Cornelia Africana - Cornelia's Letter Excerpts

Cornelia's Letter Excerpts

Cornelia is one of only four Roman women whose writings survive to present day. There are two excerpts from a letter said to have been composed in the late 2nd century BCE to Gaius Gracchus, Cornelia's younger son. But not all scholars accept these excerpts as authentic. In Cornelia's letter, it documents how Roman women wielded considerable influence in a political family. The letter is possibly dated to Gaius just before his tribunate in 122 BCE. Gaius would be killed in 121 BCE while his brother Tiberius was killed a decade prior in 133 BCE. The excerpts were preserved in the manuscripts of Cornelius Nepos, the earliest Latin biographer. (ca. 110-24 BCE)2

The Text:

“You will say that it is a beautiful thing to take on vengeance on enemies. To no one does this seem either greater or more beautiful than it does to me, but only if it is possible to pursue these aims without harming our country. But seeing as that cannot be done, our enemies will not perish for a long time and for many reasons, and they will be as they are now rather than have our country be destroyed and perish. . . . I would dare to take an oath solemnly, swearing that, except for those who have murdered Tiberius Gracchus, no enemy has foisted so much difficulty and so much distress upon me as you have because of the matters: you should have shouldered the responsibilities of all of those children whom I had in the past, and to make sure that I might have the least anxiety possible in my old age; and that, whatever you did, you would wish to please me most greatly; and that you would consider it sacrilegious to do anything of great significance contrary to my feelings, especially as I am someone with only a short portion of my life left. Cannot even that time span, as brief as it is, be of help in keeping you from opposing me and destroying our country? In the final analysis, what end will there be? When will our family stop behaving insanely? When will we cease insisting on troubles, both suffering and causing them? When will we begin to feel shame about disrupting and disturbing our country? But if this is altogether unable to take place, seek the office of tribune when I will be dead; as far as I am concerned, do what will please you, when I shall not perceive what you are doing. When I have died, you will sacrifice to me as a parent and call upon the god of your parent. At that time does it not shame you to seek prayers of those gods, whom you considered abandoned and deserted when they were alive and on hand? May Jupiter not for a single instant allow you to continue in these actions nor permit such madness to come into your mind. And if you persist, I fear that, by your own fault, you may incur such trouble for your entire life that at no time would you be able to make yourself happy.”

In the early 40s BCE, Cicero, Nepos's contemporary, portrayed his friend Atticus as arguing for the influence of mothers on children's speech in which Atticus said he read the letters of Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi. The letters style appeared to Atticus to show that the Gracchi were heavily influenced by Cornelia's speech more than her rearing. Later in history, Marcus Fabius Quintilian (ca. 35- ca. 100) would reassert Atticus's view of Cornelia's letters when he said “we have heard that their mother Cornelia had contributed greatly to the eloquence of the Gracchi, a woman whose extremely learned speech also has been handed down to future generations in her letters” (Inst. Orat. 1.1.6).4 In another excerpt recounted from Cornelius Nepos “On the Latin Historians” is a letter from Cornelia to Gaius which had been verbally recited until printed by Nepos:

“I would venture to take a solemn oath that except for the men who killed Tiberius Gracchus no enemy has given me so much trouble and toil as you have done because of these matters. You should rather have borne the care that I should have the least possible anxiety in old age, that whatever you did you thought it sinful to do anything of major importance against my views, especially since so little of my life remains. . . . Will our family ever desist from madness? . . . Will we ever feel shame at throwing the state into turmoil and confusion? But if that really cannot be, seek the tribunate after I am dead.”5