Cornelia: Mother of the Gracchi and Imperial Roman Exemplum
Session Number
Project ID: IND ST 03
Advisor(s)
Dr. Nicholas Cross; Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Discipline
Independent Study
Start Date
19-4-2023 10:35 AM
End Date
19-4-2023 10:50 AM
Abstract
How did Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, a relative of some of the most controversial figures in Roman history, and a woman actively engaged in the political and cultural struggles of her day, become a universal icon of motherhood and morality in the Roman Empire? She was honored by the Roman people with the only publicly voted statue of a woman of the Republic, and letters allegedly written by her were widely circulated and read long after her death. During and after the Augustan Era, she was renowned as a model of cautious advice, motherly teaching, and of moral and family values in line with the morality laws propagated by the first emperor, Augustus. Cornelia was appropriated by so many politicians not only because she was useful as a beloved figure to project their own ideals of behavior and opinion onto, but also because she had a unique place at the beginning of major cultural and political shifts in Roman history, and became a part of the fabric of Roman society.
Cornelia: Mother of the Gracchi and Imperial Roman Exemplum
How did Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, a relative of some of the most controversial figures in Roman history, and a woman actively engaged in the political and cultural struggles of her day, become a universal icon of motherhood and morality in the Roman Empire? She was honored by the Roman people with the only publicly voted statue of a woman of the Republic, and letters allegedly written by her were widely circulated and read long after her death. During and after the Augustan Era, she was renowned as a model of cautious advice, motherly teaching, and of moral and family values in line with the morality laws propagated by the first emperor, Augustus. Cornelia was appropriated by so many politicians not only because she was useful as a beloved figure to project their own ideals of behavior and opinion onto, but also because she had a unique place at the beginning of major cultural and political shifts in Roman history, and became a part of the fabric of Roman society.