Antonia Caenis, (died 74 AD) a former slave and secretary of Antonia Minor (mother of the emperor Claudius), was Roman emperor Vespasian's contubernalis.[1][2][3][4]

Life

It could be thought that she had family in Istria, now in Croatia, based on a trip she took there (Suet. Dom. 12.3). In her 30s Caenis, still possibly a slave, was in an unofficial type of relationship with Vespasian, known as contubernium,[5] before his marriage. According to Suetonius, after the death of Vespasian's wife Flavia Domitilla, Vespasian and Caenis, now a freedwoman, resumed their relationship; she was his wife "in all but name" until her death in AD 74.

She had a remarkable memory and considerable influence on the emperor's administration, carried out official business on his behalf, and apparently made a lot of money from her position.[6] However, she was treated with disrespect by Vespasian's son Domitian, who refused to greet her as one of the family.[7]

Inscription commemorating Caenis, described by the historian Suetonius as the "almost wife" of Vespasian[8]

The life of Caenis and her love-story with Vespasian is portrayed in Lindsey Davis' novel The Course of Honour. She is also a character who features regularly in Robert Fabbri's Vespasian series, where she is depicted as being the long lost grand-niece of the king of the Caenii, a rebelling tribe in Thracia. Robert Graves, in his short story "Caenis on Incest," used her as a kind of foil to present what he thought to be the underlying reason for the power-related murders chronicled in I Claudius. The story is included in his compendium "Occupation: Writer," and he admits having missed the real reason for the murders in the introduction to that anthology. [9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Companion: Caenis". feminaeromanae.org. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  2. ↑ Anagnostou-Laoutides, Eva; Charles, M.B. (2012). "Vespasian, Caenis and Suetonius". In Deroux, C. (ed.). Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History XVI. Brussels: Editions Latomus. pp. 530–547.
  3. ↑ Acton, Karen (2010-05-12). "Antonia Caenis and the Flavian Dynasty". SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.1605506.
  4. ↑ Lefkowitz, Mary R.; Fant, Maureen B. (2005-08-23). Women's Life in Greece and Rome: A Source Book in Translation. JHU Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-8310-1.
  5. ↑ "LacusCurtius • Roman Law — Contubernium (Smith's Dictionary, 1875)".
  6. ↑ (Cassius Dio 66.14)
  7. ↑ (Suet. Dom. 12.3)
  8. ↑ CIL 6.12037
  9. ↑ "Caenis on Incest A.D. 75 (1946)" from "Occupation: Writer" Universal Library, Grosset and Dunlap, 1950

Sources

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.