Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi

Examining the remarkable life of Cornelia, famed as the epitome of virtue, fidelity and intelligence, Suzanne Dixon presents an in-depth study of the woman who perhaps represented the ideal of the Roman matrona more than any other.

Studying her life during a period of political turmoil, Dixon examines Cornelia's attributes: daughter of Scipio Africanus, wife of an aristocrat, and mother of the Gracchi; and how these enabled her to move in high echelons of society.

For students and scholars of classical studies and Roman history, this book will give students a glimpse into the life of Cornelia, and of the influence she had on the period.

1. Fact and Fable: sorting out the sources. Reconstructing a woman's life. What's left? Tradition and transmission. Why Cornelia?. Sempronia, guardian of the family legend? 2. People, Politics, Propaganda. Politics and pedigrees, 154-122 BCE. How political was Cornelia?. Cornelia, Sempronia and post-Gracchan propaganda, 122-100 BCE 40. 3. Culture Wars. Youth going to pot. Hellenomania: rhetoric, philosophy and literature. Villa life: luxus and otium. 4. The Icon. Mater piissima: "My children are my je". 5. Afterlife. Cornelia's Christian Afterlife. Cornelia as continuing patron and subject of the arts. Cyber-Cornelia: trawling the net.