Balbilla (fl. 130)

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Balbilla (fl. 130)

Greco-Roman poet. Name variations: Iulia Balbilla; Julia Balbilla. Born c. 100 ce; date of death unknown; dau. of C. Iulius Antiochus Epiphanes and Claudia Balbilla; granddau. of Tiberius Claudius Balbillus, prefect of Egypt under Emperor Nero, and of Antiochus IV, king of Commagene. Visited Egypt as part of the imperial entourage, 130 ce.

A woman of royal Macedonian descent, who is known for 3 or possibly 4 poems of hers that survive as inscriptions on the right foot of Colossus of Memnon in the sacred city of Thebes in Upper Egypt (poems commemorate pilgrimage she made there with Hadrian and Sabina on Nov 20, 130 ce); her poems use a highly literary Greek in which Aeolic dialect—dialect of archaic Greek poet Sappho—predominates.

See also Women in World History.