Terentia, Tullia and Publilia: The Women of Cicero's Family

Women of the Ancient World

by Susan Treggiari

Studying over 900 personal letters, this book presents a rounded and intriguing account of the women who, until now, have only survived as secondary figures to his wives Terentia and Publilia, and his daughter, Tullia.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Classics

251 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Elly]

read for my dissertation and it was an excellent starting point. i’m already incredibly familiar with cicero and the late republic, but this offered a wonderful, accessible, and well-written recap (and i’m sure the bibliography will be very useful, too).

it was easy to follow, yet still niche and specific, and had a lovely flow to the writing, unlike a lot of other academic texts. i’d recommend this to anyone interested in the topic.

i particularly liked treggiari’s compassion for these historical figures. whilst staying close to the source material, she brought them to life.

[Triona]

Read this for fun several times (because I’m that big of a nerd). It’s brilliant. Treggiari is a wonderful author and talented classicist who really knows how to tease out the little details of the sources available to us and come to logical conclusions that make perfect sense and aren’t unrealistic

[Carl Michael]

Very informative of the Cicero family. Even though the title and aim of the book is the focus on the female characters of the family the text is as much of Cicero himself.

Susan Treggiari has immense knowledge of these persons and the the society they lived in, i.e. the turbulent end of the Republican era.

The layout of the book is a bit off putting but the content is top notch!

[Taylor Swift Scholar]

Surprisingly fun for an academic text. It was interesting to learn about a pivotal time in Roman history through the eyes of three women. I don’t think I had fully appreciated how much the civil war would have messed up things for families and friends before.