As we can reconstruct from various inscriptions, Oscia Modesta was a lady with an illustrious line of ancestors, the wife of a consul and obviously very wealthy. She came from a small town in the Roman province of Africa proconsularis in present-day Tunisia. However, she was buried in Rome in the early 3rd century, at a time when the African-Syrian imperial family of the Severi ruled the empire. Oscia Modesta, whose full name was Oscia Modesta Ulpia (?) Cornelia Patruina Publiana, undoubtedly enjoyed great prestige, probably frequented the court and was known to the empresses Iulia Domna and Iulia Mammaea, perhaps even befriended them. The emperor Septimius Severus elevated her husband C. Arrius Calpurnius Frontinus Honoratus, who came from a senatorial family from Cirta in Numidia (Constantine/Algeria), to the ranks of the patricians, i.e. the most distinguished families in the empire. The couple took part in the imperial Saecular Games in Rome in 204 AD. This was probably the moment when the young family moved to Rome permanently. Oscia Modesta and her husband had at least two children. Their son C. Arrius Calpurnius Longinus became a suffect consul like his father. The father probably in the time of Severus Alexander, the son in the time of another African emperor, Gordian.
Oscia Modesta's home town of Avioccala (Henchir-Sidi-Amara) in present-day Tunisia honored her with a statue, of which only the inscription has survived. In the province, people were not only proud of this woman, but also benefited from the extensive donations she made there. Women like Oscia Modesta, who must have had great influence during her lifetime, are now completely overshadowed by the empresses who dominated the public sphere. The ancient authors do not say a word about them and so, unlike their husbands, they have long been overlooked by researchers. What we know is taken from inscriptional material. It can also be assumed that Oscia Modesta was highly educated: her grandson, probably the son of a daughter, M(arcus) Fl(auius) Arrius Osciu[s] Honoratus, who owed part of his name to his grandmother, called her "dearest grandmother and sweetest educator" in an inscription. This does not mean that she brought him up, i.e. changed his diapers, fed him or anything similar, but that he benefited from her formidable knowledge and perhaps attended her academic salon. In her epitaph, she herself speaks to us in archaic Greek on a magnificent marble altar that she apparently commissioned herself in Rome.
"Here I lie, the wife of a consul, the noble hero, my friend Arrius, to whom alone I was married. I was once given the name Publiana by my ancestors - they (were) Scipiones, who were distinguished by their noble origins - I myself remained a widow for the rest of my life, consumed by grief at the premature death of my children. I endured much suffering in my life. My spirit found joy in the Muses alone" (IG XIV 1960).
Here, Oscia Modesta paints a picture of herself that emphasizes her noble republican ancestry, her exemplary attitude as a mother and wife who mourns her husband and children and for whom only her education provides moments of consolation. By contrast, little can be said about her lived identity. What is remarkable, however, is her high degree of mobility and the cosmopolitanism that is certainly associated with it. The latter is indicated not least by the long-distance marriage policy of her class. Her hometown and her husband's hometown were around 300 km apart on the African continent. Her husband's grandmother, however, came from Asia Minor, for example, from Antioch in Pisidia, 4000 km away, near Yalvaç/Turkey, where Osca Modestia's husband was also honored as a patron with several honorary seats in the theater. It can be assumed that she accompanied him on journeys here as well as to the stations of his career and probably spent a good part of her life in Rome. It is also likely that she traveled to Africa, her homeland, where she owned land not only in Avioccala but also in Thurbo Maius (Henchir-Khasbat), 290 km away.
Calpurnius Longinus, her husband, died when their son was still a boy (puer) and he himself had already been consul. This suggests a large age difference between the spouses, which was not unusual in aristocratic circles, so that she must indeed have been a widow for a long time and possibly took an active interest in her son's career. In addition, like Empress Iulia Domna, she must have surrounded herself with philosophers, perhaps even debating with them. In any case, she was a woman of considerable importance in her time. She was certainly at least bilingual. It was particularly important to her that she was remembered as an educated woman, otherwise she would not have chosen Greek for her tomb. The lingua franca of her homeland, like that of Rome, was Latin. While Greek was spoken in the East.
Christiane Kunst
Lit.: Baroni, A.-F., Les Arrii Antonini de Cirta. L'ascension d'une famille africaine dans l'élite sénatoriale, Cahiers du Centre Gustave Glotz 27, 2016, 299-323; Chausson 2000: F. Chausson, Une descendante des Scipions en Afrique au III e siècle après J.-C., Bulletin de la Société nationale des Antiquaires de France 2000, 165-176; Hemelrijk, E., City patronesses in the Roman Empire, Historia 53, 2004, 209-245; Raepsaet-Charlier, M.-T., Prosopographie des femmes de l'ordre sénatorial, Ier-IIe siècles, Leuven, 1987, 482, no. 587 and Stemma XXXIII.
From: Moretti, L. (ed.) Inscriptiones Graecae Urbis Romae III, Rome 1979, p. 169.
