Faltonia Betitia Proba

Faltonia Proba teaching the history of the world since the Creation through her Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi. Miniature from a 15th-century manuscript of the De mulieribus claris by Giovanni Boccaccio

Faltonia Betitia Proba (c. AD 306/315 – c. 353/366) was a Latin Roman Christian poet, perhaps the earliest female Christian poet whose work survives. A member of one of the most influential aristocratic families, she composed the Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi, a cento composed with verses by Virgil re-ordered to form an epic poem centred on the life of Jesus.