Elektra surrounded by Pylades and Orestes
Al(l)ia Potestas: A Woman with a Different Authority
By Daniel Campos-Rojano
Introduction to Allia Potestas:
A strange funerary inscription dedicated to a certain Allia Potestas has puzzled philologists for its language, layout, and outlandish content. The epitaph, written primarily in dactylic hexameter, was found near the Salary-Pinciano burial ground in Rome, a site that was primarily in use from the decline of the Republic to the end of the Flavian Age. Although the dating is controversial, the inscription is generally dated to the early Imperial Age. The poet often alludes to or outright quotes Ovid as a source of literary inspiration which supports this dating.
What immediately becomes clear while reading the epitaph is that Allia Potestas is not by any means a typical woman. The author praises her character but also goes into intimate details regarding Allia’s physical appearance and other facts about her household…
Figure 1: The Allia Potestas inscription layout
DIS MANIB.
ALLIAE A. L. POTESTATIS
Hic Perusina sita est, qua non pretiosior ulla
femina, de multis vix una aut altera, visa
Sedula. Seriola parva tam magna teneris.
Crudelis fati rector duraque Persiphone,
quid bona diripitis exuperantque mala?
Quaeritur a cunctis, iam respondere fatigor;
dant lachrimas animi signa benigna sui.
Fortis, sancta, tenax, insons, fidissima custos,
munda domi, sat munda foras, notissima volgo,
sola erat ut posset factis occurrere cunctis.
Exiguo sermone inreprehensa manebat.
Prima toro delapsa fuit, eadem ultima lecto
se tulit ad quietem positis ex ordine rebus,
lana cui manibus nuncquam sine caussa recessit,
opsequioque prior nulla moresque salubres.
Haec sibi non placuit, numquam sibi libera visa.
Candida, luminibus pulchris, aurata capillis,
et nitor in facie permansit eburneus illae,
qualem mortalem nullam habuisse ferunt;
pectore et in niveo brevis illi forma papillae.
quid crura? Atalantes status illi comicus ipse.
Anxia non mansit, sed corpore pulchra benigno
levia membra tulit; pilus illi quaesitus ubique.
Quod manibus duris fuerit, culpabere forsan;
nil illi placuit nisi quod per se sibi fecerat ipsa.
Nosse fuit nullum studium, sibi se satis esse putabat.
Mansit et infamis, quia nil admiserat umquam.
Haec duo dum vixit iuvenes ita rexit amantes,
Exemplo ut fierent similes Pyladisque et Orestae;
una domus capiebat eos unusque et spiritus illis.
Post hanc nunc idem diversi sibi quisq. senescunt;
femina quod struxit talis, nunc puncta lacessunt.
Aspicite ad Troiam, quid femina fecerit olim!
sit precor hoc iustum, exemplis in parvo grandibus uti.
Hos tibi dat versus lachrimans sine fine patronus
muneris amissae, cui nuncquam es pectore adempta,
quae putat amissis munera grata dari,
nulla cui post te femina visa proba est;
qui sine te vivit, cernit sua funera vivos.
Auro tuum nomen fert ille refertque lacerto,
qua retinere potest; auro conlata POTESTAS.
Quantumcumq. tamen praeconia nostra valebunt,
versiculis vives quandiucumque meis.
Effigiem pro te teneo solacia nostri,
quam colimus sancte sertaque multa datur,
cumque at te veniam, mecum comitata sequetur.
Sed tamen infelix cui tam sollemnia mandem?
Si tamen extiterit, cui tantum credere possim,
hoc unum felix amissa te mihi forsan ero.
Ei mihi! Vicisti: sors mea facta tua est.
Laedere qui hoc poterit, ausus quoque laedere divos.
Haec titulo insignis credite numen habet.
To the Manes of Allia Potestas,
Freedwoman of Allius.
Here is buried a Perusian woman. No other woman is as treasured; from various women, hardly one or another seemed as energetic as you. You, so great lady, are now contained in a little urn! Cruel, harsh ruler of fate, o Persephone, why do you snatch away what is good and why does evil prevail? Everybody asks me, and now I am tired of answering; they give their tears, signs of their good state of mind.
Strong, pure, sparing, innocent, a most loyal guardian, neat at home, very neat outside, very well known generally, she was so unique that she could handle all chores. With little gossip surrounding her, she was blameless. She was the first to slip out of bed, and all the same she was the last to bring herself to bed after her affairs were set in order. Wool never left her hands without reason; no woman was more conspicuous in compliance: her morals were salubrious. She was not satisfied with herself, she never considered herself a free woman.
Beautiful, with pretty eyes and golden hair, there was an ivory gleam in her face, the type they say no mortal woman ever had; the shape of her nipple was small1. What about her legs? She had the very pose of Atalanta on the comic stage. She was not stingy, but she was generous with her beautiful body. She kept her limbs soft; her hair was sought out everywhere. Perhaps you will fault her since she had rough hands; she approved of nothing except that which she did herself for herself.
She had no desire to get acquainted with people, she thought that she was enough for herself. She had no ill reputation because she never admitted anything. This was the woman who while she lived ruled over two young lovers in such a way that they became similar to the example of Pylades and Orestes. One house contained them; they had one spirit. After her death, now the same lovers grow old, each different from one another. Cruel words now tear down something such a woman built. Look at Troy to see what a woman once did! I pray that it be just to use grand examples in a tiny matter.
Your patronus, crying without end, gives you these verses as a gift to you, who have been lost. His heart has never lost you, a thing which he thinks are pleasant gifts to be given to the perished; after you, no woman was good enough for him. He lives without you, foreseeing his own funeral while he is alive. That man bears your name in gold and carries it on his arm where he can retain it: POTESTAS, compared with gold. You will live in my little verses for however long my praise lasts! I hold an effigy as a substitute for you, my consolation, an object which I care for religiously. Much a garland is given; and when I will come to you, it will accompany me. But who am I to entrust such a sacred duty? If however a person whom I can trust emerges, I will perhaps be happy with regard to this one thing, with you lost. Woe to me! You have won: my fate has become yours.
The person who can harm this monument has dared to also harm the gods. Believe me, this woman, made famous by this inscription, has divinity.
Dany is a Classics & Math double major at Columbia University interested in Classical Philology and Latin Pedagogy. In his free time, he enjoys reading Ovid, Tacitus, Seneca, and Cicero in Latin and also pursuing Tae Kwon Do!
End Notes:
- This line can be interpreted as referring to the size of Allia Potestas’ breasts, but such a detail is quite strange for a funeral epitaph.