptolemy, who offered to share his crown and bed with her. Of her numerous family three only survived their childhood,--a daughter, who was married to Scipio Africanus the Younger, and her two sons Tiberius and Caius. Cornelia had inherited from her father a love of literature, and united in her person the severe virtues of the old Roman matron with the superior knowledge, refinement, and civilization which then began to prevail in the higher classes at Rome. She was well acquainted with Greek literature, and spoke her own language with that purity and elegance which pre-eminently characterises well educated women in every country. Her letters, which were extant in the time of Cicero, were models of composition, and it was doubtless mainly owing to her judicious training that her sons became in after-life such distinguished orators and statesmen. (Comp. Cic. Brut. 58.) As the daughter of the conqueror of Hannibal, the mother of the Gracchi, and the mother-in-law of the taker of Carthage and Numantia, Cornelia occupies a prouder position than any other woman in Roman history. She was almost idolized by the people, and exercised an important influence over her two sons, whose greatness she lived to see,--and also their death. It was related by some writers that Ti. Gracchus was urged on to propose his laws by the reproaches of his mother, who upbraided him with her being called the mother-in-law of Scipio and not the mother of the Gracchi; but though she was doubtless privy to all the plans of her son, and probably urged him to persevere in his course, his lofty soul needed not such inducements as these to undertake what he considered necessary for the salvation of the state. Such respect was paid to her by her son Caius, that he dropped a law upon her intercession which was directed against M. Octavius, who had been a colleague of Tiberius in his tribunate. But great as she was, she did not escape the foul aspersions of calumny and slander. Some attributed to her, with the assistance of her daughter, the death of her son-in-law, Scipio Africanus the Younger (Appian, App. BC 1.20); but this charge is probably nothing but the base invention of party malice. She bore the death of her sons with magnanimity, and said in reference to the consecrated places where they had lost their lives, that they were sepulchres worthy of them. On the murder of Caius, she retired to Misenum, where she spent the remainder of her life. Here she exercised unbounded hospitality; she was constantly surrounded by Greeks and men of letters; and the various kings in alliance with the Romans were accustomed to send her presents, and receive the like from her in return. Thus she reached a good old age, honoured and respected by all, and the Roman people erected a statue to her, with the inscription, Cornelia, MOTHER OF THE Gracchi. (Plut. Ti. Gracch. 1, 8, C. Gracch. 4, 19; Oros. 5.12; Vell. 2.7.)
6. Daughter of P. Cornelius Scipio (also called Q. Caecilius Metellus Scipio, on account of his adoption by Q. Metellus), consul in B. C. 52, was first married to P. Crassus, the son of the triumvir, who perished, in B. C. 53, with his father, in the expedition against the Parthians. In the next year she married Pompey the Great. This marriage was not merely a political one; for Pompey seems to have been captivated by her. She was still young, possessed of extraordinary beauty, and distinguished for her knowledge of literature, music, geometry, and philosophy. In B. C. 49, Pompey sent her, when he abandoned Italy, with his youngest son Sextus to Lesbos, where she received her husband upon his flight after the battle of Pharsalia. She accompanied him to the Egyptian coast, saw him murdered, and fled first to Cyprus and afterwards to Cyrene. But, pardoned by Caesar, she soon afterwards returned to Rome, and received from him the ashes of her husband, which she preserved on his Alban estate. (Plut. Pomp. 55, 66, 74, 76, 78-80; Appian, App. BC 2.83; D. C. 40.51, 42.5; Vell. 2.53; Lucan, 3.23, 5.725, 8.40, &c.)
Family of the Sullac.
7. Sister of the dictator Sulla, was married to Nonius, and her son is mentioned as grown up in B. C. 88. (Plut. Sull. 10.)
8. Daughter of the dictator Sulla, was married to Q. Pompeius Rufus, who was murdered by the Marian party, in B. C. 88, at the instigation of the tribune Sulpicius. (Liv. Epit. 77; Vell. 2.18; Plut. Sull. 8.)
9. Another daughter of the dictator Sulla, was married first to C. Memmius, and afterwards to T. Annius Milo. She is better known by the name of Fausta. [Fausta.]
[Orestilla.]
[Paulla.]
patrician and plebeian, was one of the most distinguished Roman gentes, and produced a greater number of illustrious men than any other house at Rome. All its great families belonged to the patrician order. The names of the patrician families are :--Arvina, Blasio, Cethegus, Cinna, Cossus, Dolabella, Lentulus (with the agnomens Caudinus, Clodianus, Crus, Gaetulicus, Lupus, Maluginensis, Marcellins, Niger, Rufinus, Scipio, Spinther, Sura), Maluginensis, Mammula, Merenda, Merula, Rufinus, Scapula, Scipio (with the agnomens Africanus, Asiaticus, Asina, Barbatus, Calvus, Hipallus, Nasica, Serapio), Sisenna, and Sulla (with the agnomen Felix). The names of the plebeian families are Balbus and Gallus, and we also find various cognomens, as Chrysogonus, Culleolus, Phagita, &c., given to freedmen of this gens. There are also several plebeians mentioned without any surname : of these an account is given under Cornelius. The following cognomens occur on coins of this gens:--Balbus, Blasio, Cethegus, Cinna, Lentulus, Scipio, Sisenna, Sulla. Under the empire the number of cognomens increased considerably ; of these an alphabetical list is given under Cornelius.
(1) A daughter of Scipio Africanus Maior, and mother of Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. Cornelia occupies a high rank for the purity and excellence of her private character, as well as for her masculine tone of mind. She was married to Sempronius Gracchus, and was left on his death with a family of twelve children, the care of whom devolved entirely upon herself. After the loss of her husband, her hand was sought by Ptolemy Philometor, king of Egypt, but the offer was declined. Plutarch speaks in high terms of her conduct during widowhood. Having lost all her children but three—one daughter, who was married to Scipio Africanus the younger, and two sons, Tiberius and Gains—she devoted her whole time to the education of these. Valerius Maximus relates an anecdote of Cornelia, which has often been cited. A Campanian lady, who was at the time on a visit to her, having displayed to Cornelia some very beautiful ornaments which she possessed, desired the latter, in return, to exhibit her own. The Roman mother purposely detained her in conversation until her children returned from school, when, pointing to them, she exclaimed, “These are my ornaments!” (Haec ornamenta mea sunt, Val. Max. 4 init.). Plutarch informs us that some persons blamed Cornelia for the rash conduct of her sons in after-life, she having been accustomed to reproach them that she was still called the mother-in-law of Scipio, not the mother of the Gracchi ( T. Gracch. 8). She bore the untimely death of her sons with great self-control, and a statue was afterwards erected in honour of her by the Roman people, bearing for an inscription the words “Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi” ( C. Gracch. 4).
(2) Daughter of Metellus Scipio, married to Pompey after the death of her first husband, Publius Crassus. She was remarkable for the variety of her accomplishments and the excellence of her private character. Plutarch makes her to have been versed, not only in the musical art, but in polite literature, in geometry, and in the precepts of philosophy (Plut. Pomp. 55). After the battle of Pharsalus, when Pompey joined her at Mitylené, Cornelia, with tears, ascribed all his misfortunes to her union with him, alluding at the same time to the unhappy end of her first husband, Crassus, in his expedition against the Parthians. (Cf. Lucan, viii. 88.) She was also a witness, from her galley, of the murder of her husband on the shores of Egypt (Plut. Pomp. 79).
(3) A daughter of Cinna. She was Iulius Caesar's second wife, and mother of Iulia, the wife of Pompey. She died young. Plutarch says it had been the custom at Rome for the aged women to have funeral panegyrics, but not the young. Caesar first broke through this custom by pronouncing one upon Cornelia (Plut. Caes. 5).