Nuove prospettive per l’azione matronale: l’esempio di Cerellia corrispondente di Cicerone

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the cultural level and the possibility of economic and social action reached by the matrons belonging to the élite at the end of the Republic. So, I focused on the study of a specific case, the life of Cerellia, whose name is known thanks to seven Cicero’s letters, written between 46 and 44 BC (from ad Fam. XIII 72 to ad Att. XV 26), and thanks to the limited information available in the literary sources. Unfortunately, had gone almost completely lost the famous Epistulae ad Caerelliam, the only letters written by Cicero to a matron – except those sent to his first wife Ter- XII - entia and his daughter Tullia – which had been published. Anyway, according to the analysis of available data it will be possible to delineate the socio-economic context of Cerellia and to infer some general characteristics of the life of contemporary women. First of all, she owned a remarkable fortune – as many matrons of Late Republic – and administered it without a tutor, thus entering in contact with prominent figures, such as Cicero himself and his friend T. Pomponius Atticus. Secondly, she had a fine and wider culture, with interest even in philosophical debates, a prerogative not commonly attested for Roman women. Although we haven’t direct information about her family, Cicero’s letters allows us to suppose a kinship between Cerellia and Publilia, the second wife of the great orator. Further epigraphic investigations had allowed to reconstruct a possible family tree for the correspondent of Cicero, as a member of the first family of the gens Caerellia who was able to enter into Senat (CIL, VI 1364). Finally, this analysis will allow us to consider Cerellia as a typical member of the senatorial-equestrian élite and to elect her personal story as the normal condition of contemporary matrons.