Ummidia Quadratilla was a prominent Roman woman who, by the end of her life, wielded a respectable amount of wealth and influence. She lived contemporaneously to the lawyer and statesman, Pliny the Younger (c. 61/62-113), who was a friend of the family and likely helped with the noblewoman’s last will and testament. As described by Pliny, Ummidia Quadratilla had a healthy work-life balance, always setting aside some time for rejuvenating doses of fun while she managed her valuable estate, acted as a matriarch to a her family, kept an eye on her grandchildren’s upbringing and also oversaw personal business interests. In some instances, she combined business and pleasure. According to Pliny the Younger, “She kept a troupe of mimic actors whom she treated with an indulgence unsuitable in a lady of her high position…” (Pliny the Younger, Letters, 7.24). The troupe of actors that Ummidia Quadratilla maintained were not only for her own enjoyment—they also gave public performances, doing so in prestigious venues and settings. Pliny recalled one prominent performance he attended alongside Ummidia Quadratilla’s grandson, Quadratus:
“The last Sacerdotal Games were opened by a performance of mime, and as we left the theatre together Quadratus said to me: ‘Do you realize that today was the first time I have seen any of my grandmother’s dancers?’ So said her grandson; but meanwhile people who were nothing to Quadratilla were running to the theatre to pay respects to her—though ‘respect’ is hardly the word to use for their fawning attentions—jumping up and clapping to show their admiration, and then copying every gesture of their mistress with snatches of song” (Pliny the Younger, Letters, 7.24).
Some key takeaways from the passage are—one, the impressive high praise and regard that the Roman public showed for Ummidia Quadratilla’s troupe of actors—and two, the curious revelation that the grandson, Quadratus, had been kept away and isolated from his grandmother’s business interests in the acting industry. This quarantining of Quadratus away from Ummidia Quadratilla’s favorite pastimes seemed to have been deliberately orchestrated by the Roman noblewoman, either of her own volition or perhaps after it had been suggested by concerned friends. Whatever the case, Quadratus was sent away whenever his grandmother wanted to indulge in her guilty pleasures of mimes and games. Pliny the Younger, who served as a mentor for Quadratus, mentioned this pattern of behavior, stating, “Once when she was asking me to supervise her grandson’s education she told me that as a woman, with all a woman’s idle hours to fill, she was in the habit of amusing herself playing draughts or watching her mimes, but before she did either she always told Quadratus to go away and work: which, I thought, showed her respect for his youth as much as her affection” (Pliny the Younger, Letters, 7.24). As a result, despite being raised in the household of a prominent patron of actors, Quadratus did not grow up as a theatre kid. His mentor, Pliny, was happy about that, as he seemed to have been partial to much more traditional forms of literature, poetry and oratory, instead of the mimicry that the Roman noblewoman patronized.
Wealthy and influential Ummidia Quadratilla reportedly lived to be around seventy-nine years old, when she unfortunately succumbed to a bout of illness. According to Pliny, an inheritance law expert who was likely well versed on the details of her estate, “She died leaving an excellent will; her grandson inherits two-thirds of the estate, and her granddaughter the remaining third” (Pliny the Younger, Letters, 7.24). Pliny had high hopes and expectations of Quadratus, and he pointedly did not elaborate on what became of the late Roman noblewoman’s band of mimic actors.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Picture Attribution: (Gallo-Roman women, painted by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (c. 1836–1912), [Open Access] via Creative Commons and RKD Research).
Sources:
- The Letters of Pliny the Younger, translated by Betty Radice. New York: Penguin Classics, 1963, 1969.
