Introduction

Abstract Catullus’ poetry about his idealized but faithless mistress “Lesbia” implies that she came from the aristocratic Claudian family and took an interest not only in her brother’s political fortunes but also in contemporary literary fashions. Elsewhere in his poetry, moreover, Catullus hints that the authors in his circle attracted girlfriends who evinced a particular fascination for the female characters in their poems. Could they also have been interested in women’s writings, perhaps even authored poems themselves? If so, nothing survives from their pens. From the next generation, however, there survives a cycle of Latin love poems exploring an upper-class Roman woman’s relationship with her lover and her guardians. This volume explores the socio-historical and literary contexts in which Sulpicia, “Servius’ daughter,” wrote elegies and epigrams about her beloved “Cerinthus,” her mother Valeria, and her uncle Messalla.