Terenzia, una matrona in domo et in re publica agens

Abstract

Terentia, the wife of Cicero, is one of several women dramatically involved in their husbands’ political affairs during the years of civil wars. Many of Cicero letters, addressed both to her both to Atticus, give us a vivid picture of a matrona who, left alone in Rome with two sons, among many difficulties of all kinds, must with courage and fortitude, agere in domo to handle all the problems of everyday life, exacerbated by a lot of financial difficulties and also by the not easy relations with the son in law Quintus or the engagement of their daughter Tullia with Dolabella, but must also agere in re publica to urge political and economic support for her husband and to solve intricate property questions, as the fictional liberation of slaves or the restitution of the land on which stood her house.