Tusnilde
Germanic queen who became a slave following the Wars Against the Germans during which three legions of Varus (18,000 men) were massacred by the troops of Arminius (Hermann), her husband, in 9 AD in the Teutoburg Forest or Teutberg in North Rhine. Thusnelda (Tusnilde) was captured five years later by Germanicus at the Battle of Idistaviso and followed him to Antioch. Tusnilde was a valuable captive who returned to the father of Valeria, no doubt a close associate of Germanicus.
Her name, Tusnilde, Thusnelda has a Germanic origin with an unknown meaning.
What Maria Valtorta says
Valeria, a noble Roman, received her as a captive from Weddings, manumitted her[1] and made her her confidante.[2] She sometimes nicknamed her Barbara ("the stranger").[3]
Like Valeria, Tusnilde decided to embrace the faith in Jesus and attended, with her former mistress, the synagogue of the freedmen in Jerusalem.[4]
As the Trials of the Passion were approaching, Valeria (who had just undergone divorce) sent her with her daughter Fausta to Bether in the estate of her friend Jeanne de Kouza.[5]
Character and appearance
She was in her forties at the time of her encounter with Jesus as she was born in 10 BC. Of Germanic origin, one can imagine her as blonde with light eyes, but Maria Valtorta does not specify these details.
What historical sources say
The case of Tusnilde in Maria Valtorta has been studied separately by Jean-François Lavère[6] and by Father Antonio Sisto Rosso (o.f.m.)[7] who came to the same conclusions and dating. Here is what Jean-François Lavère says in The Valtorta Enigma, Volume 1, p. 170-172:
"Here is roughly what the historian Tacitus[8] tells us:In the year 15 AD, Germanicus raids against the Germans, pillages their villages and manages to capture Thusnelda, the wife of Arminius, who was handed over to him by her own father, Segestes, who wanted to avenge himself on Arminius. Indeed, although he had promised his daughter to someone else, she fled with Arminius and had married him after the victory at Teutoburg. Segestes and his clan were allies of Rome and opposed Arminius' policy, as did Flavus, Arminius' brother.
Thusnelda was taken to Rome to be exhibited during Germanicus' triumph[9]; she never saw her Homeland again and disappeared from history. All this is confirmed by Strabo[10]: "'one saw the triumphant (Germanicus) dragging behind him the most illustrious persons, men and women, of the Cherusci nation: namely the chief Segimund, son of Segestes, with his son Thumelic, a young child of three years, and his sister Thusnelda, wife of Arminius.'"
Gaius Julius Caesar (-15, +19) called "Germanicus" after his victory Against the Germans, was the son of Drusus and Antonia and older brother of Claudius. Appointed governor of Syria in the year 17, he was assassinated in Antioch (Syria) in 19. It is therefore perfectly plausible that Thusnelda, the enslaved princess, had to follow him to Antioch. At Germanicus' death, "recovered" by a notable close[11] to the late governor, she may have found herself a few years later in Palestine, near Valeria, the daughter of this notable.
What author, unless inspired, could have plausibly imagined to involve this Thusnelda, a little-known historical character?"
Germanicus, for his part, was the brother of Emperor Claudius, the nephew of Tiberius, the father of Caligula and the grandfather of Nero.
Further reading
- Read the work online in the 1985 translation.
- Read the work online in the 2016 translation.
- Search in the Valtorta Index.
- Discuss on the Maria Valtorta Forum.
Notes and references
- ↑ EMV 534.1
- ↑ EMV 583.12
- ↑ EMV 438.9
- ↑ 534.1
- ↑ EMV 583.14
- ↑ The Valtorta Enigma, Volume 1, p. 170-172, RSI ed., 2010
- ↑ Study published in the Bollettino valtortiano, No. 11, October 1974.
- ↑ Tacitus, Annals, Book 1, chapter 58 and following.
- ↑ "on the 7th day before the calends of June" in the year 16
- ↑ Strabo, Geography, Book 7,1 - Germania, 4.
- ↑ According to Maria Valtorta's text, this would be the father of Valeria, wife of Valerian.