Cornelia Africani f.

Cornelia, Scipionis Africani, qui Hannibalem vicerat, et Aemiliae filia minor, Ti. Sempronio Graccho, bis consuli et censori, multo se maiori nupsit eique duodecim liberos peperit, quorum tres tantum adoleverunt: Tiberius, Gaius, Sempronia, quae Scipioni Aemiliano nupsit. Vidua circa annum CLIV facta iterum nubere noluit, ne Ptolemaeo quidem, Aegypti regi, matrimonium offerenti, et liberis educandis se dedit.

Cornelia was the younger daughter of Scipio Africanus, the victor over Hannibal, and of Aemilia. She married Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, twice consul and censor, a man much older than herself, and bore him twelve children, of whom only three grew up: Tiberius, Gaius and Sempronia, who married Scipio Aemilianus. Widowed about 154 B.C., she refused to marry again, even when King Ptolemy of Egypt offered her his hand, and devoted herself to her children's education.

Filios magistris Graecis, sed maxime suo sermone erudivit: Cicero, qui epistulas eius legerat, eos non tam in gremio educatos quam in sermone matris dixit. Cum matrona Campana ornamenta sua ostenderet, Cornelia eam sermone traxisse dicitur donec liberi e schola redirent, et 'haec' inquit 'ornamenta sunt mea.' Ambo filii tribuni plebis facti in seditionibus occisi sunt, Tiberius anno CXXXIII, Gaius anno CXXI.

She raised her sons with Greek teachers but above all through her own speech: Cicero, who read her letters, said the Gracchi were brought up 'not so much in their mother's lap as in her conversation'. When a Campanian lady showed off her jewels, Cornelia is said to have kept her talking until her sons came home from school, and then said, 'These are my jewels.' Both sons became tribunes of the plebs and were killed in political violence, Tiberius in 133 and Gaius in 121 B.C.

Duo epistulae ad Gaium fragmenta, inter Cornelii Nepotis scripta servata, eum orant ne se vivente tribunatum petat utque salutem rei publicae ultioni inimicorum anteponat; utrum ipsa ea scripserit, disputatur. Extremos annos Miseni inter doctos hospitesque egit, et de filiis sine lacrimis loquebatur. Romani ei statuam aeneam posuerunt, cuius basis inscripta superest.

Two fragments of a letter to Gaius, preserved with the works of Cornelius Nepos, beg him not to seek the tribunate while she lives and to put the safety of the state before revenge on his enemies; whether she wrote them is debated. She spent her last years at Misenum among scholars and visitors, speaking of her dead sons without tears. The Romans set up a bronze statue of her, and an inscribed base of it survives.

1. c. 190 a.C.n.c. 190 B.C.Nascitur, Scipionis Africani filia.Born, daughter of Scipio Africanus.
2. c. 163 a.C.n.c. 163 B.C.Tiberius filius nascitur.Her son Tiberius is born.
3. c. 154 a.C.n.c. 154 B.C.Gaius nascitur; maritus moritur; Ptolemaei nuptias recusat.Gaius is born; her husband dies; she refuses Ptolemy's offer of marriage.
4. 133 a.C.n.133 B.C.Tiberius tribunus occiditur.Tiberius is killed as tribune.
5. 121 a.C.n.121 B.C.Gaius occiditur.Gaius is killed.
6. c. 115 a.C.n.c. 115 B.C.Moritur (tempus incertum).Dies (date uncertain).