Volusia Cornelia,[1] also known as Cornelia Volusia[2] was a Roman woman of Patrician status who lived in the late 1st century. She was the daughter of the senator Quintus Volusius Saturninus, suffect consul in 92.[3] She was born and raised in Rome. Her cognomen Cornelia, she inherited from paternal great-grandmother Cornelia Lentula, the daughter of the consul of 3 BC, Lucius Cornelius Lentulus[4] from the gens Cornelia.
Volusia is known through various surviving inscriptions. The evidence reveals she was a wealthy, distinguished woman[5] of the Senatorial class.[6] She owned a private luxurious villa in Nemi, the previous possession of the Roman emperor Caligula.[1] In an area of the villa, Volusia restored a theatre.[1] The theatre was used to entertained guests that happened to be at the villa, such as family members, friends sharing a vacation, neighboring villa-owners and notables invited to dinner.[7] After the theatre was restored, her deed was recorded in a monumental inscription.[1] which has decorative handles.[8] One branch of the Volusii family had a praedium in the area of Nemi and a fistulae bearing the name of Volusia was also found.[1]
The inscription which is dated from the mid-1st century[8] reads in Latin which is translated in English:
volvsia q. f. cornelia theatrvm
vetvstate corrvptvm restitvit et excolivit
Volusia Cornelia, daughter of Quintus, restored and decorated the theatre damaged by age.[9]
The plaque is on display at the National Museum of Rome. She was also a donor at the Sanctuary of Diana at Nemi.[8]
The below funeral inscription is dedicated to commemorate the hairdresser of Volusia. The Latin inscription which is found in Rome reads in English:
To the Departed Spirits.
Elate, hairdresser of Cornelia Volusia
lived twenty years. Hellanicus (made this)
for a well-deserving wife. (Rome)[10]