Faltonia Betitia Proba (c. AD 306/315 – c. 353/366) was a Latin Roman Christian poet, perhaps the earliest female Christian poet whose work survives. A member of one of the most influential aristocratic families, she composed the Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi, a cento composed with verses by Virgil re-ordered to form an epic poem centred on the life of Jesus.
Life
editProba belonged to an influential family of the 4th century, the Petronii Probi. Her father was Petronius Probianus, Roman consul in 322, while her mother was probably called Demetria.[1] She had a brother, Petronius Probinus, appointed consul in 341;[2] also her grandfather, Pompeius Probus, had been a consul, in 310.[3] Proba married Clodius Celsinus Adelphus,[4] praefectus urbi of Rome in 351, thus creating a bond with the powerful gens Anicia. They had at least two sons, Quintus Clodius Hermogenianus Olybrius and Faltonius Probus Alypius, who became high imperial officers. She also had a granddaughter Anicia Faltonia Proba, daughter of Olybrius and Turrania Anicia Juliana.
Her family was pagan, but Proba converted to Christianity when she was an adult, influencing her husband and her sons, who converted after her. Proba died before Celsinus. She was probably buried with her husband in the Basilica di Sant'Anastasia al Palatino in Rome, where, until the 16th century, there was their funerary inscription,[5] later moved to Villa Borghese before disappearing. The bond between Proba and this church might be related to Saint Anastasia, who probably belonged to the gens Anicia: Proba and Celsinus could have received the honour of being buried ad sanctos (next to the tomb of a saint), because of the particular veneration of the Anicii for this saint.[6]
With her husband she owned the Horti Aciliorum at Rome, on the Pincian Hill.[7]
Works
editTwo poems are attributed to "Proba", and only one is extant. Most modern scholars identify Faltonia Betitia Proba as the author of these works, with the other possible identification being her niece Anicia Faltonia Proba.[8]
Constantini bellum adversus Magnentium
editThe first poem, now lost, is called Constantini bellum adversus Magnentium (The War of Constantine against Magnentius) by the Codex Mutinensis. It dealt with the war between Roman Emperor Constantius II and the usurper Magnentius. Proba was involved to this war through her husband Clodius Celsinus Adelphus, who had been praefectus urbi of Rome in 351, the same year Italy passed from the sphere of influence of Magnentius to Constantius after the Battle of Mursa Major.[6]
The existence of this first poem is based on the first verses of the second poem. Here Proba rejects her first Pagan composition, and scholars think that the Pagan poem was destroyed according to her will.[9]
Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi
editProba's most famous work is a Virgilian cento—a patchwork of verses extracted from several works of Virgil, with minimal modifications—entitled Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi (A Virgilian Cento Concerning the Glory of Christ). The 694 lines are divided into a proemium with invocation (lines 1–55), episodes from the Old Testament (lines 56-345), episodes from the New Testament (lines 346–688), and an epilogue (lines 689–694).[10]
References
editCitations
edit- ^ Fassina.
- ^ Anthony Wagner, "Pedigree and Progress – Essays in the genealogical interpretation of history, Phillimore, London, (1975) Pedigree 22, page 180
- ^ Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- ^ Michele Renee Salzman, On Roman time: the codex-calendar of 354 and the rhythms of urban life in late antiquity University of California Press, 1990, ISBN 0-520-06566-2, p. 229.
- ^ CIL VI, 1712.
- ^ a b Lizzi Testa.
- ^ Samuel Ball Platner, "Horti Aciliorum", A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, Oxford University Press, 1929.
- ^ Green 1995, p. 551.
- ^ Jane Stevenson, Women Latin Poets, Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-19-818502-2, p. 65.
- ^ Arbea, Antonio. "El Carmen Sacrum de Faltonia Betitia Proba, la Primera Poetisa Cristiana". Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
Bibliography
edit- Clark, Elizabeth; Hatch, Diane (1981). "Jesus as Hero in the Vergilian 'Cento' of Faltonia Betitia Proba". Vergilius (27): 31–39.
- Cullhed, Sigrid Schottenius (2015). Proba the Prophet. Brill Publishers. ISBN 9789004289482.
- Fassina, Alessia (2006). "Alterazioni semantiche ed espedienti compositivi nel Cento Probae". Incontri triestini di filologia classica V, 2005-2006. Trieste: Edizioni Università di Trieste. pp. 261–72. ISBN 88-8303-192-X.
- Green, R. P. H. (1995). "Proba's Cento: Its Date, Purpose, and Reception". The Classical Quarterly. 45 (2): 551–563. doi:10.1017/S0009838800043627. S2CID 163022254.
- Hatch, Diane; Clark, Elizabeth (1981). The Golden Bough, the Oaken Cross: The Virgilian Cento of Faltonia Betitia Proba. Scholars Press.
- Jensen, Anne (1996). God's Self-Confident Daughters. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 9780664256722.
- Mărmureanu, Cătălina; Cernescu, Gianina; Lixandru, Laura (2008). "Early Christian Women Writers: The Interesting Lives and Works of Faltonia Betitia Proba and Athenais-Eudocia" (PDF). University of Bucharest. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 8, 2017. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - Martindale; Robert, John; Jones, Arnold Hugh Martin; Morris, John (1971). Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 732.
- Rita, Lizzi Testa (2004). Senatori, popolo, papi: il governo di Roma al tempo dei Valentiniani. Edipuglia. pp. 118–19. ISBN 88-7228-392-2.
- Smith, William. "Falconia Proba". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 2. p. 134. Archived from the original on 2011-05-14.
- Thompson, James (1906). "Vergil in Mediaeval Culture". The American Journal of Theology. 10 (4): 648–662. doi:10.1086/478640.