person
Volumnia Cytheris
Cytheris
also: Cytheris, Lycoris
Celebrated mime-actress and courtesan, a freedwoman of P. Volumnius Eutrapelus (hence Volumnia); mistress of Mark Antony and later of the poet Cornelius Gallus (who called her Lycoris). Her presence at the dinner in Fam. 9.26 prompts Cicero's defence of his social ease.
Reading notes
- Ad Atticum 10.10 §5 carrying Cytheris around with him in an open litter, like a second wife
Volumnia Cytheris was a celebrated freedwoman mime-actress and Antony's mistress; parading her openly in a litter as though a married matron was a notorious scandal that Cicero recurs to with disgust. The litter was a curtained conveyance carried by bearers, normally reserved for respectable women.
- Ad Familiares 9.26 §1 below Eutrapelus reclined Cytheris
Volumnia Cytheris was a famous mime-actress and courtesan, a freedwoman of Eutrapelus and at this date the notorious mistress of Mark Antony (later the 'Lycoris' of the poet Cornelius Gallus). For a senior senator to dine in such company was mildly scandalous, which is exactly the reaction Cicero anticipates from Paetus and pre-empts.
- Second Philippic §58 but as Volumnia
The mime-actress Volumnia Cytheris, a freedwoman and Antony's mistress, who travelled with him through the Italian towns in an open litter; townsfolk greeted her by her respectable name Volumnia, not her stage name Cytheris.