Antonia Caenis, (died 75 AD) a former slave and secretary of Antonia Minor (mother of the emperor Claudius), was Roman emperor Vespasian's contubernalis.[1][2][3][4]
Life
editIt could be thought that she had family in Istria, now in Croatia, based on a trip she took there (Suet. Dom. 12.3). In her 30s Caenis, still possibly a slave, was in an unofficial type of relationship with Vespasian, known as contubernium,[5] before his marriage. According to Suetonius, after the death of Vespasian's wife Flavia Domitilla, Vespasian and Caenis, now a freedwoman, resumed their relationship; she was his wife "in all but name" until her death in AD 75.
She had a remarkable memory and considerable influence on the emperor's administration, carried out official business on his behalf, and apparently made a lot of money from her position.[6] However, she was treated with disrespect by Vespasian's son Domitian, who refused to greet her as one of the family.[7]
Popular culture
edit
The life of Caenis and her love-story with Vespasian are portrayed in Lindsey Davis's novel The Course of Honour. She is also a character who features regularly in Robert Fabbri's Vespasian series, in which she is depicted as a long-lost grand-niece of the king of the Caenii, a rebelling tribe in Thracia.
Robert Graves, in his short story "Caenis on Incest", used her as a kind of foil to present what he then thought to have been the underlying reason for the power-related murders chronicled in I, Claudius. The story is included in his compendium "Occupation: Writer", and he admits to having missed the real reason for the murders in the introduction to that anthology. [9]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Companion: Caenis". feminaeromanae.org. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
- ^ Anagnostou-Laoutides, Eva; Charles, M.B. (2012). "Vespasian, Caenis and Suetonius". In Deroux, C. (ed.). Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History XVI. Brussels: Editions Latomus. pp. 530–547.
- ^ Acton, Karen (2010-05-12). "Antonia Caenis and the Flavian Dynasty". SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.1605506.
- ^ Lefkowitz, Mary R.; Fant, Maureen B. (2005-08-23). Women's Life in Greece and Rome: A Source Book in Translation. JHU Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-8310-1.
- ^ "LacusCurtius • Roman Law — Contubernium (Smith's Dictionary, 1875)".
- ^ (Cassius Dio 66.14)
- ^ (Suet. Dom. 12.3)
- ^ CIL 6.12037
- ^ "Caenis on Incest A.D. 75 (1946)" from "Occupation: Writer" Universal Library, Grosset and Dunlap, 1950
Sources
edit- Suetonius, Lives of the Twelve Caesars: Vespasian 3, 21; Domitian 12.3
- Dio Cassius, Roman History 66.14
- William Smith (1870), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology