Falconia, Proba

, a Roman poetess, who flourished about 395, under the emperor Honorius, was a native of Horta, or Hortanum, in Etruria. There is still extant by her, a cento from Virgil, giving the sacred history from the creation to the deluge; and the history of Christ, in verses selected from that poet, introduced by a few lines of her own. Authors have sometimes confounded her with Anicia Falconia Proba, the mother of three consuls: and some have said she was that Valeria Proba, who was the wife of Adelfius, a proconsul. Her poem was first published with Ausonius, at Venice, 1472, under the title “Probae Falconiae, cento ^Virgilianus, seu Centimetrum de Christo, versibus Virgilianis compaginatum.” The last edition is that of Wolfius in the “Mulierum Grxcarum Frag.” Hamb. 1734, 4to. ²