Volumnia Cytheris
Illustration — Imaginary depiction of Mark Antony dressed as Hercules riding a chariot with Cytheris dressed as Iole. Pierre d'Hancarville, Monumens de la vie privée des douze Césars, 1782 Volumnia Cytheris (fl. 1st-century BC) was an ancient Roman actress and mimae dancer.
Also recorded as Lycoris · Volumnia · Cytheris · Cythera
Volumnia Cytheris

Pierre-Francois d'Hancarville · Public domain
- Born
- 70 · Rome.
- Nationality
- Ancient Rome
- Occupation
- mime artist · dancer · actress
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Illustration — Imaginary depiction of Mark Antony dressed as Hercules riding a chariot with Cytheris dressed as Iole. Pierre d'Hancarville, Monumens de la vie privée des douze Césars, 1782 Volumnia Cytheris (fl. 1st-century BC) was an ancient Roman actress and mimae dancer.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
No house-authored Note is published until its assertions and sources pass the VALÉORINE evidence contract. The documentary article remains available in full while that enrichment is being consolidated.
Documentary enrichment in progress · no unsupported statement published
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Volumnia Cytheris. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
not yet certified
- Identity
- unresolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
Authority files
wikidata · Q3832025 · wikipedia · Volumnia Cytheris
In this article
Biography
She is foremost known as the mistress of several famous Romans. Possibly born around 70 B.C, she was originally a slave of Publius Volumnius Eutrapelius but later became a freedwoman. On stage, she was normally referred to only as Cytheris. The name derived from "Cythera" a nickname for Aphrodite. She had relationships with Brutus and Mark Antony, which attracted a lot of attention in contemporary ancient Rome. She is mentioned as the companion of her aristocratic lovers in social occasions when the presence of a courtesan was otherwise not common, and considered shocking. Cicero's letters recount how embarrassed he was to go to a party that she also attended, and how offensive it was for Mark Antony to give her a place of dignity in his litter: "The tribune of the people was borne along in a chariot, lictors crowned with laurel preceded him; among whom, on an open litter, was carried an actress; whom honourable men, citizens of the different municipalities, coming out from their towns under compulsion to meet him, saluted not by the name by which she was well known on the stage, but by that of Volumnia. A car followed full of pimps; then a lot of debauched companions; and then his mother, utterly neglected, followed the mistress of her profligate son, as if she had been her daughter-in-law. O the disastrous fecundity of that miserable woman! Her rejection of Cornelius Gallus reportedly provided the theme for Virgil's tenth Eclogue. Gallus refers to her in his work under the name Lycoris, which alludes to one of the names "Lycoreus" the god Apollo, Greek god of music. She is one of few free influential Roman courtesans mentioned by her contemporaries, others being Praecia and Chelidon. Cytheris' fate is unknown and she is not mentioned in any sources after a certain point.
Volumnia Cytheris (born 70) is a mime artist, dancer and actress.

"Monumens de la vie privée des douze Césars"
Pierre d'Hancarville
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Die Identifikation der Freigelassenen des Publius Volumnius Eutrapelus, Volumnia, mit der Schauspielerin Cytheris beruht auf einer Interpretation, siehe Diese wird aber recht einhellig angenommen, siehe etwa
- 2.Alison Keith: Lycoris Galli/Volumnia Cytheris: a Greek Courtesan in Rome. In: Eugesta. Journal of Gender Studies in Antiquity. Nr. 1, 2011, S. 23–53 (online, PDF), hier S. 25–32.
- 3.Giusto Traina: Lycoris the Mime. In: Augusto Fraschetti (Hrsg.): Roman Women. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2001, S. 82–99, hier S. 91; übernommen von Alison Keith: Lycoris Galli/Volumnia Cytheris: a Greek Courtesan in Rome. In: Eugesta. Journal of Gender Studies in Antiquity. Nr. 1, 2011, S. 23–53 (online, PDF), hier S. 25, Anm. 10, 38.
- 4.Laut Cicero versprach Antonius Fulvia bei seiner Rückkehr aus Narbo im Herbst 45 v. Chr., seine Beziehung zu Cytheris abzubrechen: Cicero, Philippica 2,77.
- 5.De viris illustribus urbis Romae 82,2.
- 6.Zu Gallus Servius, Zu den Eklogen 10,1; 10,6.
- 7.Servius, Zu Ekloge 6,11. Vgl. Vergil, Eclogae 10,2–3.
- 8.Cicero, Epistulae ad familiares 9,26,1 (an Lucius Papirius Paetus), siehe Giusto Traina: Lycoris the Mime. In: Augusto Fraschetti (Hrsg.): Roman Women. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2001, S. 82–99, hier S. 95.
- 9.Plutarch, Antonius 9,4; Cicero, Philippica 2,58–62 (entstanden Herbst 44 v. Chr.); Cicero, epistulae ad Atticum 10,10,5 (3. Mai 49 v. Chr.); 10,16,5 (14. Mai 49 v. Chr.).
- 10.Alison Keith: Lycoris Galli/Volumnia Cytheris: a Greek Courtesan in Rome. In: Eugesta. Journal of Gender Studies in Antiquity. Nr. 1, 2011, S. 23–53 (online, PDF), hier S. 29. Vgl.
- 11.Alison Keith: Lycoris Galli/Volumnia Cytheris: a Greek Courtesan in Rome. In: Eugesta. Journal of Gender Studies in Antiquity. Nr. 1, 2011, S. 23–53 (online, PDF), hier S. 45.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 20 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Film memorabilia
37,284 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Volker von CollandePerson
- Volodymyr DakhnoPerson
- Volodymyr DenysenkoPerson
- Volodymyr TykhyiPerson
- Vondie Curtis-HallPerson
- Vonetta McGeePerson
- Voydan Popgeorgiev – ChernodrinskiPerson
- Vsevolod AksyonovPerson
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Volumnia Cytheris?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.