Sulpicia Praetextata Explained

Sulpicia Praetextata was an ancient Roman noblewoman who lived in the Roman Empire in the 1st century.

Family background

Praetextata was a member of the gens Sulpicia. She was the daughter of Quintus Sulpicius Camerinus Peticus,^[1] suffect consul in 46^[2] and a mother whose name is not known. Her brother was Quintus Sulpicius Camerinus Pythicus,^[3] who was of consular standing.^[4]

Marriage, issue and life

Praetextata married Marcus Licinius Crassus Frugi who served as a consul in 64.^[5] He was one of the four sons born to the Roman Politician Marcus Licinius Crassus Frugi and Scribonia.^[6]

Praetextata bore Frugi the following children:

• Daughter, Licinia Praetextata who served as Chief Vestal Virgin.^[7]
• Son, Lucius Scribonius Libo Rupilius Frugi Bonus who served as a suffect consul in 88. Frugi Bonus married the daughter of emperor Vitellius, Vitellia,^{[8] [9]} by whom he had a daughter called Rupilia Faustina who became the paternal grandmother of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius.^{[10] [11]}
• Son, Marcus Licinius Scribonianus Camerinus.^[7]
• Son, Gaius Calpurnius Piso Crassus Frugi Licinianus, who served as a consul in 87.^[12] Calpurnius Piso and his wife Agedia Quintina conspired against the Roman emperor Nerva, who banished them to Taranto. Piso tried to escape and was banished by the emperor Trajan to a solitary island. He died in the course of a second escape attempt. Calpurnius Piso was placed in the tomb of Licinii Calpurnii.

Frugi was executed by the Roman emperor Nero between 66 and 68, because of information brought against him by Marcus Aquilius Regulus.^[13] In 70, early in the reign of emperor Vespasian, Praetextata brought her children to a Roman Senate meeting, seeking vengeance for her husband's death.^[13] Regulus and his associated political circle were prosecuted by the Senate.^[14] After this episode no more is known of Praetextata.

Sources

• Tacitus, Histories
• Romeins Imperium – Marcus Licinius Crassus Frugi translated from Dutch to English
• article of Matidia the Elder at Livius.org
• S.H. Rutledge, Imperial Inquisitions: Prosecutors and Informants from Tiberius to Domitian (Google eBook), Routledge, 2002
• V. Rudich, Political Dissidence Under Nero: The Price of Dissimulation, Routledge, 2013
• J. Shelton, The Women of Pliny's Letters, Routledge, 2013

Notes and References

1. [Tacitus]
2. Alison E. Cooley, The Cambridge Manual of Latin Epigraphy (Cambridge: University Press, 2012), p. 461
3. Rutledge, Imperial Inquisitions: Prosecutors and Informants from Tiberius to Domitian
4. Rutledge, Imperial Inquisitions: Prosecutors and Informants from Tiberius to Domitian, p. 172
5. [Ronald Syme]
6. Syme, Augustan Aristocracy, pp. 279f
7. http://translate.google.com.au/translate?hl=en&sl=nl&u=http://www.romeinsimperium.nl/Rom_LiciniiCrassiFrugi.htm&prev=/search%3Fq%3DMarcus%2BLicinius%2BScribonianus%2BCamerinus%26start%3D10%26sa%3DN%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1920%26bih%3D778 Romeins Imperium – Marcus Licinius Crassus Frugi translated from Dutch to English
8. http://www.strachan.dk/family/rupilius.htm Rupilius
9. Book: Settipani, Christian . Continuité gentilice et continuité familiale dans les familles sénatoriales romaines à l'époque impériale: mythe et réalité . Unit for Prosopographical Research, Linacre College, University of Oxford . 2000 . 9781900934022 . 278 . It . illustrated . Prosopographica et genealogica . 2.
10. [Augustan History]
11. "Libo Frugi's wife is unknown, but J. Carcopino, REA 51 (1949) 262 ff. argued that she was Matidia. This was supported by H. G. Pflaum, HAC 1963 (1964) 106 f. However, Schumacher, Priesterkollegien 195 points out that Libo Frugi's daughter Rupilia Faustina can hardly have been old enough, in that case, to be the mother of Marcus' father. The only way out would be to suppose that Matidia married Libo before her other two husbands; and was divorced from him (as he was still alive in 101). The theory becomes increasingly implausible." Anthony Richard Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 244
12. Rudich, Political Dissidence Under Nero: The Price of Dissimulation
13. Shelton, The Women of Pliny's Letters, p. 153
14. Rutledge, Imperial Inquisitions: Prosecutors and Informants from Tiberius to Domitian, p. 119