Sulpicia, a Roman poetess

To situate ourselves regarding the figure of Sulpicia, it is necessary to have some awareness of the social status of Roman women. Authors like Virgil or Ovid praised heroines and muses, but in reality, it has been epitaphs on tombstones that have reached us today which have brought us closer to a more realistic recreation of women in Rome, and at the same time, they served as inspiration for classical writers. Through these epitaphs, an indisputable model of motherhood is highlighted, her conjugal fidelity, modesty, and obedience. It is thus, just as from the archaic period (753-130 BC), women's position revolved around the bona domestica (Balsdon, 1974, pp. 105-108).

During imperial society (27 BC - AD 14), women would have to coexist with novelties that were gradually introduced as the years went by. The era of Augustus marked a different stance towards female population, and began to value in women the cultivation of spirit and artistic skills. This period denoted certain possibilities for advancement and, in more isolated cases, having influence on public life although they continued to live with values imposed centuries ago (Holgado Redondo, 1976, pp. 228-250).

However, most of them did not have the means to make themselves visible, and probably an ordinary woman would never even consider writing. It is important to take these deductions into account when researching Sulpicia as a focal point for reflection on women in Latin literature.

Firstly, it must be clarified that she should not be confused with a later Sulpicia who gained fame with two poems: one against Domitian and another about conjugal love. Of the article's subject, Sulpicia lived in the time of Augustus, she was the daughter of Servius Sulpicius Rufus and Valeria, sister of Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, in her youth a companion of Cicero and protector of Tibullus.

Therefore, Sulpicia belonged to an upper social class: she had the possibility of surrounding herself with the most select circles and intellectuals who formed salons around her uncle Messalla.

The Circle of Messalla was a Roman literary salon from the Augustan period, formed by a select group of elegiac poets such as Tibullus, Lygdamus or Cornelius Severus. Thus, her niece Sulpicia was also an active participant.

Latin elegy during the Augustan era did not aim to be one of the most popular genres but rather one of the most selective, only for elites, admired by a few connoisseurs. The Latin elegy takes from Greek its tone of sorrow and lamentation and, formally, its meter: the elegiac couplet. Despite this, the originality of Roman elegy is beyond doubt with a marked expression of the personal and intensity of feeling (Ruiz de Elvira, 1999, p. 93).

Most poems attributed to this circle are collected in a volume generally associated with Tibullus, known as the Corpus Tibullianum, divided into three parts: the first part is composed of ten elegies dedicated to a married woman called Plania/Delia; the second book consists of six poems praising Nemesis; finally, the third book comprises poems by both Tibullus and other authors from Messalla's Circle, as well as those written by Sulpicia. Therefore, Sulpicia’s poems did not arrive under her name but were inserted within the corpus of works attributed to Tibullus, and thus several theories cast doubt on their true existence as an author such as Alvar Ezquerra and Skoie (González Lázaro, 2016, p. 6).

In this article, the order in which they were collected and composed within the Corpus Tibullianum is followed (Cantarella, 1997, p. 184). All verses of Sulpicia are translated from Spanish by Aurora López in No sólo hilaron lana (1994):

At last love came to me, and it's such that hiding it out of shame
before revealing it to someone else would earn me a worse reputation.
Cytherea, won over by the entreaties of my Muses,
brought it to me and placed it in my lap.
Venus fulfilled her promises: that whoever says I didn't have them
will recount my joys.
I wouldn't want to entrust anything to sealed tablets,
so no one reads it before my love does,
but I enjoy acting against the norm, pretending for what others think
annoys me: we were worthy of each other; let them say that.

Sulpicia's love is total and absolute (elegy XIII). The girl has a lover of lower rank and wishes to spend more time with him, as all lovers do. It is known in Rome, especially among the upper classes, that marriages were arranged by families based on economic and political reasons.

In the fourteenth elegy her uncle Messalla wants to take her outside of Rome for his birthday:

Abhorrent comes my birthday, which in the tedious countryside

I'll have to spend sadly and without Cerinus.

Is there anything more pleasant than the city? Is it appropriate for a girl

a country house by the cold stream of Arezzo?

Rest at last, Messala, overly concerned about me;

sometimes, kinsman, journeys are not opportune.

You take me there but here I leave soul and senses

by my own decision, though you forbid it.

In the next poem (XV) Sulpicia finally enjoys greater freedom, as it seems Messala has stopped worrying so much about her reputation and she is happy, although aware that gossip continues to circulate:

Do you know that the unwanted journey no longer worries your girl?
I can be in Rome for your birthday.
Let's celebrate together your great anniversary day
that comes by chance, when not expected.
You permit yourself to relax now, Messala,
sometimes journeys are not opportune.
I leave soul and senses here
by my own decision, though you forbid it.

In the following poem (XVI) Sulpicia highlights these last verses where she refers to Cerinus as "a nobody," emphasizing that he is not a man of her social class and therefore unsuitable for her, but this does not seem to matter to Sulpicia. At times she shows her sufferings for other reasons, referring to love as an illness and questioning the love of Cerinus (XVII):

Do you have a devoted concern for your girl,
Cerinus, because now fever torments my tired body?
Ah! I would not wish to be free of this painful illness
If I did not believe that you also want it.
But what good is being free from the illness if you
can endure my ailments with an indifferent heart?

Other times, however, Sulpicia is without doubt about her love for him and feels ashamed of her foolishness. However, these last two poems introduce the theme of illness, very common in Roman elegy:

Let me not be for you, my light, such an ardent longing
as I seemed to be a few days ago;
If any fault I committed in my youthful excess,
of which I confess I am more sorry,
is having left you alone last night
wishing to hide my ardent passion.

Definitely, there is a repertoire of contradictions in the concealment of Sulpicia's feelings. One must not overlook the tone of the poetess, the challenge she directed at society of the time, her will and the assertion of her autonomy. After these poems one can glimpse that Sulpicia was an emancipated woman who decided to live her life according to the new model and possessed a great deal of courage to express herself as she did without forgetting her social status. Furthermore, it must be remembered that she had her uncle, who wielded considerable influence and silenced voices about this infatuation recounted by the young poetess.

The silhouette of Sulpicia has provoked endless speculations about her life: the existence of the author, the romance with Cerinus, the connection to Messalla's circle and other issues that make this Roman woman’s mystery even more intriguing. Surely there were many other Roman women writers whose legacy never survived, however, Sulpicia's advantageous position and literary talents could transcend time (Veyne 1991, pp. 24-25), although it might be said in the shadows due to little appreciation received and her short production. Nonetheless, Sulpicia’s work represents the only surviving example of a female Latin writer that helps gauge women's perspective during Rome's imperial period, making her name an enigmatic fascination.

Bibliography

Baldson, J. P. V. D. (1974). The Romans. Editorial Gredos.

Cantarella, E. (1997). Close to the Past: Roman Women from Tacitus to Sulpicia. Editorial Cátedra.

González Lázaro, B. (2016). Sulpicia: The Female Voice of Roman Poetry. University of Salamanca. https://gredos.usal.es/handle/10366/132591 

Holgado Redondo, A. (1976). Latin Language and Roman Civilization. Editorial Santillana.

López, A. (1994). Not Only Spinning Wool. Editorial Clásicas.

Millares Maldonado, J. C. (1990). The language of Sulpicia: Corpus Tibullianum. Habis Review, 21, 101-120. https://institucional.us.es/revistas/habis/21/10%20miralles%20maldonado.pdf 

Ruiz de Elvira, A. (1999). Silva of Classical and Humanistic Themes. Servicios de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Murcia. Veyne, P. (1991). Roman Erotic Elegy: Love, Poetry, and the West. Editorial Fondo de Cultura Económica.