Laudatio Turiae

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Inscription

So called "Laudatio Turiae" inscription (fragment). Courtesy of VROMA.

A lengthy funerary inscription exists [1]

which is traditionally known as the "Laudatio Turiae". The unnamed subject has sometimes been identified with the Turia married to Q. Lucretius Vespillo.  W. Ward Fowler states, "...there is a very strong probability that her name was Turia, and that he was a certain Q. Lucretius Vespillo..." [2]

. N.S. Gill, however, says "It is strongly believed that the woman of this inscription was not Turia." [3]


Dr. Susan Martin discusses the meaning of the inscription, locating it in its historical context and observing that it shows "...the potential for strength in the conventional model of Roman womanhood." [4]


There is an English translation available online as well as the extant Latin text. VRoma has two images of fragments: 1 2

Turia

Turia is one of three women listed by the historian Valerius Maximus as examples of womanly virtue:

"When Quintus Lucretius [Vespillo, the consul of 19 BCE] was proscribed by the triumvirs, his wife Turia hid him in her bedroom above the rafters. A single maidservant knew the secret. At great risk to herself, she kept him safe from imminent death. So rare was her loyalty that, while the other men who had been proscribed found themselves in foreign, hostile places, barely managing to escape the worst tortures of body and soul, Lucretius was safe in that bedroom in the arms of his wife." [5]


{{{2}}}: HD030715

References

  1. {{{2}}}: VI 1527 (EN DE) Text of the "Laudatio Turiae".
  2. Fowler,W. "Social life at Rome in the Age of Cicero" at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11256
  3. Gill, N.S., "Laudatio Turiae" at http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/familyanddailylife/p/LaudatioTuriae.htm
  4. Martin, S., "Private Lives and Public Personae" at http://www.dl.ket.org/latin2/mores/women/womenful.htm
  5. Valerius Maximus, Memorable Deeds and Sayings 6.7.1-3. L at http://www.stoa.org/diotima/anthology/wlgr/wlgr-mensopinions53.shtml

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