Caia Caecilia

Is said to have been the genuine Roman name for Tanaquil, the wife of Tarquinius Priscus. Both her names, Caia and Caecilia, are of the same root as Caeculus, and the Roman Caecilii are supposed to have derived their origin from the Praenestine Caeculus.1 She appears in the early legends of Rome as a woman endowed with prophetic powers, and closely connected with the worship of the god of the hearth. That she was, at the same time, looked upon as a model of domestic life, may be inferred from the fact, that a newly married woman, before entering the house of her husband, on being asked what her name was, answered, "My name is Caia."2

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References

Notes

  1. Festus, s.v. Caeculus.
  2. Valerius Maximus, l.c.; Plutarch. Roman Questions, p. 271, e.

Sources

  • Festus, s.v. Gaia.
  • Pliny the Elder. Naturalis Historia viii, 74.
  • Plutarch. Roman Questions, p. 271, e.
  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.
  • Valerius Maximus. Epitomatoren de Praenominibus, in fin.

This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.