A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

1. The wife of M. Cicero. Her parentage is unknown. Her mother must have married twice, for she had a half-sister of the name of Fabia, who was a Vestal Virgin. This Fabia was charged with having had sexual intercourse with Catiline, who was brought to trial for the crime in B. C. 73, but was acquitted. (Ascon. in Cic. Corn. p. 93, ed. Orelli; Plut. Cat. min. 19 ; Sall. Cut. 15 ; Drumann, Geschichte Roms, vol. v. p. 392.) The year of Terentia's marriage with Cicero is not known, but as their daughter Tullia was married in B. C. 63, the marriage of her parents may probably be placed in 80 or 79. Terentia was a woman of sound sense and great resolution; and her firmness of character was of no small service to her weak and vacillating husband in some important periods of his life. On his banishment in B. C. 58, Tullia by her letters endeavoured to keep up Cicero's fainting spirits, though to little purpose, and she vigorously exerted herself on his behalf among his friends in Italy. Cicero, however, appears to have taken offence at something she had done during his exile, for on his return to Italy in the following year he writes to Atticus praising the sympathy which his brother and his daughter had shown him, without mentioning Terentia (ad Att. 4.2). During the civil war, Cicero bitterly complained that his wife did not furnish him and Tullia with money; but on his departure for Greece, he had left his affairs in the greatest confusion, and Terentia appears to have done the best she could under the circumstances. Cicero, however, threw all the blame upon his wife, and attributed his embarrassments to her extravagance and want of management. He had returned to Brundisium after the defeat of Pompey, ruined in his prospects, and fearing that he might not obtain forgiveness from Caesar. He was thus disposed to look at every thing in the worst light. When Terentia wrote to him proposing to join him at Brundisium, he replied in a few lines telling her not to come, as the journey was long and the roads unsafe, and she moreover could be of no use to him (Cic. Fam. 14.12). In the following year, B. C. 46, Cicero divorced Terentia, and shortly afterwards married Publilia, a young girl of whose property he had the management. This marriage occasioned great scandal at Rome. Antonius and other enemies of Cicero maintained that he had divorced Terentia in order to marry a young wife ; but this was not the real reason. He hoped to pay off his debts with the fortune of Publilia. [PUBLILIA. Terentia had a large property of her own, and Cicero now had to repay her dos, which he found great difficulty in doing, and it seems that Terentia never got it back. She was not paid at all events in the summer of B. C. 44 (Cic. Att. 16.15). Terentia could not have been less than 50 at the time of her divorce, and therefore it is not probable that she married again. It is related, indeed, by Jerome (in Jovin. i. p. 52, ed. Basil.), that she married Sallust the historian, and the enemy of Cicero, and subsequently Messala Corvinus ; but these marriages are not mentioned by Plutarch or any other writer, and may therefore be rejected. Some modern writers speak even of a fourth marriage; since Dio Cassius (57.15) says that Vibius Rufus, in the reign of Tiberius, married Cicero's widow; but if this is a fact, it must refer to Publilia and not to Terentia. Terentia is said to have attained the age of one hundred and three. (Plin. Nat. 7.48. s. 49; V. Max. 8.13.6.) The life of Terentia is given at length by Drumann. (Geschichte Roms, vol. vi. pp. 685-694.)