Return to the index of "Other Women's Voices."
Updated 11-09-11
Proba /Faltonia
Betitia Proba (c.322-c.370)
========================================================================
"THAT I MAY FIND ALL MYSTERIES WITHIN MY POWER TO RELATE."
========================================================================
The 300s saw large numbers (though by no means all) of the Roman aristocracy embracing Christianity (especially after the emperor Constantine I's conversion in 337); among these were members of the powerful family of the Anicii. There were several women named Proba in the family, but scholars now attribute the Cento virgilianus (or vergilianus, sometimes called Cento Probae) to Faltonia Betitia Proba. She was married to Clodius Adelphius, a prefect of Rome; the couple had at least two sons.
At least one earlier epic poem by Proba, not extant but referred to in her Cento, is identified in a 900s manuscript as being on a rebellion in 353 against the emperor Constantius, Constantine's youngest son.
We aren't sure when the Cento virgilianus was written; conjectural dates range from 353 to 370. Some scholars suggest that Proba wrote it in the early 360's, perhaps in response to support of the emperor Julian (361-363) for the older gods and especially his 362 ban on Christian teachers' being allowed to interpret classical texts to students. The law was repealed less than two years later, but of course no one in 362 knew that it would be, so Christians sought ways to teach both their religious beliefs and their beloved classical authors.
Centones (patchwork texts made up of parts of other texts) had been composed since at least the 100s CE, at first from parts of Homer, later from Virgil and Ovid. They seem to have started as short school exercises and were later used as occasional pieces --- frequently humorous, sometimes off-color. They were popular and unthreatening. As such, a Christian like Proba could use the form to teach without too blatantly seeming to teach.
Cento virgilianus is made up of 694 lines of Virgil put together to form a biblical narrative: from the creation of the world to the ascension of Jesus into heaven after his resurrection from the dead. It is unoriginal in that, except for the opening, none of the words are Proba's own; it is original in the choices that she makes and the view of Christianity she shows. For many of her readers and hearers, the biblical story was unfamiliar; it was Virgil's words, especially those of the Aeneid, that were a basic part of the Roman educational system, memorized by children and recited by adults. Proba offers Christ as the new epic hero who can join (perhaps replace) those of classical literature.
Proba's Cento was probably the work criticized by the Christian writer Jerome in the late 300s (see online) and was certainly the work declared "apocryphal" (i.e., not heretical but not allowed to be read in public) by Pope Gelasius I (492-96). However, it was copied for the emperors Arcadius (395-408) and Theodosius II (408-450), and it continued to be popular throughout the medieval period and into the early modern period (it appeared in print in 1472, perhaps the first work by a woman to do so).
Through her opening and through her choice and arrangement of Virgil's words, we can hear Proba's own voice.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from a translation in print.
Information about secondary sources.
========================================================================
1. In English:
(a) The opening of Cento virgilianus (lines 1-23), translated by Josephine Balmer; the Latin original is also given (for an alternative translation of some of these lines, see below, under "In print").
(b) A link to the text of a 1918 dissertation by Andrew B. Heider, The Blessed Virgin Mary in Early Christian Latin Poetry; there on pp. 20-21, two brief passages (on the birth of Jesus and on the flight into Egypt).
2. Links to the four sections of the original, here called Cento Probae, from an 1887 edition (the opening dedication, "Dedicatio ad Theodosium Augustum," is not Proba's). At the same site, an image believed by some to represent Proba.
3. Essays, etc.:
(a) A brief entry on Proba, by Susan Ashbrook Harvey, from the 2004 Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature.
(b) Two article abstracts by Roger P. H. Green: "Proba's Cento: Its Date, Purpose and Reception" (1995), and "Proba's Introduction to Her Cento" (1997) (for more on both articles, see "Secondary sources").
(c) About four-fifths of the way down the page, an abstract of a 1980 conference presentation by Elizabeth Ann Clark, "Jesus the Hero in the Vergilian Cento of Faltonia Betitia Proba" (for excerpts from the 1981 translation of the Cento by Clark and Diane F. Hatch, see "In print").
3. In a translation by Andrea Sterk, Emperor Julian's 362 order forbidding Christians to teach the classics, which may have been Proba's impetus to create her Cento. At another site, Wilmer Cave Wright's translation of the extant part of Julian's "Against the Galileans," written later the same year.
4. Jerome's letter #53, written to the bishop of Nola in 394, while Jerome himself was working on translating the Bible into Latin. Note these two sections of the letter:
(a) Section 6, where Jerome tells of the importance of following a "qualified" guide in interpretation of Scripture;
(b) Section 7, in which he warns, quite vehemently, against reading non-experts, among them the "chatty old woman" and those who "I blush to say it --- learn of women what they are to teach men." He refers to centos, and to those who "think of calling the Christless Maro [Virgil] a Christian." These sections have frequently been taken as a reference to Proba, because her cento fits his criticism and was well known throughout the empire.
6. Proba was one of only three women praised for their writing in Giovanni Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris (1362). She is portrayed in miniatures shown in French translations between 1400 and 1600. In one, she is writing at her desk, surrounded by books; in another, she is using a pointer to teach the history of the world. (Elsewhere, the Latin original of Boccaccio's description of Proba.)
7. Reviews (for information on Plant's anthology, see "In print," for information on the other books' treatment of Proba, see "Secondary sources"):
(a) Alison Keith on I.M. Plant's 2004 anthology, Women Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome: An Anthology; elsewhere, another review, this by Owen Hodkinson.
(b) Here you can download a PDF file (177KB) of Dennis R. MacDonald on Karl Olav Sandnes' 2011 study, The Gospel 'According to Homer and Virgil': Cento and Canon.
(c) Keeley Cathleen Schell on Jeremy M. Downes' 2010 study The Female Homer: An Exploration of Women's Epic Poetry; the review is followed by Downes response.
(d) Bret Mulligan and William Wren Lebowitz on the 2007 essay collection, Texts and Culture in Late Antiquity: Inheritance, Authority, and Change.
(e) Natalie Bennett on Jane Stevenson's 2005 study, Women Latin Poets: Language, Gender, and Authority, From Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century; and another review, by Brenda Hosington.
========================================================================
[Elizabeth A. Clark and Diane F. Hatch give both the Latin original and a translation of Cento virgilianus. Their introduction is thorough and their notes detailed; they also indicate the Virgilian source of each line or half-line:]
The golden bough, the oaken cross: the Virgilian Cento of
Faltonia Betitia Proba / Elizabeth A. Clark and Diane F. Hatch
(Texts and translations series / American Academy of Religion;
no. 5). Chico, Calif.: Scholars Press, c1981. (249 p.)
LC#: PA6801.A49 C59; ISBN: 0891304819, 0891304827
Bibliography: p. 235-244.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I have catalogued the different slayings, monarchs' cruel
wars...."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Proba's opening, in her own words:]
From earliest times, leaders have broken sacred
Vows of peace---poor men, caught up in a fatal
Greed for power. And I have catalogued
The different slayings, monarchs' cruel wars,
And battle lines made up of hostile
Relatives. I sang of famous shields,
Their honor cheapened by a parent's blood,
And trophies captured from no enemy;
Bloodstained parades of triumph "fame" had won,
And cities orphaned of so many citizens,
So many times.... [ll.1-7,
p.15]
-----------------------------
"I, Proba, prophetess."
-----------------------------
Now God almighty, accept my sacred
Song, I pray; unloose the utterance
Of your eternal, sevenfold Spirit, and so
Unlock the inmost sanctum of my heart
That I may find all mysteries within
My power to relate---I, Proba, prophetess. [ll.9-12,
p.15]
-------------------------------------------------------
"Reinterpreting a theme obscure to none...."
-------------------------------------------------------
That Virgil put to verse Christ's sacred duties
Let me tell. And reinterpreting
A theme obscure to none, I shall pursue it
From its source, if any perseverance lies
Within my heart, if, flooding through my limbs,
The true Mind agitates my human frame,
And the Spirit mingles itself with my whole being. [ll.23-27,
p.17]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Mothers and men, youths and maids unwed..., turn attentive
minds to me."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For---yes, I shall confess---I used to sing
The spectacles of trivial themes; always
Horses, arms of men I told, their wars,
And eagerly wished to toil at a senseless task.
As I tried out those themes, a better purpose
Seemed for me to open up themes deep in earth,
Mist-veiled. Day upon day my mind
Kept goading me to set myself to some
Important subject, and my mind was not
Content with calm repose. Mothers and men,
Youths and maids unwed, be silent,
All, and turn attentive minds to me.
In the beginning, heaven and earth and flowing
Sea, moon's glowing sphere, sun's honest toil
The Father himself established....
[ll.47-58, p.21]
-------------------------------------------------
"And suddenly arose a wondrous gift."
-------------------------------------------------
[Moving to the use of Virgil's words, Proba describe the creation of Eve:]
Without delay, at once God gave untroubled
Rest throughout the young man's limbs,
And made his eyes close in pleasant sleep.
And now in the middle course of shady night,
The Almighty Sire laid the ribs and entrails bare.
One of these ribs he plucked apart from
The well-knit joints of youthful Adam's side,
And suddenly arose a wondrous gift---
Imposing proof---and shone in brilliant light:
Woman, a virgin she, unparalleled
in figure and in comely breasts, now ready
For a husband, ready now for wedlock.
For him, a boundless quaking breaks his sleep;
He calls his bones and limbs his wedded wife.
Dazed by the Will divine he took and clasped
Her hand in his, folded his arms around her.
[ll.124-135, p.29]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Through man's dexterity, plants showed themselves in fields."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[On the departure from Paradise after the Fall; Proba suggests that, until the murder of Abel by Cain, man's life, though challenging, was not too unpleasant:]
Without delay they hastened then, as bidden,
Borne on quickening feet, and walking side
By side through the shadows of the way, they hastened
Along the middle course, and weeping left
The threshold; distressed alike, they fixed their steps.
Then in the woods the branches fed them berries,
Stony cherries; plants sustained them, the roots wrenched out.
Meantime the sun turned round the looming year.
Ten months brought long-term illness to the mother
From whom mankind was born, a toughened race.
From that time on, through man's dexterity,
Plants showed themselves in fields, or leaf on tree,
And grain crops safely dared to trust new suns.
[ll.272-282, p.45]
--------------------------------------------------------
"Under the mighty laws they lived their lives."
--------------------------------------------------------
[And after the flood:]
...Under
The mighty laws they lived their lives. And why
Should I recall abominable murders,
Why the tyrant's deeds, and hearts full ignorant
Of growing mild at human prayers; why
The Egyptians' might, the East's far distant wars,
Great-hearted chiefs, and from the ordered ranks
Of an entire race, by what direction
One sought out the wilderness?
...Which
Priests, the pious ones, close by their altars,
And which prophet-bards fell faithfully
For liberty?....
Our forebears' other deeds,
Wars fought in due succession, I omit,
And leave their tale to others after me. [ll.318-323,
325-326, 331-332; p.51]
---------------------------------------------------------------
"..., the founder of a godly race, sent for dominion."
---------------------------------------------------------------
[To describe the birth of Jesus requires a new appeal to Proba's muse:]
Now to you, your great resolves, O Father,
I return, a greater task essay:
The older prophets' prophecies I now
Attempt; though the limit of a slender life
Awaits me, I must try the way by which
I too could walk the air, and bear his name
In wide renown all down the countless years.
Because your Son came down from towering sky,
Because time brought an answer to our prayers,
The Lord's help and his advent; Whom a woman,
Wearing a virgin's countenance and clothes,
Brought forth, her first---astonishing to tell of---
Not babe of our descent, not of our blood.
And prophets, wreaking havoc, sang the omens late:
A man was coming to mankind and earth,
A man magnificent from heavenly seed,
Whose might would take possession of the world. And now
The promised day arrived, the day when first
He showed his holy face, the founder of
A godly race, sent for dominion;
And virtue, mixed with God, came in his person.
[ll.333-349, pp.51-53]
-------------------------------------------------------
"He gave me first the answer to my seeking."
-------------------------------------------------------
[After describing the baptism of Jesus, Proba speaks of her own conversion to Christianity:]
...What gratitude
Shall I express, if I may set
Small themes besides the great? No hope remained
For me of ever seeing my long ago,
My native land, no hope for me remained
Of liberty, nor concern for salvation. Herein
He gave me first the answer to my seeking,
Took away the toughened stain, left pure
Ethereal intelligence, and sent me
Back into my realm. [ll.415-421,
pp.61-63]
-----------------------------------------------------
"Preserve yourselves for sweet prosperity."
-----------------------------------------------------
[After his resurrection, Jesus speaks to his disciples:]
..."I, the one you seek,
Am here before you. Piety
Has fought the rugged journey through, and won,
And virtue, forceful, full of life has won.
With all your vigilance keep watch, my men;
Let every fear be absent. This is my return,
And this the awaited triumph; this is my
Great faith....
"Renew your purpose then! Away with abject fear,
Preserve yourselves for sweet prosperity.
In the time that's left, happy in your achievements
(They're well and duly won), pray for peace
With open hands. Praise peace, high-minded,
When you sit in judgment's seat, and keep
Your vow of peace alone inviolate." [ll.663-667,
674-676; pp.91-93]
-------------------------------------------------------------
"This observance do you keep, O husband sweet."
-------------------------------------------------------------
[Jesus' ascension into heaven, and the poem's conclusion. We know that Proba's husband, Adelphius, at some point became a Christian:]
At last, this work was finished, and he parted
The freshening wind. Through unresisting air,
And riding upon the open sky, he disappeared
From mortal view, as still men spoke to him.
And so the palace of the star-filled sky
Received him to its throne, and holds his name
Undying, age to age. From that day on,
His worship has been solemnized. And gladly
Men's descendants have observed the day,
Though year upon year, since then, has glided by.
Proceed, O Grace of us mortal men, proceed
O Pride and Glory sprung from such achievements.
Draw near to us and to your yearly worship
With joyful step....
...[S]olemnize this observance of
His rites, O Christian brothers, and uphold it.
This observance do you keep, O husband sweet,
And if we do win merit through our piety,
Then pure in heart may our children's children keep the faith.
[ll.682-691, 692-694; pp.93-95]
========================================================================
[This anthology has a complete verse translation of Proba's
Cento virgilianus by I.M. Plant, although it lacks the
original Latin and the aids available in the Clark and Hatch
edition. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Women writers of ancient Greece and Rome: an anthology / edited
by I.M. Plant. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, c2004. (viii,
268 p.: ill., maps)
LC#: PA3621 .W66 2004; ISBN: 0806136219, 0806136227
Includes bibliographical references (p. [213]-228) and indexes.
========================================================================
[An older anthology has a prose translation by Jeremiah Reedy (without the Latin original) of the Cento, and a valuable introduction by G. Ronald Kastner and Ann Millin. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
A Lost tradition: women writers of the early Church / Patricia
Wilson-Kastner ... [et al.].Washington, D.C.: University Press
of America, c1981. (xxx, 180 p.)
LC#: BR60 .L59 1981; ISBN: 0819116424, 0819116432
Bibliography: p.173-178.
========================================================================
[One of the chapters in Karl Olav Sandnes' study is "Faltonia
Betitia Proba: The Gospel 'According to Virgil,'" which
discusses the relationship between Proba's telling of the biblical
story, especially the story of the life of Jesus, and the canonical
Gospels. Sandnes provides a close reading of Proba's own proem
and of several of the latter passages of Cento virgilianus.
An earlier chapter, "Why Imitate Classical Texts?"
describes the possible reasons that the centoists wrote as they
did. (See
the book's table of contents online.);]
Sandnes, Karl Olav. The Gospel 'according to Homer and Virgil':
cento and canon (Supplements to Novum Testamentum; v. 138). Leiden;
Boston: Brill, 2011. (xii, 280 p)
LC#: PN1077 .S195 2011; ISBN:9789004187184
Includes bibliographical references (p. [245]-259) and indexes.
----------------
[This collection includes Scott McGill's essay, "Virgil,
Christianity, and the Cento probae," which looks
at how Proba and her contemporaries looked at the relationship
between the Christian cento and Virgil. McGill compares the view
expressed in the opening of Proba's work with that of Jerome's
Letter #53 (available online) and an anonymous scribe's introduction
to Proba in the later 390s. The attached bibliography covers
studies through 2005. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Texts and culture in Late Antiquity: inheritance, authority,
and change / editor, J.H.D. Scourfield. Swansea: Classical Press
of Wales; Oakville, Conn.: David Brown Co., 2007. (xii, 346 p.)
LC#: PA3003 .T49 2007; ISBN: 9781905125173
-------------------
[David Vincent Meconi's article is a useful introduction to the Cento virgilianus, describing current research and discussing why Proba wrote, why she chose the cento form, and how she used Virgil to present a Christian view of history. Meconi gives his own translation of passages quoted. (See the issue's table of contents online.):]
Meconi, David Vincent. The Christian cento and the evangelization
of Christian culture. Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought
and Culture, 7:4 (2004), 109-32.
LC#: BR100 .L63; ISSN:1091-6687
-----------------
[Karla Pollmann's essay in this collection, "Sex and Salvation
in the Vergilian Cento of the fourth century," compares
the contemporary Cento nuptialis of Ausonius with Proba's
poem. Pollmann discusses Proba's didactic purpose and illustrates
her skill by an analysis of a single scene, Jesus walking on
water. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Romane memento: Vergil in the fourth century / edited by Roger
Rees. London: Duckworth, 2004. (xii, 238 p.)
LC#: PA6825 .A3 2004; ISBN: 0715632426
Includes bibliographical references (p. 215-228) and index
------------------
[Roger P.H. Green's article emphasizes Proba's educational purpose, arguing that the Cento was probably written in response to Julian's 362 edict; Green also discusses the work's later influence. (See the issue's table of contents online.):]
Green, R.P.H. Proba's Cento: Its date, purpose and
reception. Classical Quarterly, 45 (1995), 551-63.
LC#: PA1 .C6; ISSN: 0009-8388
-------------------
[This later article by Green provides a close reading of the first 55 lines of the Cento, focusing especially on lines 1-23, which use Proba's own words rather than Virgil's. Green reads some lines differently than do Clark and Hatch in their translation (above); the effect is to present a rather more assertive and self-confident Proba. (See the issue's table of contents online.):]
Green, R.P.H. Proba's introduction to her Cento. Classical
Quarterly, 47 (1997), 548-59.
LC#: PA1 .C6; ISSN: 0009-8388
---------------------
[Jeffrey Schnapp's article is especially good on Proba's use of Virgil to produce a distinctive reading of Scripture --- exactly what Jerome worried about in letter #53 (online):]
Schnapp, Jeffrey. Reading lessons: Augustine, Proba, &
the Christian detournement of antiquity. Stanford Literature
Review, 9 (1992), 99-124.
LC#: WMLC 93/4137; ISSN: 0886-666X
----------------------
[This collection includes John Matthews' essay "The Poetess Proba and Fourth-century Rome: Questions of Interpretation," which analyzes manuscript history and external evidence to show that the author of the Cento virgilianus was Faltonia Betitia Proba and then to look at her reasons for writing her earlier epic on civil war:]
Institutions, societe et vie politique dans l'empire romain
au IVe siecle ap. J.-C.: actes de la table ronde autour de l'uvre
d'Andre Chastagnol (Paris, 20-21 Janvier 1989) / edites par Michel
Christol ... [et al.] (Collection de l'Ecole française
de Rome; 159) [Rome]: Ecole française de Rome; Paris:
Diffusion de Boccard, 1992. (514 p., [12] p. of plates: ill.)
LC#: DG12 .E2; ISBN: 2728302537
English, French, German, and Italian. Includes bibliographical
references
----------------------
[Zoja Pavlovskis' article discusses Proba's originality in using a metalanguage that adapts Virgil's allusiveness and draws on the reader's recollection of the original; Pavlovskis also considers the reasons for Jerome's objection to the work:]
Pavlovskis, Zoja. Proba and the semiotics of Virgilian narrative.
Vergilius, 35 (1989), 70-84.
LC#: PA6825.A2 ISSN: 0506-7294
----------------------
[Jane Stevenson's detailed survey includes a brief but useful section on Proba (pp.64-71), especially valuable in its description of the extent of the use of her Cento in later centuries. An appendix, "Checklist of women Latin poets and their works," illustrates this use by naming and dating a large number of the editions of the work. Stevenson gives her own translation of Proba's opening lines. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Stevenson, Jane. Women Latin poets: language, gender, and
authority, from antiquity to the eighteenth century. Oxford;
New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. (xiv, 659 p.)
LC#: PA8050.S74 2005; ISBN:0198185022
Includes bibliographical references (p. [596]-616) and index
-------------------
[Jeremy M. Downes' study includes a brief section on Proba
(pp. 237-43) in which he describes the form and themes of the
Cento, and her treatment of the figures of Eve and Mary. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Downes, Jeremy M. The female Homer: an exploration of women's
epic poetry. Newark: University of Delware Press, c2010. (350
p.: ill.)
LC#: PN1303 .D69 2010; ISBN: 9780874130768
Includes bibliographical references (p. 318-341) and index
========================================================================
Updated 11-09-11