View source for Caenis

{{Short description|Mistress of Roman Emperor Vespasian}}
{{About||the Greek mythological woman who was transformed into a man|Caeneus|the genus of mayflies|Caenis (mayfly)}}
{{Flavian dynasty}}
'''Antonia Caenis''', (died 75 AD) a former slave and secretary of [[Antonia Minor]] (mother of the emperor [[Claudius]]), was [[Roman emperor]] [[Vespasian]]'s ''[[Contubernium|contubernalis]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://feminaeromanae.org/caenis.html|title=Companion: Caenis|website=feminaeromanae.org|language=en|access-date=2019-11-22}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Anagnostou-Laoutides|first1=Eva|last2=Charles|first2=M.B.|year=2012|chapter=Vespasian, Caenis and Suetonius|editor-first= C. |editor-last=Deroux |title=Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History XVI|location=Brussels|publisher=Editions Latomus |pages=530–547|url=https://www.academia.edu/3526135|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Acton|first=Karen|date=2010-05-12|title=Antonia Caenis and the Flavian Dynasty|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256006244|journal=SSRN Electronic Journal|doi=10.2139/ssrn.1605506|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LV-FPLMeHgoC&q=Caenis+Vespasian+concubine&pg=PA151|title=Women's Life in Greece and Rome: A Source Book in Translation|last1=Lefkowitz|first1=Mary R.|author-link=Mary Lefkowitz |last2=Fant|first2=Maureen B.|date=2005-08-23|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-0-8018-8310-1|language=en}}</ref>

==Life==
It could be thought that she had family in [[Istria]], now in [[Croatia]], based on a trip she took there (Suet. Dom. 12.3).  In her 30s Caenis, still possibly a slave, was in an unofficial type of relationship with Vespasian, known as ''[[contubernium]]'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Contubernales.html|title = LacusCurtius • Roman Law — Contubernium (Smith's Dictionary, 1875)}}</ref> before his marriage. According to [[Lives of the Twelve Caesars|Suetonius]], after the death of Vespasian's wife [[Domitilla the Elder|Flavia Domitilla]], Vespasian and Caenis, now a freedwoman, resumed their relationship; she was his wife "in all but name" until her death in AD 75.

According to [[Cassius Dio]], she had a remarkable memory and considerable influence on the emperor's administration, carried out official business on his behalf, and apparently made a lot of money from her position.<ref>([https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/65*.html#66-14 Cassius Dio 66.14])</ref> However, Suetonius states that she was treated with disrespect by Vespasian's son [[Domitian]], who refused to greet her as one of the family.<ref>(Suet. Dom. 12.3)</ref>

==Popular culture==
[[File:CIL VI 12037.jpg|thumb|Inscription commemorating Caenis, described by the historian Suetonius as the "almost wife" of Vespasian<ref>''[[Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum|CIL]]'' 6.12037</ref>]]
The life of Caenis and her love-story with Vespasian are portrayed in [[Lindsey Davis]]'s novel ''[[The Course of Honour]]''.
She is also a character who features regularly in Robert Fabbri's ''Vespasian'' series, in which she is depicted as a long-lost grand-niece of the king of the Caenii, a rebelling tribe in Thracia.

[[Robert Graves]], in his short story "Caenis on Incest", used her as a kind of foil to present what he then thought to have been the underlying reason for the power-related murders chronicled in ''[[I, Claudius]]''. The story is included in his compendium "Occupation: Writer", and he admits to having missed the real reason for the murders in the introduction to that anthology. <ref> "Caenis on Incest A.D. 75 (1946)" from "Occupation: Writer" Universal Library, Grosset and Dunlap, 1950</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of slaves]]
* [[Claudia Acte]]
* [[Galeria Lysistrate]]
* [[Marcia (mistress of Commodus)]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
*[[Suetonius]], ''[[Lives of the Twelve Caesars]]'': [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Vespasian*.html#3 ''Vespasian'' 3], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Vespasian*.html#21 21]; [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Domitian*.html#12.3 ''Domitian'' 12.3]
*[[Dio Cassius]], ''Roman History'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/65*.html#66-14 66.14]
* William Smith (1870), ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology''

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caenis}}
[[Category:75 deaths]]
[[Category:1st-century Roman women]]
[[Category:1st-century Romans]]
[[Category:Emperor's slaves and freedmen]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Vespasian]]
[[Category:Mistresses of ancient Roman royalty]]
[[Category:Concubines]]