Download Appius Claudius

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LEGENDARY WOMEN AFTER LUCRETIA
Last time we looked at how the rape of LUCRETIA saw the expulsion of the
Tarquins from Rome and the end of ‘monarchy’.
The attack on her also led to the death of LUCRETIA by her own hand.
We glanced too at what Lucretia’s story may have meant to those living in the
late first century BC and how her tragedy has been treated over the
centuries since the Renaissance by various artists - including Artemisia
Gentileschi (1593 – ca 1656).
Before we move on to CLOELIA and other legendary figures, let us just spend
a few seconds again on Gentileschi’s portrayal AND on her depiction of
Lucretia’s suicide itself.
Artemisia Gentileschi
(1593 - ca 1656)
[The Earliest Female Artist to
depict the Theme]
ARTEMISIA
GENTILESCHI
“LUCRETIA”
CLOELIA
1. After the expulsion of the Tarquins from Rome, an attempt was made (according to
Roman legend) by Lars Porsenna of Clusium to restore them.
[This was the occasion for the famous (surely purely legendary, as Livy admits) defence of the bridge across the Tiber by
Publius Horatius Cocles, along with Spurius Lartius and Titus Herminius (a story well ingrained in British story-telling
by Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay in his Lays of Ancient Rome)].
2. a) An agreement, we are told, was hammered out between the Roman Senate and King
Lars Porsenna by which Porsenna would lift his blockade of Rome if the Romans
delivered twenty male and female youths to him as hostages [Livy 2. 13f].
b) Among the ten women surrendered up was a certain CLOELIA (from, of course,
one of the leading families at Rome).
3. a) The hostages, once delivered across the Tiber, were being held close to the
river.
b) CLOELIA and other maidens managed to elude their guards and swim,
under Cloelia’s leadership and under a hail of weapons, back to Rome.
c) All the girls were then re-united with their families.
[Plutarch has them escape through the water on horseback]
4. King Lars Porsenna was furious and demanded the return of CLOELIA (only).
5. But he soon began to admire “her more than masculine courage” [Livy].
6. He said, however, that the treaty would be broken unless she were returned to
him, although if she were returned to him, he would in turn restore her again to
Rome.
7. Both sides “acted honourably”, Livy tells us.
8. Porsenna, to show his appreciation, allowed CLOELIA, now in his hands
again, to choose at her discretion certain of the other hostages to be released
along with her. [It isn’t clear whether all ten of the girls who were hostages had swum home].
9. “In accordance with her maiden modesty” [Livy says], she chose the boys.
10. Friendly relations were thus restored, Lars Porsenna withdrew and the Romans
paid tribute to Cloelia’s courage “unprecedented in a woman”, Livy says, by
the erection of a statue of her on horseback at Rome.
As with the intervention of “the Sabine women”, Cloelia had saved the day by
playing a bold role – showing “masculine” courage [but she was no ‘Joan of Arc’!].
Cloelia’s fine example has not been depicted by artists very often. But her swim
was the subject chosen by Guidoccio di Giovanni Cozzarelli (1450-1516)
CLOELIA swims the Tiber back to Rome (ca 1480)
Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) also depicts her (but with the inclusion of
the horses).
“Cloelia Passing
the Tiber”
(1630-40)
[The River Tiber
seems to be
depicted as a
male figure]
JOHN LEECH
(1817-1864)
“COMIC HISTORY
OF ROME”
VETURIA and VOLUMNIA
[These were the womenfolk of CORIOLANUS but two of our principal sources, Livy and
Plutarch, do not agree on which was the mother and which the wife!]
1. Over a decade after CLOELIA’s swim, traditionally at the end of the 490s BC,
during Rome’s war with the neighbouring hill-tribe of the Volsci, Gaius
Marcius Coriolanus won great renown by capturing the enemy ‘town’ of
Corioli [hence his name].
2. a) But during an ensuing shortage of grain in Rome he took an extreme position
against ‘the People’;
b) Charges were brought against him by the People’s representatives (the
newly established ‘Tribunes of the Plebs’), but he failed to appear in court.
c) And so he was exiled in absentia by the court and
d) he took refuge with the Volsci, Rome’s enemies.
3. Welcomed there, he eventually took command of a Volscian army against
Rome.
4. When Roman envoys could not dissuade him from his planned attack, “the
women of Rome [Livy 2.40] flocked to the house of Coriolanus’ mother,
VETURIA, and of his wife, VOLUMNIA”.
5. Whatever their motive, “… they succeeded in persuading the aged VETURIA
and VOLUMNIA, accompanied by Marcius’ two little sons, to go into the
enemy lines and make their plea for peace.”
6. “Men”, Livy comments, “could not defend the city with their swords; women
might better succeed with tears and entreaties.”
7. Coriolanus was not impressed by the appearance of a delegation of women,
until his mother berated him openly and shamed him. Livy writes:
8. a) “His wife and children flung their arms round him; the other women all
burst into tears of anguish for themselves and their country, until
Coriolanus could bear it no more. ……….
9. He kissed his wife and the two boys [Livy continues], sent them home to Rome, and
withdrew his army.”
[Coriolanus seemingly lived to a ripe old age, but in exile]
10. “Rome in those days”, Livy concludes, “was free from petty jealousies of
others’ successes and the men did not grudge the women their victory.”
11. “To preserve the memory of it for ever a temple of ‘Fortuna Muliebris’ [‘The
Good Fortune of Women’] was built and consecrated,” Livy concludes.
Comments on all of this will be made later, but let us look at various artists’
interpretations of this dramatic episode - especially those of
a) Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665); b) Giuseppe Bartolemo Chiari (1654-1727),
c) Richard Westall (1765-1836); d) Girolamo Brusaferro (18th century).
Nicolas
Poussin
(1594-1665
VETURIA
(or VOLUMNIA)
appeals to
her son
CORIOLANUS
Giuseppe
Bartolomeo
Chiari
(1654 – 1727)
Veturia and Volumnia
appeal to Coriolanus
Gaspare Landi
(1756 – 1830)
Veturia appeals to Coriolanus
while Volumnia kneels in
the background
(or vice versa)
“THE APPEAL TO
CORIOLANUS”
Girolamo Brusaferro
(18th century)
Richard Westall
(1765-1836)
Veturia or Volumnia pleads
with Coriolanus
(1800)
VERGINIA
1. a) The Romans believed that, in 450 BC, a decision was made that “the law”
should be published.
[Remember that all of these stories belong to what was principally a “pre-historical” period in Rome’s past]
b) A “Commission of Ten” was appointed and drew up “Ten Tables” (of laws).
c) It then stepped down. [Historically “the Law” was published]
2. The following year a second “Commission of Ten” worked to draw up two more
“Tables”, but refused to step down after the work was done.
3. One of the members of the second “Commission” was a certain Appius Claudius,
known for his ruthless and uncompromising stand politically.
4. He developed a lust for a certain VERGINIA, the daughter of a centurion named
Lucius Verginius, a man, like his wife and children, of high principle [Livy reports].
5. In Livy’s account [3.43 ff], although Verginia was betrothed, ………………
• Appius Claudius, having failed to seduce her, ordered a dependant (a “client”) of his to
claim her as his slave and to resist all attempts to show that she was a free citizen.
• The dependant duly seized the frightened girl but, when her nurse screamed out, a
crowd gathered but it was persuaded by Appius Claudius that the only intent was to
force her to appear before the court so that her true status could be clarified.
• a) The hearing was conducted by Appius Claudius himself (!); the dependant
gave his ‘evidence’ and Appius Claudius gave his ruling:
• b) “since the girl’s father was absent on military service, Verginia was to remain
in the custody of the dependant until the father could come to give additional
evidence”.
• Verginia’s uncle and her fiancé, Lucius Icilius (a populist leader), then appeared
on the scene and Icilius said he would not allow his betrothed to stay a single
night away from her father’s house.
• Threats followed, but Verginia was released to the care of her father’s kin (after
sureties were given) until her father could return to Rome.
• But Appius Claudius (as leader of the interim government) sent orders to the
army that Verginia’s father was to be refused leave from his military duties.
• Her father, however, left for Rome before the orders denying him leave reached
his military superiors.
• Verginius [the father], holding his daughter’s hand and accompanied by Icilius [the
fiancé], appeared in the forum the next day in mourning dress and asked those who
had gathered to give them their support.
• Despite his arguments, it was, Livy says, “the silent weeping of the women
present that was more moving than any words.”
• a) Despite what he has read, Livy goes on to say, he himself cannot believe the
accounts of what happened next:
b) “before all arguments had been heard, Appius Claudius, from the tribunal,
announced his finding that VERGINIA was a slave and should be handed
over to his dependant”.
• When Appius Claudius moved down to see that his ruling was enforced and
threatened the crowds with military action if they did not yield, ………..
• Verginius, the father, asked for extra time (which was granted) to establish that
he was Verginia’s father and that she was a freeborn citizen.
• He then took VERGINIA and her nurse aside to the nearby market.
• There he snatched a butcher’s knife and cried:
“There is only one way, my child, to make you free.”
• Then, addressing Appius Claudius, he cried:
“May the curse of this blood rest upon your head forever, Claudius” and stabbed
his daughter to death.
• In the ensuing and complicated aftermath, Appius Claudius lost his authority, the rule
of the second “Commission” came to an end and the normal governmental constitution
was restored.
Once again this tragic story has been a subject for later artists, some modern sketchers
and, in terms of artists, specifically Charles Moreau (1830-1891).
Verginia’s father
kills her while
accusing
Appius Claudius
(in a modern
sketch)
Charles
Moreau
(1830-1891)
Verginia’s
father stabs her
while
exchanging
angry words
with Appius
Claudius
AFTER THE MID-400s BC
• While there was one incident when Roman women are found (in the historical accounts) acting
collectively and voluntarily after about 450 BC [see below], no named woman plays a role again until
204 BC 250 years later.
• The event around the story is soundly historical …………………
• QUINTA CLAUDIA went into action when the statue of “the Great Mother” (Cybele), imported
from Asia Minor, came up the Tiber on a barge and went aground on a sandbank - a scene
depicted by Lambert Lombard (ca 1505-1566) [see below].
First, though, ……
the Earlier Incident of Voluntary Collective Action
• When the Gauls occupied the city of Rome in 390 BC, they agreed to leave upon payment of a
large sum in gold.
• But there was not enough gold in the state’s coffers.
• Thereupon, the women of Rome came forward and contributed their personal gold possessions to
the common cause – and the Gauls left.