Born: Unknown, Italy (assumed)
Died: 42
Country most active: Italy
Also known as: Arria Major
From Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company:
Arria, the heroic wife of the Roman Caecina Paetus, who, for treason to the Emperor Claudius, was ordered to end his own life by suicide (in A. D. 42).
When Paetus hesitated, she seized the dagger, drove it to the hilt into her own breast, and then handed it to him, saying calmly, “Paetus, it does not hurt. She fell dead, and the husband at once dispatched himself with the same weapon.