Among the collected works of the love elegist Tibullus (ca. 55–19 BC) are preserved six short poems that provide a rare example of the survival of classical Latin poetry by a woman. The larger collection, the so-called Carmina Tibulliana ("Poems from the circle of Tibullus") or Appendix Tibulliana, is counted as the third and final book of the Tibullan corpus. It consists of twenty poems by various authors in the orbit of Tibullus’s patron, the highly literate statesman and general Messala (in full, Marcus Valerius Messala Corvinus, 64 BC – AD 8; he was also a friend of Horace and Ovid). Poems 3.1–6 are by someone who calls himself "Lygdamus"; 3.7 is a poem in praise of Messalla; 3.8–12 are by a friend of Sulpicia; 3.13–18 are by Sulpicia; and 3.19–20 are by unknown author, perhaps Tibullus himself.
Sulpicia gives to her lover the name Cerinthus (3.14.2), a Greek pseudonym of the sort that male poets usually gave to disguise the identity of their beloved. By contrast, Sulpicia is quite forthcoming about herself. In the space of about forty lines of poetry she tells us her name and the name of her father, Servius (3.16.4, evidently the son of Servius Sulpicius Rufus, the consul of 51 BC and admired friend of Cicero). In addition to her parentage, she indicates that she is young (3.18.3), that her family has property in Etruria (3.14.4), and that Messalla is her kinsman and guardian (3.14.5–6). Servius married Messalla’s sister, Valeria, which would make Sulpicia Messalla's niece. In any case, she counts as a member of the highest Roman nobility, writing during the turbulent transition between Republic and Principate.
For further introduction and commentary, see especially Laurel Fulkerson's A Literary Commentary on the Elegies of the Appendix Tibulliana (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017). On Sulpicia’s Latin, which is at times unusual and difficult, see N.J. Lowe, “Sulpicia’s Syntax,” Classical Quarterly 38 (1988): 193–205.