Sulpicia

Sulpicia is believed to be the author, in the first century BCE, of six short poems (some 40 lines in all) written in Latin which were published as part of the corpus of Albius Tibullus's poetry (poems 3.13-18). She is one of the few female poets of ancient Rome whose work survives. Life Sulpicia has been identified as the granddaughter of Cicero's friend Servius Sulpicius Rufus, whose son of the same name married Valeria, sister of Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, an important patron of literature who also launched the career of Ovid. If this is correct, Sulpicia's family were well-off citizens with connections to Emperor Augustus, since her uncle Messalla (consul in 31 BC) served as a commander for Augustus. Poetry Sulpicia's surviving work consists of six short elegiac poems (3.13–18), which have been preserved as part of a collection of poetry, book 3 of the Corpus Tibullianum, initially attributed to Tibullus. The poems are addressed to Cerinthus. Cerinthus was most likely a pseudonym, in the style of the day (like Catullus's Lesbia and Propertius's Cynthia). Cerinthus has sometimes been thought to refer to the Cornutus addressed by Tibullus in two of his Elegies, probably an aristocratic Caecilius Cornutus. The similarity in consonants and the resemblance between the Greek keras ("horn") and Latin cornu (also "horn") are among arguments cited in favour of this identification. Recent criticism, however, has tended away from attempting to identify Cerinthus with an historical figure in favour of noting the literary implications of the pseudonym.