Claudia Tisamenis
Encyclopedia
Claudia Tisamenis was a Greek Aristocratic woman
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....

 that lived in the 2nd century in the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....


Ancestry and Family

Tisamenis was of Athenian
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

 descent. Her ancestry can be traceable to the Athenian noble woman Elpinice
Elpinice
Elpinice was a noble woman of classical Athens.She was the daughter of Miltiades, tyrant of the Greek colonies on the Thracian Chersonese, and half sister of Cimon, an important Athenian political figure...

 (a half sister of statesman Cimon and daughter of politician Miltiades the Younger
Miltiades the Younger
Miltiades the Younger or Miltiades IV was the son of one Cimon, a renowned Olympic chariot-racer. Miltiades considered himself a member of the Aeacidae, and is known mostly for his role in the Battle of Marathon; as well as his rather tragic downfall afterwards. His son Cimon was a major Athenian...

). She had an ancestor four generations removed from her called Polycharmus. Polycharmus from 9/8 BC-22/23, could have served as an Archon of Athens
Archon of Athens
This is a list of the eponymous archons of Athens.-Background:The archon was the chief magistrate in many Greek cities, but in Athens there was a council of archons which comprised a form of executive government...

. Her family bears the Roman family name, Claudius. There is a possibility that a paternal ancestor of hers, received Roman citizenship
Roman citizenship
Citizenship in ancient Rome was a privileged political and legal status afforded to certain free-born individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance....

, from an unknown member of the Claudius gens.

Tisamenis was born to a distinguished and very rich family of consular rank. She was the daughter of Roman Senator Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes
Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes (suffect consul 132)
Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes was a distinguished Greek aristocrat of the Roman Empire.- Origin and life :Claudius Atticus was a Greek of Athenian descent. As he bears the Roman family name, Claudius, there is a possibility that a paternal ancestor of his, received Roman citizenship, from an...

 and the wealthy heiress Vibullia Alcia Agrippina
Vibullia Alcia Agrippina
Vibullia Alcia Agrippina was a Greek Aristocrat and Heiress that lived in the Roman Empire.Vibullia was a Greek of Athenian descent and was a member of a very wealthy family who were prominent in Athens . She was the daughter of the Athenian Aristocrats, Claudia Alcia and Lucius Vibullius Rufus...

. Tisamenis had two brothers: the prominent Greek Sophist Lucius Vibullius Hipparchus Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes
Herodes Atticus
Lucius Vibullius Hipparchus Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes, otherwise known as Herodes Atticus was a very distinguished, rich Greek aristocrat who served as a Roman Senator and a Sophist. He is notable as a proponent in the Second Sophistic by Philostratus.-Ancestry and Family:Herodes Atticus...

 and Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodianus. Her maternal grandparents were Claudia Alcia and Lucius Vibullius Rufus
Lucius Vibullius Rufus
Lucius Vibullius Rufus sometimes known as Vibullius Rufus was a Greek Aristocratic that lived in the second half of the 1st century and the first half of the 2nd century in the Roman Empire....

, while her paternal grandfather was Hipparchus and his unnamed wife.

Her parents are related and are uncle and niece. Her maternal grandmother with her father is sister and brother. Her maternal uncle Lucius Vibullius Hipparchus
Lucius Vibullius Hipparchus
Lucius Vibullius Hipparchus was a Greek Aristocrat that lived in the second half of the 1st century and the first half of the 2nd century in the Roman Empire....

 was an Archon of Athens in the years 99-100 and her maternal cousin, Publius Aelius Vibullius Rufus
Publius Aelius Vibullius Rufus
Publius Aelius Vibullius Rufus was a Greek Aristocrat that lived in the 2nd century in the Roman Empire.Aelius Rufus was a Greek of Athenian descent and was a member of a very wealthy family who were prominent in Athens. He was the son of Lucius Vibullius Hipparchus who served as an Archon of...

 was an Archon of Athens between 143-144.

Life

According to the French Historian
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 Christian Settipani
Christian Settipani
Christian Settipani is the Technical Director of an IT company in Paris and a genealogist and historian.He has a Master of Advanced Studies degree from the Paris-Sorbonne University and is currently preparing his doctoral thesis, while he often gives lectures to students undergraduates at the...

, Tisamenis was born about ca. 100 in an unknown place in Greece. She spent her childhood travelling between Greece and Italy. Modern Historians have argued that Tisamenis could have married a Greek Aristocratic in Sparta
Sparta
Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...

 from the Achaea Province
Achaea (Roman province)
Achaea, or Achaia, was a province of the Roman Empire, consisting of the Peloponnese, eastern Central Greece and parts of Thessaly. It bordered on the north by the provinces of Epirus vetus and Macedonia...

. The name of Tisamenis has been found as a testamentary disposition on an erection of a family statue-group in her marital home-city. According to the view of French Historian
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 Christian Settipani
Christian Settipani
Christian Settipani is the Technical Director of an IT company in Paris and a genealogist and historian.He has a Master of Advanced Studies degree from the Paris-Sorbonne University and is currently preparing his doctoral thesis, while he often gives lectures to students undergraduates at the...

, Tisamenis married an unnamed Roman Aristocrat, by whom she had a daughter called Claudia (b. ca 120), whom could have been the mother of Roman Emperor
Roman Emperor
The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...

 Gordian I
Gordian I
Gordian I , was Roman Emperor for one month with his son Gordian II in 238, the Year of the Six Emperors. Caught up in a rebellion against the Emperor Maximinus Thrax, he was defeated by forces loyal to Maximinus before committing suicide.-Early life:...

.

Sources

  • Day, J., An economic history of Athens under Roman domination, Ayers Company Publishers, 1973
  • Graindor, P., Un milliardaire antique, Ayers Company Publishers, 1979
  • Continuité gentilice et continuité sénatoriale dans les familles sénatoriales romaines à l'époque impériale, 2000
  • Cartledge, P., Hellenistic and Roman Sparta: a tale of two cities, Routledge, 2002
  • Wilson, N.G., Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece, Routledge 2006
  • Pomeroy, S.B., The murder of Regilla: a case of domestic violence in antiquity, Harvard University Press, 2007
  • http://www.sleepinbuff.com/13history.pdf
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