Busa (Apulian noblewoman)

Busa was a noble Apulian woman from Canusium who lived during the third century BC. Paulina is sometimes believed to have been her given name and Busa is recorded as her principal family name.^[1]

Busa
Miniature from De mulieribus claris

Life

For the greatness of her acts, she received public honors from the Roman senate at the end of the war.^[2] The possibility of receiving public honors could have also been the motivation for Busa to lend aid to the soldiers.^[3]

Valerius Maximus sees her deeds as somewhat less heroic. Although he mentions her in Book VIII of his Memorable Deeds and Sayings (On Liberality), concerning people who show true judgment and honorable benevolence, because she did not impoverish herself by helping the Roman troops she cannot be compared with the likes of (for example) Fabius Maximus, who recovered prisoners from Hannibal but by doing so impoverished himself.^[4]

References

1. Römer, Franz (1994). "Busa: Eine livianische Frauengestalt bei Valerius Maximus und bei Boccaccio". Wiener Studien (in German). 107/108: 583–590. ISSN 0084-005X. JSTOR 24748862.
2. Livy. From the Founding of the City.
3. Fronda, Michael P. (2010-06-10). Between Rome and Carthage: Southern Italy during the Second Punic War. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-48862-4.
4. "Valerius Maximus, Book 4 (b)". www.attalus.org. Retrieved 2022-12-09.