Volusia Cornelia,^[1] also known as Cornelia Volusia^[2] was a Roman woman of Patrician status who lived in the late 1st century. She was the daughter of the senator Quintus Volusius Saturninus, suffect consul in 92.^[3] She was born and raised in Rome. Her cognomen Cornelia, she inherited from paternal great-grandmother Cornelia Lentula, the daughter of the consul of 3 BC, Lucius Cornelius Lentulus^[4] from the gens Cornelia.

Volusia is known through various surviving inscriptions. The evidence reveals she was a wealthy, distinguished woman^[5] of the Senatorial class.^[6] She owned a private luxurious villa in Nemi, the previous possession of the Roman emperor Caligula.^[1] In an area of the villa, Volusia restored a theatre.^[1] The theatre was used to entertained guests that happened to be at the villa, such as family members, friends sharing a vacation, neighboring villa-owners and notables invited to dinner.^[7] After the theatre was restored, her deed was recorded in a monumental inscription.^[1] which has decorative handles.^[8] One branch of the Volusii family had a praedium in the area of Nemi and a fistulae bearing the name of Volusia was also found.^[1]

The inscription which is dated from the mid-1st century^[8] reads in Latin which is translated in English:

volvsia q. f. cornelia theatrvm

vetvstate corrvptvm restitvit et excolivit

Volusia Cornelia, daughter of Quintus, restored and decorated the theatre damaged by age.^[9]

The plaque is on display at the National Museum of Rome. She was also a donor at the Sanctuary of Diana at Nemi.^[8]

The below funeral inscription is dedicated to commemorate the hairdresser of Volusia. The Latin inscription which is found in Rome reads in English:

To the Departed Spirits.

Elate, hairdresser of Cornelia Volusia

lived twenty years. Hellanicus (made this)

for a well-deserving wife. (CIL VI, 7296, Rome)^[10]

• The World of Class - Images of Class: Patrons - Volusia Cornelia
• B. Levick, Tiberius the Politician, Routledge, 1999
• Biographischer Index der Antike (Google eBook), Walter de Gruyter, 2001
• A. Marzano, Roman Villas in Central Italy: A Social and Economic History, BRILL, 2007
• C.M.C. Green, Roman Religion and the Cult of Diana of Aricia, Cambridge University Press, 2007
• S.R. Joshel, Slavery in the Roman World, Cambridge University Press, 2010