List of Roman women

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The list below includes Roman women who were notable for their family connections, or their sons or husbands, or their own actions. In the earlier periods, women came to the attention of (later) historians either as poisoners of their husbands (a very few cases), or as wives, daughters, and mothers of great men such as Scipio Africanus. In later periods, women exercised or tried to exercise political power either through their husbands (as did Fulvia and Livia Drusilla) or political intrigues (as did Clodia and Servilia Caepionis), or directly (as did Agrippina the younger and later Roman empresses).

Distinguished women of the Middle Republic

  • Aemilia Tertia (3rd century BC-2nd century BC), wife of Scipio Africanus Major and mother of Cornelia Africana (see below), noted for the unusual freedom given her by her husband, her enjoyment of luxuries, and her influence as role model for elite Roman women after the Second Punic War. Her date of birth, marriage, and death are all unknown. Her husband's birth and death dates are also not known precisely, but approximated.
  • Cornelia Africana (2nd century BC), virtually deified by Roman women as a model of feminine virtues and Stoicism, but never officially deified. The first Roman woman, whose approximate birth year and whose year of death is known, thanks to a law she had passed to allow her granddaughter to inherit.
  • Licinania, the name of the women of the gens Licinius. Notable members include
    • Licinia, a woman killed by her relatives in 142 BC for murdering her husband;
  • Murcia, the name of the women of the gens Murcius.
    • Licia, a woman killed by her relatives in 142 BC for murdering her husband. Both Licinania and Murcia appealed for a trial, and before they could come to trial, they were tried by their relatives and executed. This was a major scandal in the censorship of Lucius Mummius Achaius and Scipio Aemilianus.
  • Pomponia (mother of Scipio) (2nd century BC), daughter, niece, wife, and mother of consuls; born a plebeian noblewoman but married to a patrician. Mother of Scipio Africanus Major and Scipio Asiaticus. She was reportedly very religious and devout, but nothing else is known of her including the year of her marriage or death.
  • Publilia (1st century BC), the name of a woman of the gens Publilius. She was killed in 154 BC for poisoning her husband, the consul of the preceding year.

Distinguished women of the Julio-Claudian House

Distinguished women of the Western Roman Empire


See also