Quintilia (1st century) was an Ancient Roman stage performer - a pantomime dancer and actress.[1]

She was a famed beauty during the reign of Caligula. She was the lover of the senator Pompedius.[2] A rival of Pompedius, senator Timidius, reported Pompedius to Caligula and claimed that Quintilia had knowledge of a plot against Caligula.[3] Caligula had Quintilia arrested and severely tortured (according to Josephus, the man who tortured her was actually Cassius Chaerea, who eventually plotted Caligula's assassination).[4] She revealed nothing, and was finally released and financially compensated by Caligula.[1] Her loyalty toward Pompedius was praised as a role model by Josephus and Suetonius in a rare instance when a stage performer, a profession with a very low status at that time, was praised as a role model.[5]

References

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  1. ^ a b Fratantuono, Lee (2018-03-30). Caligula: An Unexpected General. Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1-5267-1122-9.
  2. ^ Sheldon, Rose Mary (2023-06-14). Kill Caesar!: Assassination in the Early Roman Empire. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-5381-1489-6.
  3. ^ Winterling, Aloys (2015-09-15). Caligula: A Biography. Univ of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-28759-4.
  4. ^ Sewell, Jan; Smout, Clare (2020-04-29). The Palgrave Handbook of the History of Women on Stage. Springer Nature. ISBN 978-3-030-23828-5.
  5. ^ Jan Sewell, Clare Smout, The Palgrave Handbook of the History of Women on Stage