Cornelia was estimated to be born in 190 B.C.E.,she was the second daughter of Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus and Aemilia Paulla. Publius Africanus was the hero of the Second Punic War. She was married twice before she married her final husband Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, after his death she focused on her children and their lives. She was the mother of the Gracchi brothers, and the mother-in-law of Scipio Aemilianus. Although drawing similarities to prototypical examples of virtuous Roman women, such as Lucretia, Cornelia puts herself apart from the rest because of her interest in literature, writing, and her investment in the political careers of her sons.
Cornelia, madre dei Gracchi by Joseph-Benoît Suvée
Cornelia was born to Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus and Aemilia Paulla. Cornelia was their second daughter, their first being Cornelia Major. She also had two older brothers, Publius and Lucius. They four were Publius and Aemilia's only surviving children.
Cornelia's first husband was Crefsus, who died with his father in conflict with the Parthians.[1] Next she married Pompey the Great who was murdered by Achilles and Septimius.[1] The last man Cornelia married was Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, grandson of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus. Together the Cornelia and Tiberius had 12 children in their eighteen years of marriage.[2] Tiberius Gracchus died leaving Cornelia with their children, but only three survived childhood: Sempronia, who married her cousin Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus, as well as her sons Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus otherwise known as the Gracchi brothers. They would go on to defy the political institutions of Rome with their attempts at popular reforms.[3]
After her husband's death, she chose to remain a widow, even with proposals and interests from other men. She even refused the marriage proposal of the King of Egypt, King Ptolemy VIII Physcon. Even though she was a widow she still enjoyed living under elite status. She focused on educating her children. Later in her life, Cornelia studied literature, Latin, and Greek. Cornelia took advantage of the Greek scholars she brought to Rome, notably the philosophers Blossius (from Cumae) and Diophanes (from Mytilene), who were to educate young men. Cornelia always supported her sons Tiberius and Gaius, even when their actions outraged the conservative patrician families in which she was born. After their violent deaths, she retired from Rome to a villa in Misenum but continued to receive guests. Cornelia had many friends and was known for her hospitality. Many admired her ability to talk about her sons after their death without tearing up. Cornelia was seen as a woman of beauty and morally good mind,[1] and Rome worshipped her virtues, and when she died in 115 B.C.E. the city voted for a statue in her honor.
One of the most important aspects of the life of Cornelia is her relationship with her adult sons. Most of the information that we have on her role during this time is what Plutarch wrote in both the Life of Tiberius Gracchus and the Life of Gaius Gracchus. She is portrayed as active during their political careers, especially during Gaius’.
Plutarch writes of how Gaius removed a law that disgraced Marcus Octavius, the tribune whom Tiberius had deposed, because Cornelia asked him to remove it.[4] Plutarch states that the people all approved of this out of respect for her (due to her sons and her father). Plutarch also writes that Cornelia may have helped Gaius undermine the power of the consulLucius Opimius by hiring foreign harvesters to help provide resistance[5]
Plutarch also writes that, when one of Gaius's political opponents attacked Cornelia, Gaius retorted:
Cornelia Mother of the Gracchi by: Alessandro Varotari
"What," said he, "dost thou abuse Cornelia, who gave birth to Tiberius?"[6] And since the one who had uttered the abuse was charged with effeminate practices, "With what effrontery," said Gaius, "canst thou compare thyself with Cornelia? Hast thou borne such children as she did? And verily all Rome knows that she refrained from commerce with men longer than thou hast, though thou art a man."Cite error: The opening <ref> tag is malformed or has a bad name (see the help page).
After her death, a marble statue of Cornelia was erected; however, only the base has survived. Her statue endured during the revolutionary reign of Sulla, and she became a model for future Roman women culminating with the portrait said to be of Helena, Emperor Constantine's mother four hundred years later. Later, the base of Cornelia's statue was altered during the conservative attempts of later Roman reformers in which the base of her statue that gave reference to her famous sons was filed away and replaced with the inscription as "daughter of Africanus" rather than "mother of the Grachii."[7]
Mother of the Gracchi by Philipp Friedrich Hetsch 2017
An anecdote related by Valerius Maximus in his Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX (IV, 4, incipit)[8][9] demonstrates Cornelia's devotion to and admiration for her sons. When women friends questioned Cornelia about her mode of dress and personal adornment, which was far more simple and understated than was usual for a wealthy Roman woman of her rank and station, Cornelia indicated her two sons and said, haec ornamenta mea [sunt], i.e., "These are my jewels."[9]
A large 1893 statue by Levi Scofield on the grounds of the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus entitled These Are My Jewels, makes allusion to this story. It is surmounted by a figure of Cornelia, personifying the state of Ohio, with arms wide spread, and arrayed before her are the state's "jewels" – military and political leaders who contributed to the Union Cause during the American Civil War.
"Cornelia", a poem by Susanna Roxman, is included in her poetry collection Imagining Seals (Dionysia Press, Edinburgh 2006-7). This poem contains the lines "But I never asked for heroes. Some jewels would have been enough."
Cornelia's early life through her marriage to Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus is fictionalized in the Scipio Aricanus trilogy by the Spanish author Santiago Posteguillo.
^ abcGarnier, Robert (1594). Cornelia. London: Printed by Iames Roberts, for N[icholas] L[ing] and Iohn Busbie. p. 6.
^Plutarch, Gaius Gracchus, trans. Bernadotte Perrin (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1921), iv.2, Perseus Digital Library.
^Plutarch, Gaius Gracchus, trans. Bernadotte Perrin (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1921), xiii.1, Perseus Digital Library.
^Plutarch, Gaius Gracchus, trans. Bernadotte Perrin (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1921), xiii.1, Perseus Digital Library.
^Stockton, David. The Gracchi (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979), 20.
^Plutarch, Gaius Gracchus, trans. Bernadotte Perrin (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1921), iv.4, Perseus Digital Library.
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