A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Eponina
EPONINA,
Wife of Julius Sabinus. a Roman general, native of Langres, has been called the heroine of conjugal affection. During the struggles of Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian, for the sovereignty of Rome, Sabinus, who pretended to trace his lineage to Julius Cæsar by casting an imputation on the chastity of his grandmother, put in his claim to the throne. Being defeated, and an immense reward offered for his head, he assembled his few faithful friends, and acknowledging his gratitude towards them, he expressed his resolution of not surviving his misfortunes, but of setting his house on fire and perishing in the flames. They remonstrated in vain, and at length were obliged to leave him, in order to preserve their own lives. To a freedman of the name of Martial, he alone imparted his real intention, which was to conceal himself in a subterranean cavern, which had communication with his house. The superb mansion of Sabinus was then set on fire, and the report of his death, with the attendant circumstances, was sent immediately to Vespasian, and soon reached Eponina's ears. Frantic with grief, she resolved to put an end to her life also. For three days she refused every kind of nourishment, when Martial, hearing of her violent sorrow, contrived to disclose to her the truth, but advised her to continue the semblance of grief, lest suspicions should arise; but at night he conducted her to the cavern, which she left before daybreak.
Frequent were the excuses which Eponina made to her friends for her absences from Rome; and after a time, she not only visited her husband in the evening, but passed whole days with him in the cavern. At length her apprehensions were excited by her situation; but by rubbing a poisonous ointment upon herself, she produced a swelling in her legs and arms, so that her complaint was thought to be a dropsy; she then retired to the cave, and without any medical assistance, she gave birth to a boy. For nearly nine years she continued to visit her husband in his solitude, and during that period twice became a mother. At length her frequent absences were noticed, she was watched, and her secret discovered.
Loaded with chains, Sabinus was brought before Vespasian, and condemned to die, Eponina threw herself at the feet of the emperor, and implored him to spare her husband; and, at the same time, she presented her two children to him, who joined in the solicitation, with tears and entreaties. Vespasian, however, remained inflexible, and Eponina, rising with an air of dignity, said, "Be assured that I know how to contemn life; with Sabinus I have existed nine years in the bowels of the earth, and with him I am resolved to die." She perished with her husband about seventy-eight years after the Christian era,