Quintilia (1st century) was an Ancient Roman stage performer - a pantomime dancer and actress. She was a famed beauty during the reign of

Caligula Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (31 August 12 – 24 January 41), also called Gaius and Caligula (), was Roman emperor from AD 37 until his assassination in 41. He was the son of the Roman general Germanicus and Augustus' granddaughter Ag ...

. She was the lover of the senator Pompedius. A rival of Pompedius, senator Timidius, reported Pompedius to Caligula and claimed that Quintilia had knowledge of a plot against Caligula. Caligula had Quintilia arrested and severely tortured (according to

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

, the man who tortured her was actually

Cassius Chaerea Cassius Chaerea () was a Roman soldier and officer who served as a tribune in the army of Germanicus and in the Praetorian Guard under the emperor Caligula, whom he eventually assassinated in AD 41. According to Tacitus, before Chaerea's servic ...

, who eventually plotted Caligula's assassination). She revealed nothing, and was finally released and financially compensated by Caligula. Her loyalty toward Pompedius was praised as a role model by

and

Suetonius Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is ''De vita Caesarum'', common ...

in a rare instance when a stage performer, a profession with a very low status at that time, was praised as a role model.Jan Sewell, Clare Smout,
The Palgrave Handbook of the History of Women on Stage
'

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quintilia Ancient actresses 1st-century Roman women 1st-century Romans Ancient Roman actors Ancient Roman theatre practitioners Caligula Ancient Roman dancers Quinctilii