Cornelia Postuma

Cornelia Postuma or Postuma Cornelia[1] (born between 78-77 BC) was the only daughter of Roman Dictator Sulla and his fifth wife Valeria Messalla. She was Sulla's fifth known and final child.[lower-alpha 1]

Life

Postuma was delivered some months after Sulla's death. It is uncertain if her name "Postumia" was a praenomen or cognomen as the usage of the name "Postuma" as a female praenomen is unattested in eppigraphical evidence for the Roman Republic period but it would have been unusual to give a cognomen at such an early date.[2] The male equivalent praenomen Postumus is well attested.[3] Her birth was highly significant as it unified Sulla's family with that of her mothers.[4]

She had three surviving older half siblings; Cornelia Silla, the twins Faustus Cornelius Sulla and Fausta Cornelia as well as a brother who died young. Her oldest sister Silla already had children by the time Postuma was born.[5]

T. F. Carney presumes that she died young since there is no further mentions of her in literature, he states that a member of such a notorious household could not have failed to be mentioned somewhere if she had been old enough to marry.[4] He assumes both she and her half-brother died in congenital infection, perhaps contracted by her mother from Sulla who died of infected ulcers.[6]

Cultural depictions

In Colleen McCullough's book Fortune's Favorites Postuma's mother Valeria expresses doubt that she is actually Sulla's child, believing that she was instead fathered by her lover Metrobius.[7]

See also

Notes
  1. Three surviving children from her father Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix's previous marriages are know; Cornelia Silla, Faustus Cornelius Sulla and Fausta Cornelia, but another son who died young is attested to by Sulla's autobiography.

References
  1. Kajava, Mika (1995). Roman Female Praenomina: Studies in the Nomenclature of Roman Women. Institutum Romanum Finlandiae. p. 285. ISSN 0538-2270.
  2. Kajava, Mika (1995). Roman Female Praenomina: Studies in the Nomenclature of Roman Women. Institutum Romanum Finlandiae. p. 181. ISSN 0538-2270.
  3. Kajava, Mika (1995). Roman Female Praenomina: Studies in the Nomenclature of Roman Women. Institutum Romanum Finlandiae. p. 111. ISSN 0538-2270.
  4. Acta Classica. Roman life and letters. 1. A.A. Balkema. 1960. p. 74.
  5. Historical Reflections: Réflexions Historiques. History Department, University of Waterloo. 1987. p. 42.
  6. Acta Classica. Roman life and letters. T. J. Haarho. 1. A.A. Balkema. 1960. p. 75.
  7. https://books.google.se/books?id=9hmDAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT577&dq=sulla+valeria+pregnant&hl=sv&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwimo760qMHrAhXvlIsKHaYvAa4Q6AEwAHoECAQQAg#v=onepage&q=sulla%20valeria%20pregnant&f=false
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