Faltonia Betitia Proba

Faltonia Betitia Proba (c. AD 306/315 - c. 353/366) was a Latin Roman Christian poet, perhaps the earliest extant female Christian poet.

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.

Proba 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. She had a brother, Petronius Probinus, appointed consul in 341; also her grandfather, Pompeius Probus, had been a consul, in 310. Proba married Clodius Celsinus Adelphus, 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 Tirrania 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, 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.

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