Cornelia Africana

Cornelia Africana (c. 190 – c. 100 BC) was the second daughter of Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, the hero of the Second Punic War, and Aemilia Paulla. She is remembered as a prototypical example of a virtuous Roman woman.

Cornelia married Tiberius Gracchus the Elder, the grandson of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, when he was already an advanced age. The union proved to be a happy one, and together they had 12 children, which is very unusual by Roman standards. Only three survived childhood:Sempronia, who married her cousin Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus, and the two Gracchi brothers (Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus), who would defy the political institutions of Rome with their attempts at popular reforms.

After her husband's death, she chose to remain a widow while still enjoying a princess-like status and set herself to educating her children. She even refused the marriage proposal of King Ptolemy VIII Physcon. Later in her life, Cornelia studied literature, Latin, and Greek. Cornelia took advantage of the Greek scholars she brought to Rome, notably the philosophers Blossius (from Cumae) and Diophanes (from Mytilene), who were to educate young men. Cornelia always supported her sons Tiberius and Gaius, even when their actions outraged the conservative patrician families in which she was born. After their violent deaths, she retired from Rome to a villa in Misenum but continued to receive guests. Rome worshipped her virtues, and when she died at an advanced age, the city voted for a statue in her honor.

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