Death of Virginia
Artist: Henry Tresham RA (Irish-born British, c.1751-1814)
Date: 1797
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom
Description
This work illustrates a Roman story dating from ca. 450 BC, in which the centurion Virginus stabbed his daughter, Virginia, to protect her from the lust of a cruel consul, Appius Claudius Crassus. Virginus put his daughter’s honor before her life. This event brought about an uprising and the eventual fall of the ruling Decemvir, who were renowned for abusing their power.
Historical Summary
Appius Claudius, the leader of the tyrannical decemvirs (a ruling board of ten men), developed an obsessive lust for Virginia, a beautiful, freeborn plebeian woman engaged to a former tribune. When Virginia refused his advances, Appius conspired with one of his clients to abduct her. The client publicly claimed that Virginia was not the centurion's daughter, but an escaped slave who belonged to him.
The case was brought before a court where Appius Claudius himself was the presiding judge. Despite overwhelming evidence that Virginia was a freeborn Roman, the corrupt magistrate ruled in favor of his client and ordered her to be immediately handed over.
Knowing he could not legally save his daughter from enslavement and potential assault, Virginius pleaded to take her aside to say goodbye. Once away from the crowd, he grabbed a butcher's knife and fatally stabbed her, declaring that he was preserving her liberty in the only way left to him.
Virginius carried the bloody knife back to the Roman army encamped outside the city. The outraged soldiers and plebeian citizens rose up, marching on Rome to demand justice. The uprising led to the permanent abolition of the decemvirate and the restoration of the traditional Roman Republic with elected consuls. Appius Claudius was imprisoned and took his own life in captivit
