Pomponia Graecina

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Pomponia Graecina was a noble Roman woman of the first century. She is notable as the wife of Roman general Aulus Plautius (governor of Roman Britain from 43 to 47), and was renowned in his lifetime as one of the few people who dared to publicly mourn the death of a kinswoman killed by the Imperial family. She is also believed to be Lucina, or Lucy, honored as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. This Lucy was an illustrious and pious woman who assisted in the preaching of Christianity of Rome, and was one of the first nobles in Rome to become a Christian.

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[edit] Family Background

Pomponia Graecina was a daughter of suffect consul Gaius Pomponius Graecinus and Asinia Pollionis filia.[citation needed]. Her father's ancestry and background is not known, but through her mother, she was related to the Imperial Family.

Her mother Asinia Pollionis filia was apparently the daughter of Gaius Asinius Pollio, eldest son of Gaius Asinius Gallus, the Roman consul in 8 BC by his wife Vipsania. Vipsania was the eldest daughter of the Roman general and politician Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and the former wife of Tiberius Caesar (by whom she had a son Drusus the Younger). Vipsania's younger half-sister was Agrippina the Elder, wife of the Roman prince Germanicus and the mother of the Roman emperor Caligula and his sister Agrippina the Younger (wife lastly of her own uncle Claudius and mother of Nero). This made Pomponia's maternal grandfather Gaius Asinius Pollio a first half-cousin of Caligula and his sister Agrippina the Younger, and her mother Asinia a second half-cousin of the emperor Nero.

Pomponia Graecinia was also a descendant of Titus Pomponius Atticus, a wealthy Roman knight, friend of Cicero, and patron of letters[citation needed]. Atticus's only child Caecilia Attica had been Agrippa's first wife and mother of Vipsania. Another ancestor was the Roman Historian and senator Gaius Asinius Pollio, consul in 40 BC[citation needed]. (1) - See Note Point.

The relationship is set out as follows:

Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (henceforth called Agrippa) m1 Caecilia Attica, daughter of Titus Pomponius Atticus, and had one daughter

  1. 1. Vipsania m1 (div) Tiberius; they had one son
  2. 1.1. Drusus the Younger who md Livilla (daughter of Germanicus, thus his cousin), and had issue including
  3. 1.1.1. Julia Drusilla

Vipsania m2 Gaius Asinius Galllus

  1. 1.2. Gaius Asinius Pollio
  2. 1.2.1. Asinia Pollionis filia
  3. 1.2.1.1. Pomponia Graecina

Agrippa m3 Julia Caesaris, only legitimate child of Augustus, by whom he had several children:

  1. 2. Agrippina the Elder
  2. 2.1. Caligula
  3. 2.2. Agrippina the Younger
  4. 2.2.1. Nero

[edit] Marriage

Pomponia married Aulus Plautius (d by 65 BC), a Roman General who in 43, led the Roman invasion of Britain and received later a military ovation. He was governor of Roman Britain from 43 BC to 47 BC. They had a son, a younger Aulus Plautius, who was possibly the same Aulius Plautius later killed by Nero.

In 43, her distant relative Julia (daughter of Drusus the Younger and granddaughter of Tiberius and Vipsania) was executed on the orders of her maternal uncle the Emperor Claudius, thanks to the treacheries of Empress Messalina.[citation needed] Pomponia spent the next forty years in open mourning in defiance of successive Emperors. She escaped punishment for this, possibly as a result of her own illustrious ancestry and her husband's sterling military reputation, which gave her prestige. According to Tacitus, Pomponia lived a long, unhappy life, possibly as a result of her son's murder and the deaths of several relatives associated with the Imperial family.

According to Suetonius, Nero murdered the younger Plautius, because Nero’s mother Agrippina the Younger fell in love with the younger Plautius and encouraged him to bid for the throne.


[edit] Pomponia and Christianity

In 57 Pomponia was charged with practicing a "foreign superstition", usually understood to mean conversion to Christianity. According to ancient Roman tradition, she was tried by her husband before her kinsmen, and acquitted. However, inscriptions in the catacombs of Saint Callistus in Rome suggest that members of Graecina’s family were indeed Christians.

The archaeologist Battista de Rossi identifies Pomponia Graecina as Saint Lucina, the purported donor of the part of the catacombs where the inscriptions were found, and suggests that Lucina was Pomponia's baptismal name. Saint Lucina is honored by the Roman Catholic Church on the 30th of June. The Greek Orthodox Church does not honour her as a saint, but acknowledges Lucina, or Lucy, as an illustrious and pious woman who assisted in the preaching of Christianity of Rome and was one of the first nobles in Rome to become a Christian. She is associated with the martyrs Processus and Martinian, two guards at the Mamertine Prison who were converted by their prisoner, Saint Peter: she is said to have visited them in prison and buried their bodies after their execution. Saints Processus and Martinian are honored in the Greek Orthodox Church on 11 April and Roman Catholic Church on 2 July.

[edit] Note

(1) - Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome, Part 2: Claudius & Nero, Chapter 11 - Fall of Agrippina AD 57- 58. The historian Tacitus mentions that Pomponia Graecina is a relative to Julia. Julia is mentioned, when Tacitus mentions about the trial of Pomponia Graecina who was charged with foreign superstition, tried and acquitted. Julia is also mentioned when Tacitus mentions Graecina's public mourning of her relative Julia.

From the 1996 addition, (which was revised by Michael Grant) mentions, their only link is through Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa from his first marriage to Caecilia Attica. Their daughter was Vipsania Agrippina. Vipsania was the paternal grandmother to Julia and to Graecina’s mother Asinia Pollionis Filia. The fathers of Asinia and Julia were half-brothers and were sons to Vipsania. The father of Julia was Drusus the Younger (Vipsania’s son from her first marriage to future Emperor Tiberius) and Asinia’s father was Gaius Asinius Pollio (Vipsania’s first son from her second marriage to Roman Senator Gaius Asinius Gallus).

[edit] Sources

[edit] External links

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