The Loggia dei Lanzi or Loggia della Signoria is a sculpture gallery in the Piazza della Signoria in Firenze. The gallery was built between 1376 and 1382 by Benci di Cione and Simone Talenti and is effectively an open-air sculpture gallery of antique and Renaissance art.
'More than any other piazza in Italy, the Piazza della Signoria evokes the antique world. (...) Some are antique Greek and Roman; some are Renaissance; some belong to the Mannerist epoch; one to the nineteenth century. Yet there is no disharmony among them; they seem all of a piece, one continuous experience, a coin periodically reminted. It is a sanguinary world they evoke.'

In the background in the Loggia are five marble statues of women (three are identified as Matidia, Marciana and Agrippina Minor, and a statue of the barbarian prisoner Thusnelda from Roman times from Trajan to Hadrian). They were discovered in Rome in 1541. The statues had been in the Medici villa in Rome since 1584 and were brought to Florence in 1789 [3].
Ulpia Marciana (August 48 – 112) was the beloved elder sister of Roman Emperor Trajan. She was the eldest child born to Roman woman Marcia and the Roman senator Marcus Ulpius Traianus. Her second name Marciana she inherited from her mother’s paternal ancestors. After 105, her brother awarded her with the title of Augusta.
Marciana married Gaius Salonius Matidius Patruinus. Patruinus was a wealthy man, who served as a praetor and later became a senator. Patruinus died in 78 and Marciana never remarried. After Patruinus’ death, Marciana and Matidia went to live with Trajan and his wife.
Trajan, who was childless, treated his niece Matidia as if she were his own daughter.
Agrippina minor (ca. 15 - 59) also took an active part in dynastic politics and would also give political advice to her husband Claudius and her son Nero.

Thusnelda, (details), Romens beeld in de Loggia dei Lanzi, Piazza della Signoria [0]

The statues were discovered in Rome and were in the Capranica della Valle collection as early as 1541, a collection that was completely purchased by Cardinal Ferdinando I de 'Medici in 1584, after which the statues were moved to the Villa Medici in Rome. Since 1787 they belong to the 'Medici collection in Firenze, in 1789 they were placed under the Loggia dei Lanzi.

Thusnelda

Thusnelda (c. 10 BC – unknown) was a Germanic noblewoman who was captured by the Roman general Germanicus during his invasion of Germania. She was the wife of Arminius. Tacitus and Strabo cite her capture as evidence of both the firmness and restraint of Roman arms.
Thusnelda was the daughter of the pro-Roman Cheruscan prince Segestes. In 9 AD, Arminius, Thusnelda's future husband, led a coalition of Germanic tribes that defeated the legions of Publius Quinctilius Varus at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. The conflict between the Roman Empire and the Germanic tribes continued after the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, and Arminius abducted and impregnated Thusnelda circa 14 AD, likely as a result of a dispute with her pro-Roman father.[1]

In May 15 AD, Thusnelda was captured by Germanicus, who commanded the invasion of Germania. She was pregnant and staying with her father, who had seized her from Arminius at some point. It was Segestes who delivered her to Germanicus, after the latter saved the former by driving off Arminius' forces, who had besieged Segestes.[2] Arminius grieved his loss of Thusnelda deeply and did not marry again.[3] According to Tacitus, Arminius was "driven to frenzy" by the loss of his wife.[4][5]

Statue of a Barbarian prisoner, so-called Thusnelda”. Marble, Roman artwork of the period of Trajan or Hadrian (2nd century CE) with modern restorations. Found in Rome; in the Capranica della Valle Collection, 1541; at the Villa Medicis in Rome, 1584; in Florence since 1787, installed at the Loggia dei Lanzi in 1789.