Cornelia Africana

Cornelia (c. 190 BC; † 100 BC) was the second daughter of Scipio Africanus, who belonged to the family of Cornelius, and the Aemilia Paulla. She was the wife of the elderly Tiberius Gracchus, the consul of 177 BC and 163 BC, and mother of the Gracchi. She was one of the most important women in Rome in the 2nd century BC

She married Gracchus, as she was for the marriage already in a relatively advanced age. The marriage was happy, they had twelve children together, far above the Roman standard. However, only three of these children survived their childhood: Sempronia who was married to her cousin Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus adoptive Africanus, and the brothers Tiberius and Gaius, who should oppose their attempts at reform Rome's political institutions. After the early death of her husband in 154 BC it remained a widow (although a candidate of the Egyptian king said to have been Ptolemy VII ) and devoted himself exclusively to the education of her two sons. After the violent death she withdrew from Rome to a villa in Misenum back.

The sources and modern research argue whether Cornelia their sons, whose activities the conservative patrician families into which they had been born revolted, supported or did not agree with them. In two letter fragments that are narrated under her name in Cornelius Nepos, she expresses himself; the authenticity of these letters is disputed.

Rome worshiped her as the epitome of the virtuous matron, and after she died at an advanced age, it was built as the first woman in Rome a statue. During excavations, the base was found that had heard about this statue. The inscription on it reads: CORNELIA Africani F ( ilia, ) GRACCHORUM - Cornelia, daughter of Africanus (mother) of the Gracchi (CIL 6, 31610 ).