Download Sparring with Stereotypes: Demystifying Women and Power in

 Sparring with Stereotypes: Demystifying Women and Power in Antiquity Jennifer Marie Gray Honors Summer Research 2013 Advisors: Dr. Eric Casey and Dr. Lynn Laufenberg Gray 2
Women who were perceived to exercise any degree of political power in antiquity were
considered anomalies and tended to be viewed with fear and suspicion, if not outright hatred by
their contemporaries and later authors. This was especially true of women in classical Athens
and Rome where women were formally excluded from the government. Monarchies such as
those present in the Hellenistic kingdoms were slightly more favorably disposed toward women
with power as royal women possessed the ability to transmit the bloodline and safeguard it for
their own children and grandchildren, preferably sons or grandsons. However, outside of such
kingdoms this was not well understood and authors writing from the perspective of a different
culture and across the distance of time often confused the matter. By examining four women
“Aspasia of Miletus,” “Olympias of Molossia,” “Cleopatra VII of Egypt” and “Livia of Rome”
who were perceived by their contemporaries to occupy positions of political power a disturbing
trend of stereotypical accusations is uncovered. As they were influenced by contemporary
cultural prejudices, the ancient sources, criticized powerful women for actions which would not
have aroused condemnation had they been committed by men and which may have been viewed
differently by the women’s own societies. Commentators nearly always ascribed personal, rather
than political, motivations for these women’s actions. This is in stark contrast to actions of a
similar nature undertaken by male rulers which were universally viewed as purely political.
The Women Aspasia of Miletus (c.470-c.420 BCE, Athens) comes down to scholars in fragments as
the mistress of Pericles, the most celebrated and influential statesman of Athens’ Golden Age.
Although she was mentioned in a surprising number of ancient sources, due to the extremely
fragmentary and unusual nature of the documents (which are largely comedies and philosophical
Gray 3
texts) and the relatively late date of much of the evidence, very little can be said with any degree
of certainty about her. She began to be mythologized during her own lifetime, and this process
continued for hundreds of years after her death. Scholars agree she was a metic, a resident alien.1
She is also widely assumed to have been a hetaera—a special class of courtesan valued as highly
cultured companions by male members of the Athenian aristocracy. However, the evidence to
support such a view is inconclusive and more recent scholarship suggests it is more likely she
was Pericles’s pallake, concubine or common-law wife.2 She is generally believed to have been
the mother of Pericles’s illegitimate son, Pericles the younger.3
Primary documents from her lifetime suggest that through her relationship with Pericles,
Aspasia was accused of influencing the politics of the Athenian State. Described as intelligent
and charismatic, a scholar and skilled rhetorician, Aspasia was also accused in the basest
possible terms of being a whore, even of running a brothel, and most damningly, of using the
combination of her intelligence and sexuality to persuade Pericles into going to war against the
interests of the Athenian State.
Olympias of Molossia (c.373-316 BCE, Macedonia) was one of the wives of Philip II of
Macedon and the mother of Alexander the Great.4 During her son’s reign, she exercised political
authority in both Macedonia and Molossia.5 It was during this period that she and Antipater,
whom Alexander had delegated to be in charge of military affairs in Macedonia and Greece
1
Madeleine M. Henry, Prisoner of History: Aspasia of Miletus and Her Biographical Tradition. Oxford and New
York: Oxford University Press, 1995. pg. 11; Anthony J. Podlecki, Perikles and His Circle. London and New York:
Routledge, 1998. pg. 109.
2
Henry, Prisoner, pg. 14; Podlecki, Perikles, pg. 115.
3
Henry, Prisoner, pg. 15; Podlecki, Perikles, pg. 109-110.
4
Elizabeth Carney. Olympias: Mother of Alexander the Great. New York and London: Routledge, 2006 pg. xi-xii.
Philip was polygamous.
5
Elizabeth Carney. “Women and the Basileia: Legitimacy and Female Political Action in Macedonia." The
Classical Journal 90.4 (1995): 367-391. pg. 372. Carney. Olympias, pg. 49-53.
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during his absence, became rivals for power.6 Their mutual animosity would later lead to
dynastic warfare. Throughout his campaigns, Alexander exchanged letters with Olympias and
according to the ancient sources, she often advised him on political matters.7 After Alexander’s
untimely death, Olympias continued to live in Molossia until 317, when she assumed the role of
guardian for his son, Alexander IV. She then returned to Macedonia where she undertook an
active role in the government of the kingdom.8 However, Macedonia was seriously unstable
during this period and only a year later, following the defeat of the troops under the command of
her generals. Olympias was deposed by Cassander, the son of Antipater, who desired to rule
Macedonia.9 She was taken prisoner after a prolonged siege and executed upon Cassander’s
command.10
Olympias was vilified by authors writing during the Roman period for actions which
would not have aroused much comment had they been committed by the men of her era.11 She
was accused of ruthless brutality, exceptional cruelty, and murder, as well as poisoning and
casting spells to ensure her son inherited the throne of Macedon. The motivation behind her
actions is always said to have been personal rather than political.12
Cleopatra VII of Egypt (69-30 BCE, Ptolemaic Egypt) was the last of Ptolemaic pharaohs
of Egypt and the last ruler of an independent Egypt until the 20th century.13 Cleopatra, however,
6
Carney. Olympias, pg. 41.
Carney. Olympias, pg. 53-59; Carney, “Women and the Basileia” pg. 378.
8
Carney. Olympias, pg. 71-77.
9
Carney. Olympias, pg. 81.
10
Carney. Olympias, pg. 82-84.
11
Elizabeth Carney. "Olympias and the Image of the Virago." Phoenix 47.1 (1993): 29-55. 6 June 2013. pg. 41 and
49.
12
Carney. Olympias, pg. 79.
13
Stacy Schiff. Cleopatra: A Life. New York, Boston, and London: Little Brown and Company, 2010. pg. 209.
7
Gray 5
was not Egyptian.14 The Ptolemies were Macedonian in origin, the descendants of one of
Alexander the Great’s successors, Ptolemy I.15 The daughter of Ptolemy XII, she ruled Egypt in
her own right for twenty-two years. Throughout her reign, she instituted reforms and passed laws
that revitalized the Egyptian State. She engaged in political stratagems, including war to expand
the power and territory of Egypt and her dynasty. However, she is primarily remembered for her
sexual liaisons with two Roman political figures, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. During his
stay in Alexandria, Julius Caesar became involved in a relationship with Cleopatra, which
resulted in the birth of their son, Ptolemy Caesarian, in the early summer of 47 BCE.16 Six years
later and three years after Caesar’s assassination she became involved in a relationship with
Mark Antony, with whom she had three children. Her relationship with Antony defined her role
in history due to the political propaganda circulated by the Roman State under Antony’s rival
Octavian Caesar, who later renamed himself Augustus. She is remembered as a ruthless
manipulator and a sexual siren who weakened men and fruitlessly dared to defy Rome, rather
than as a political strategist who did much to advance her state or as a leader who defended her
country’s independence from a predatory Rome.17
14
Diane E.E Kleiner. Cleopatra and Rome. Cambridge and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,
2005pg. 18. Schiff. Cleopatra: A Life. pg. 20. See also Joyce Tyldesley. Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt. London:
Profile Books, 2008. pgs. 1-32. Some scholars have argued that Cleopatra may have been partially Egyptian but
there is no evidence to support this hypothesis, only a question mark on Cleopatra’s family tree where her paternal
grandmother should be located. For a discussion of this and the reasons for the highly charged nature of the debate
see Sally-Ann Ashton. "Cleopatra – Black and Beautiful?" Cleopatra and Egypt. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing,
2008. 1-13. Certain scholars have also questioned the identity of her mother, although she is generally believed to
have been Cleopatra V. For an argument that Cleopatra’s mother was Egyptian see Duane W. Roller. Cleopatra: A
Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. pg. 15-19 and 165-167.
15
Kleiner Cleopatra and Rome pg. 18; Schiff. Cleopatra: A Life pg. 20.
16
Schiff. Cleopatra: A Life pg. 81, 83, and 85; Roller. Cleopatra: A Biography pg. 64 and 72; The ancient sources
were divided in their assessment of the paternity of the child. See Tyldesley, Last Queen pg.100-101. Modern
scholars, however, almost universally accept that Caesar was the father of Ptolemy Caesarian.
17
Schiff. Cleopatra: A Life. pg. 297-302.
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Livia (58 BCE-29 CE, Rome) was the wife of Octavian Caesar, later Augustus and the
mother by her first husband, Tiberius Nero, of the Emperor Tiberius.18 Given her power and
influence, she could be considered the first Roman empress and co-founder of the Julio-Claudian
dynasty. All subsequent Julio-Claudian emperors were descended from her “Tiberius”,
“Caligula”, “Claudius”, and “Nero.” Only two, “Caligula” and “Nero” were descended from
Augustus.19 By birth Livia was a member of one of the most powerful and eminent families of
the old nobility, the Claudii.20 Additionally, through her father’s adoption, she was related to the
Livii, a prominent noble family who were popular throughout Italy.21 With her distinguished
bloodline and important connections, Livia brought Octavian, who possessed plebeian origins,
status and the grudging acceptance of the aristocracy.22 Documents indicate that Augustus was
believed to have listened to her advice on political matters, and that she possessed an even
greater degree of influence and far more political power during the reign of her son.23 She was a
religious, cultural, and political patron and in the official iconography of the Roman State was
depicted as the ideal wife and mother.24 However, separate from her official reputation is another
darker portrait of Livia as she was portrayed by later authors Chief amongst them was Tacitus,
18
After Augustus’s death, Livia was adopted into his family and officially took the name Julia Augusta. However, to
avoid confusion I will refer to her as Livia throughout.
19
Annelise Freisenbruch. Caesars' Wives: Sex, Power and Politics in the Roman Empire. New York and London:
Free Press, 2010. pg. 95.
20
Anthony A. Barrett. Livia: First Lady of Imperial Rome. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002.
Pg. 4-6; Freisenbruch. Caesars' Wives pg. 2-3.
21
Barrett. Livia, pg. 6-7; Freisenbruch. Caesars' Wives pg. 2-3.
22
Barrett. Livia, pg. 22; Jasper Burns. "Livia: First Lady of the Empire." Great Women of Imperial Rome: Mothers
and Wives of the Caesars. New York: Routledge, 2006. 5-24. See in particular pg. 7.
23
Barrett. Livia, pg. 125,129, 131-134, 147, 154-166; Suetonius. “Tiberius”. The Lives of Caesars. Trans. Catharine
Edwards. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. pg. 122.
24
Barrett. Livia, pg. 124-126.
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who thought her ruthlessly ambitious and accused her of many despicable actions such as
poisoning her rivals for power including even her own family members.25
The Accusations Despite the differences in their cultures of origin and the time periods in which they
lived, in examining the surviving sources from antiquity which commented on these women’s
lives the same allegations appeared again and again in two or more of the women’s cases.26 In
total, thirteen recurrent accusations were identified. These accusations were stereotypical in
nature and fluid in character. Commonly, in the space of a single passage multiple accusations
can be detected as one charge often leads directly into another.27 As can be seen below these
charges often assign blame diverting readers from the real political struggles and problems of the
era.
Politics is a Male Affair: Interfering Female Interlopers The primary accusation against all four women was interfering in the political sphere,
which at least according to the commenters was the sole purview of men. All of the other
accusations against these women stem from this perceived trespass.
25
See Tacitus. The Annals. Trans. A.J. Woodman. Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 2004;
Suetonius. The Lives; Cassius Dio. Dio's Roman History. Trans. Earnest Carey. Vol.VI and VII. London and New
York: William Heinemann and G.P. Puntnam's Sons, 1914. IX vols.
Thirteen accusations appeared in multiple women’s cases. Unfortunately, the nature of this project precluded a
thorough analysis of each accusation. Consequently, out of necessity I chose to analyze the ones which seemed to be
the most revealing. See Appendix A for a complete list of the accusations against the women and their charted
frequency.
27
Some accusations could be considered to have a prerequisite in another accusation for example one cannot be
accused of being a prostitute without also being at least implicitly accused of sexual promiscuity.
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The earliest sources to accuse Aspasia of involvement in the politics were Attic
comedies. They constitute the entirety of the available contemporary evidence on Aspasia, as
they are the only sources known to have been composed during her lifetime.28 Old Comedy, as
the initial form of Attic comedy is called was “the premier nexus of discourses on sexuality,
power and intellect in the fifth century.” 29 Much of Old Comedy functioned as a form of
political satire in which the leading figures of the day were mocked on stage, often for their real
or imagined excesses.30 As the most powerful statesman of his era, Pericles was a favorite target
of the comic poets. It is in political satires aimed at discrediting Pericles that Aspasia first
appears in the records.
Cratinus (5th Century BCE) was likely the first comic poet to mention Aspasia.31 The
surviving fragments of his play Cheirons which reference Aspasia are believed to have formed a
part of the parabasis, a section of the play where the poet directly addresses the audience via the
comic chorus.32
Stasis and elderborn Time,
mating with one another
birthed a very great tyrant
whom the gods call ‘head-gatherer.’ (258 K-A)
Shameless Lust bears him Hera-Aspasia,
a dog-eyed concubine (259 K-A).33
28
Henry, Prisoner, pg. 19.
Henry, Prisoner, pg. 19. Attic comedy survives almost entirely in fragments. Of all the plays produced by the
comic poets only eleven, survive in their entirety. All of the surviving plays are the work of a single author,
Aristophanes.
30
Henry, Prisoner, pg. 19-29.
31
Henry, Prisoner, pg. 19.
32
Bonnie MacLachlan, Women in Ancient Greece: A Sourcebook . London and New York: Continuum, 2012. pg.
95.
33
Fragments 258 K-A and 259 K-A from Cratinus’ Cheirons as translated by Madeleine M. Henry in Prisoner of
History: Aspasia of Miletus and Her Biographical Tradition pg. 20.
29
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The fragments are highly abusive in tone and reflect dissatisfaction with the amount of power
Pericles’s had accumulated and his political polices as well as immense hostility towards
Aspasia.34 Pericles, who was routinely mocked in comedy for his large head, is accused of not
following the democratic principles of the Athenian state but rather ruling the city as an autocrat
or even as a god. The mock epithet “head-gatherer” associates him with Zeus.35 Zeus was
commonally called Cloud-Gatherer in Homer and the term head-gather appears to be a mocking
variation on this title.36 By the time of Old Comedy, the term tyrant had severely negative
connotations in Athenians’ minds as their democratic government was a point of pride they
believed set them apart from the other Greek city-states.
Aspasia is insulted in a way typical of women in comedy, i.e. sexually. She is said to
have been born of Katapygosyne, the closest English approximation of which is “shameless
lust.”37 Henry states that the translation of this word is problematic as it is impossible in English
to fully articulate its vulgarity and exceptionally abusive nature.38 In stating that Aspasia was
born of the personification of Katapygosyne, Cratinus figuratively transforms her into a repulsive
and shameful abomination.39 It is through Cratinus’s allusion to her as Hera, who is called “dog
eyed” by Hephaestus in Book 18 of the Iliad, that Aspasia is accused of trespassing into the
political realm.40 In associating her with Hera, the wife of Zeus, he claims that Pericles has
allowed her an official place in the state as his “co-tyrant” and his life, to which Cratinus’
34
Henry, Prisoner, pg. 20.
Podlecki, Perikles pg. 169 and 172; Henry, Prisoner, pg. 21.
36
Henry, Prisoner, pg 21.
37
Henry, Prisoner, pg 21.
38
Prisoner, pg. 21.
39
Henry, Prisoner, pg 21.
40
Henry, Prisoner, pg 21 Iliad 18.396.
35
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reference to her as a pallake, concubine, clearly indicates she is not entitled.41 The accusation
was made all the more damning and the illegitimacy of Aspasia’s position further underscored by
her status as a woman and a foreigner which prohibited her from involvement in Athenian
politics.42
The chronicles and histories which were written during Olympias’ lifetime and shortly
after her death are no longer extant. The earliest surviving sources to mention Olympias were
written by Greek and Roman authors hundreds of years after her death. These writers objected to
the degree of political power which Olympias appears to have possessed during the reign of her
son and especially during her regency for her grandson Alexander IV.43 The authors’ lack of
familiarity with the culture of fourth-century Macedon and their own societies’ views on
women’s involvement in politics and public life influenced the way in which they interpreted
Olympias’ actions.44 Although these authors were ostensibly writing histories or biographies,
they included a greater degree of personal opinion than would be considered acceptable today.45
Many of the histories and biographies, written during the Roman period were intended to serve a
moralizing purpose and events were depicted in a manner consistent with this method. Facts
were often considered to be of less importance than the intended moral of the tale.46 Consider
41
Henry, Prisoner, pg 21 and 22; It is likely that Cratinus was referring to Hera’s manipulative and deceptive aspect
as demonstrated by her role in distracting Zeus in Iliad book 14. Anton Powell. "Athens’ Pretty Face: Anti-Feminine
Rhetoric and Fifth-Century Controversy Over the Parthenon." Greek World. Ed. Anton Powell. London: Routledge,
1997. Book 14 245-272. pg. 259. That Aspasia through her influence over Pericles is said to have convinced him to
go to war with Samos to defend her native Miletus furthers this connection with Homer as Hera only seduces Zeus
in Iliad 14 in order to distract him so that the Greeks can defeat the Trojans in the current battle. Plutarch. "Pericles."
Greek Lives. Ed. Philip A Stadter. Trans. Robin Waterfield. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
140-179. pg. 165; Homer. Iliad Book 14.
42
Roger Just, Women in Athenian Law and Life. New York: London and New York: Routledge, 1989. pg. 21.
43
Elizabeth Carney. "Olympias and the Image of the Virago." Phoenix 47.1 (1993): 29-55.pg. 35 and 44.
44
Carney. " Image of the Virago." pg. 35 and 44.
45
Barrett. Livia, pg. 229.
46
Carney. Olympias, pg. 79, 125-137; Schiff. Cleopatra pg.5-6 .
Gray 11
Plutarch’s, a prolific writer of 2nd century CE whose Life of Alexander is a major source for
Olympias, admission of his preference for certain types of information:
I am not writing history, but lives…And so, just as a painter reproduces his
likeness by concentrating on the face and the expression of the eyes, by means of
which the character is revealed, and pays hardly any attention to the rest of the
body, I must be allowed to devote more time to those aspects which indicate a
person’s mind and to use these to portray the life of each of my subjects, while
leaving their major exploits and battles to others.47
Plutarch wrote his biographies, the Parallel Lives, in pairs: a Greek life was paired with a Roman
life. He magnified certain events beyond all proportion while completely ignoring others. He was
interested in drawing comparisons between the lives and providing moral examples, not in
writing the life of an individual as it actually occurred.48
Diodorus Siculus composed a history of the Mediterranean in the latter half of the firstcentury BCE.49 His is the earliest surviving account of Olympias’ career. Although she appears
only rarely during Diodorus’ description of the reign of her son Alexander, she takes on a new
importance in the narrative and appears more frequently following his death.50 His account of her
actions following her return to power in Macedon is typical of the surviving sources.51 After
relating several instances of Olympias’ supposed savagery involving the elimination or
weakening of rivals for power, he states:
47
Plutarch. "Alexander." Greek Lives. Ed. Philip A Stadter. Trans. Robin Waterfield. Oxford and New York: Oxford
University Press, 1998. 312-381. pg. 312 Additionally, Plutarch’s Life of Pericles and Life of Antony are generally
considered the best sources for Aspasia and Cleopatra respectively.
48
Tyldesley, Last Queen pg. 209-210; Carney. Olympias, pg. 132; Some of Plutarch’s works such as his Life of
Antony were “cautionary tales.” Schiff. Cleopatra: A Life pg. 186.
49
Carney. Olympias, pg.125.
50
Carney. Olympias, pg. 125-126.
51
Carney. Olympias, pg. 75-76.
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…She soon caused many of the Macedonians to hate her ruthlessness; for all of
them remembered the words of Antipater, who, as if uttering a prophecy on his
death bed, advised them to never permit a woman to rule the kingdom. (19.11.9)52
Justin (Third century CE) similarly states:
Olympias did not rule for long either. Acting more like a woman than a monarch,
she resorted to the wholesale slaughter of the nobility and turned the support she
had gained into hatred. (14.6.1)53
Both Diodorus and Justin condemned Olympias for what they viewed as her excessive
brutality.54 They regarded her purportedly vicious actions as a demonstration of poor political
ability and associated both her alleged cruelty and supposed inability to rule effectively with her
gender.55 Yet the actions for which she was vilified were commonly committed during the period
of the Successors and incited much less interest and censure when committed by her male
contemporaries.56 Diodorus and Justin were both prone to moralizing and suggested that
Olympias’ actions somehow divinely justified her own later murder.57
As with Olympias, the histories and chronicles, which were written during Cleopatra’s
lifetime and after her death have been lost. Although mentioned in several literary sources dating
from the reign of Augustus, the principal sources which describe her life date from the first
through third centuries CE, between one hundred and three hundred years after her death.58 They
were all written by men writing under the auspices of the Roman Empire from the perspective of
the victorious side and, similar to the sources which document Olympias, many were primarily
52
Diodorus of Sicily. Diodorus of Sicily. Trans. C. Bradford Welles. Vol. 9, Cambridge and London: Harvard
University Press, 1967. 12 vols. pg. 259.
53
Justin. Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus, Trans J.C. Yardley, Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1994
pg. 136. Justin composed an epitome, condensed version, of an earlier history written during the reign of the
Emperor Augustus. Carney. Olympias, pg. 128.
54
Carney, Olympias, pg. 75, 127 and 129.
55
Carney. Olympias, pg. 126-129 .
56
Carney. “Image of the Virago." pg. 41 and 49.
57
Carney. “Image of the Virago." pg. 43-44.
58
Schiff. Cleopatra: A Life, pg. 5-6.
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intended to serve a propagandistic purpose, as moral exemplum, or to be entertaining rather than
factual.59
Cassius Dio wrote a history of Rome from mythical times until 229 CE.60 As a historian,
he is known for his inability to resist relating sensational stories regardless of their veracity.61
Unfortunately, due to the scarcity of the surviving evidence he is regarded as one of the best
sources of information on Cleopatra’s life.62 The following excerpt is taken from his recounting
of a speech allegedly given by Octavian to rally his troops against the enemy just prior to the
battle of Actium. The speech demonstrates the Roman perception of the political power wielded
by Cleopatra and fear of her influence:
We Romans are the rulers of the greatest and best parts of the world, yet we find
ourselves trampled upon by a woman of Egypt. This disgraces our fathers…it
disgraces our own generation, who have conquered the Gauls, subdued the
Pannonians, marched behind the Rhine, and crossed the sea to Britain. The men
who achieved these feats of arms I have named would be cut to the heart if ever
they knew we have been overcome by this pestilence of a woman. Would we not
utterly dishonor ourselves if, after surpassing all nations in valor, we meekly
endured the insults of this rabble, the natives of Alexandria and Egypt…they are
most forward in their effrontery but most backward in their courage. Worst of all,
they [the Egyptians] are not ruled by a man, but are the slaves of a woman, and
yet they have dared to claim our possessions, and to employ our fellowcountrymen to lay their hands on them, as if we would ever consent to surrender
the prosperity which belongs to us. (50.24) 63
Dio has Octavian glorify Rome and the deeds of his fellow Romans in order to incite animosity
against Cleopatra and her forces in his legions before what Dio, writing over two-hundred years
59
Diane E.E. Kleiner. Cleopatra and Rome. Cambridge and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University
Press, 2005. Pg. 3-4.
60
Cassius Dio. The Roman History: The Reign of Augustus. Trans. Ian Scott-Kilvert. London: Penguin Classics,
1987. Forward.
61
Barrett. Livia, pg. 237.
62
Duane W. Roller. Cleopatra: A Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. pg. 8; Schiff. Cleopatra: A
Life, pg. 5-7.
63
Dio. The Reign of Augustus. pg. 53.
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later, knew to be the great battle of Actium, which was critical to Octavian’s eventual victory
against Cleopatra and Antony.64 Dio’s Octavian stressed the humiliation, utter abasement that
Rome would suffer if defeated by a woman.65 The passage also misleadingly suggested that only
the Egyptians fought against Rome when, in reality, many of the kingdoms to the east of Rome
allied themselves with Cleopatra and Antony and fought against Octavian’s legions.66 Dio
further played upon the propaganda Octavian had disseminated against Cleopatra, which claimed
that she desired to conquer Rome. He emphasized the foreignness of the Egyptians, especially in
allowing themselves to be ruled by a woman, appealing to Roman xenophobia and misogyny.67
Very few contemporary sources have survived from the Julio-Claudian period.68
Consequently, as in the cases of Olympias and Cleopatra, the majority of sources which describe
Livia’s actions were written many years after her death and relied as much, if not more, on rumor
and anecdote as on fact. The traditional Roman discomfort with women’s proximity to power
featured prominently in these sources.
Cassius Dio, in his Roman History, had the following to say about Livia during the reign
of her son Tiberius:
…she [Livia] occupied a very exalted station, far above all women of former
days, so that she could at any time receive the senate and such of the people who
wished to greet her in her house; and this fact was entered into the public records.
The letters of Tiberius bore for a time her name also, and communications were
addressed to both alike. Except that she never ventured to enter the senatechamber or the camps or the public assemblies, she undertook to manage
everything as if she were sole ruler. For in the time of Augustus she had possessed
the greatest influence and she always declared that it was she who had made
Tiberius emperor; consequently she was not satisfied to rule on equal terms with
him but wished to take precedence over him. (47.12)69
64
Adrian Goldsworthy. Antony and Cleopatra. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010. pg. 368-369.
Schiff. Cleopatra: A Life, pg. 247-248.
66
Schiff. Cleopatra: A Life, pg. 249-250.
67
Schiff. Cleopatra: A Life, pg. 247-248.
68
Barrett. Livia, pg. 233.
69
Dio. Dio's Roman History. Vol. VII. pg. 141.
65
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Dio comments on the unprecedented nature of the position which Livia occupied as the wife of
the first Roman emperor and the mother of his successor.70 Dio describes Livia as having
possessed the right to hold salutationes, traditionally all-male morning gatherings held by
senators during which private citizens and their clients could make requests of them.71 Augustus
as princeps had held not only salutationes for members of the public where they could request
his aid but also senatorial salutationes, which members of the Senate were required to attend.72
Livia held both forms of salutatio during Tiberius’s reign and despite the fact that women were
barred from Roman government, members of the Senate found it necessary to attend meetings
called by a woman.73 These receptions would have outraged Romans with traditional views who
would have regarded them “as the self-important act of an interfering female”.74 The subsequent
accusations Dio makes in this passage were directed against Tiberius and Augustus, as well as
Livia. In claiming that imperial correspondence was addressed to both Livia and Tiberius and
that her name appeared on his official replies, alleging she attempted to act as sole ruler of the
empire, and purporting that she made grandiose statements about making Tiberius emperor, Dio
criticized not only Livia and her supposed lust for power and arrogance but also Tiberius and
70
The unique character of her position had been made all the more apparent after the death of Augustus for in his
will he had adopted her into his own family and granted her the title of Augusta. Barrett. Livia, pg. 148. This title
was the feminine version of his own honorific Augustus which by “AD 14 had acquired the force of a title that
marked the holder as the princeps.” Barrett. Livia, pg. 151. In posthumously bestowing the title of Augusta on Livia,
he appears to have granted her “a formal institutionalized position within the state.” Barrett. Livia, pg. 154. Scholars
have argued about Augustus’s intentions in bequeathing this title to Livia. Some insist it was intended as simply an
honor while others argue that the title indicated Livia was intended to be joint ruler with Tiberius. The most modern
consensus appears to be that Livia was intended to possess an offical role but not one which put her on the level of
co-regent. See Barrett, Livia, Freisenbruch Caesars’ Wives and Mathew Dennison Livia, Empress of Rome: A
Biography. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2011. Despite subsequent scholarly debate, the Senate interpreted the title
to mean that Livia occupied an official role within the state. Barrett, Livia pg. 156-157.
71
Dennison, Empress of Rome pg. 9. Salutationes were an integral part of the patronage system.
72
Barrett. Livia pg. 164-165.
73
Freisenbruch. Caesars’ Wives pg. 74; Barrett, Livia pg. 165.
74
Freisenbruch. Caesars’ Wives pg. 74; Barrett, Livia pg. 165.
Gray 16
Augustus for allowing her to assume such a role. Dio also emphasized the degree to which
Tiberius was perceived to be indebted to his mother for his succession to the principate.
Mixed Metaphors and Multiple Accusations
In some instances, the women themselves were not always the sole or even the primary
target of the invective circulated against them. Sometimes a male partner such as a husband,
lover, or son was the intended target of the criticism. This is especially noticeable in sources that
accused a woman of being overly influential with or of dominating their male partners. In such
passages a multitude of other accusations were often directed against the woman, which were
meant to illustrate the inappropriate nature of her influence.75
Aspasia was mentioned in Aristophanes’ Acharnians.76 Aspasia’s mention in the play
was brief but likely important in the formation of her subsequent reputation, as the play contains
the earliest datable instances of two claims found repeatedly in later sources: that Aspasia owned
a brothel and that through her influence over Pericles she was the cause of the Peloponnesian
War.77 In the passage which references Aspasia, the protagonist is explaining the reason for the
Megarian Decree, which placed a strict embargo on Megarian goods, and was among the causes
of the war:
…some young drunks went to Megara and stole the whore Simaitha. Well, the
Megarians were driven crazy by this insult and stole in return two whores from
Aspasia. From this began the Great War in all Hellas— from three cock-sucking
sluts. (Ach. 516-539).78
The idea of the abduction of women as the cause of wars is found in the Iliad and was common
in comedies during this period as Herodotus’ The Histories, which had also attributed the
75
Aspasia and Cleopatra provide representative examples. Livia was also accused of dominating Augustus. Cassius
Dio. Dio's Roman History. Trans. Earnest Cary. Vol. V. London and New York: William Heinemann and G.P.
Puntnam's Sons, 1914. IX vols. pg. 333 (48.52); Tacitus. The Annals pg. 3 (3.3.4).
76
The Acharnians was written in 425 BCE, in the midst of the Peloponnesian War.
77
Podlecki, Perikles, pg. 116; Henry, Prisoner, pg. 26.
78
Henry, Prisoner pg. 25 .
Gray 17
beginnings of wars to the kidnapping of women, was a recent work and he was widely
lampooned by the comic poets.79 In calling Aspasia a procuress and saying that she provided
sexual services Aristophanes made her “implicitly a whore.”80 In the next line, Aristophanes
states: “And then in wrath Pericles, that Olympian, did lighten and thunder and stir up Greece”
on Aspasia’s account, thereby making her responsible for the outbreak of a devastating war
while simultaneously implying that she possessed an exceptional degree of influence over
Pericles and through him, the policies of the Athenian State.81 In saying that Aspasia was
associated with prostitutes Aristophanes suggested that she had sexual power over Pericles.
Furthermore by indicating that Pericles’s actions were guided by Aspasia’s influence,
Aristophanes insulted his masculinity by suggesting that he and “his woman had reversed
roles.”82 The manner in which Aristophanes insulted Aspasia in the Acharnians is typical of his
treatment of politicians’ female paramours in his other works.83 Moreover it is made clear
throughout Aristophanes’ surviving plays that he viewed “prostitutes and politicians as
interchangeable.”84
Many centuries later, authors such as Plutarch and Cassius Dio were more direct and
effusive in their criticism when describing Cleopatra’s alleged damaging influence over Antony.
The following passages demonstrate the power and lasting influence of the propaganda
circulated by Antony’s archrival and fellow triumvir Octavian Caesar, later Augustus.
Plutarch in his Life of Antony reported that:
79
Henry, Prisoner, pg. 26.
S Douglas Olson, Aristophanes Acharnians. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. pg. 211; Henry Prisoner, pg.
26.
81
Aristophanes. Aristophanes: Acharnians. Trans. Jeffrey Henderson. Vol. I. Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1998. IV vols. pg.121-123; Powell. "Athens’ Pretty Face” pg. 259; I.M. Plant "Aspasia (fl. 450 BC).” Women
Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome. Ed. I.M. Plant. Trans. I.M. Plant. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,
2004. 41-42. pg. 41.
82
Powell. "Athens’ Pretty Face” pg. 259.
83
Henry, Prisoner, pg. 27.
84
Henry, Prisoner, pg. 28.
80
Gray 18
[It was] said that to please her Antony had given her the contents of the library of
Pergamum, which consisted of 200,000 individual book-rolls; that at a banquet, in
front of all the guests, he had got up and massaged her feet to fulfill some kind of
wager or compact; that he had let her get away with having the Ephesians greet
her as their mistress, while he was right there beside her, that often in the middle
of hearing pleas of tetrarchs and kings from his seat on a dais, he had received
from her billets-doux written on tablets of onyx or crystal and read them then and
there; and that once in the middle of a speech by Furnius, one of the most
eloquent and highly regarded men in Rome, Antony saw Cleopatra being carried
on a litter, and he leapt to his feet, left the court in mid-session, and accompanied
Cleopatra on her way, with his hand resting on her litter. (58)85
Octavian and his supporters accused Antony of giving Cleopatra priceless gifts, which were not
his to grant.86 By saying that he had massaged her feet at a banquet, the task of a servant or slave,
they claimed that Antony, a Roman, had publicly admitted his inferiority to Cleopatra, a
foreigner and a woman whom Romans saw as the ruler of a mere client kingdom.87 The claim
that citizens of Ephesus, a Roman province that hosted Antony and Cleopatra a year prior to the
official declaration of war, greeted Cleopatra as their mistress while Antony stood by
unacknowledged and unperturbed criticized Antony’s lack of personal dignity, his proclivity for
giving Roman territory to Cleopatra, and again suggested that he openly acknowledged
Cleopatra as his superior.88 They further accuse him of neglecting important government affairs
to read love letters written by Cleopatra. The mention of him sitting on a dais and of the letters
being written on tablets of semi-precious stones were meant to illustrate the extravagance and
85
Plutarch. "Antony." Plutarch. Roman Lives. Ed. Philip A Stadter. Trans. Robin Waterfield. Oxford and New York:
Oxford University Press, 2008. 360-430. pg. 409.
86
C. Calvisius Sabinus, the source of the claim that Antony had given Cleopatra the contents of the library of
Pergamum, later admitted to inventing the story but the propaganda stuck. Sabinus was the source of many slanders
against Cleopatra and Antony. Roller. Cleopatra: A Biography pg. 133.
87
If one that was still technically independent and possessed special privileges. Schiff. Cleopatra: A Life. pg. 157,
236, 246 ; Diana. Preston. Cleopatra and Antony: Power, Love, and Politics in the Ancient World. New York:
Walker & Company, 2009. pg. 236-237.
88
Schiff. Cleopatra: A Life. pg. 235; Preston. Cleopatra and Antony: pg. 228, 236-237; Roller. Cleopatra: A
Biography pg. 101.
Gray 19
decadence that Antony had succumbed to in the East, as such things were not done in Rome.89
The claim that Antony had rushed out of court midsession to chase after Cleopatra, insulting an
important visitor in the process, only to follow her litter like a eunuch slave questioned not only
his ability to perform his political duties, his dignity and his masculinity, but also his sanity.90
Cassius Dio in his Roman History related a speech purportedly given by Octavian to rally
his legions against Cleopatra and Antony:
Who would not tear his hair at the sight of Roman soldiers serving as bodyguards
of this queen? Who would not groan at hearing that Roman knights and senators
grovel before her like eunuchs? Who would not weep when he sees and hears
what Antony has become? This man has been twice consul and many times
Imperator…Now he has abandoned his whole ancestral way of life, has embraced
alien and barbaric customs, has ceased to honor us, his fellow countrymen, or our
laws or his fathers’ gods. Instead he makes obeisance to that creature as if she
were some Isis or Selene…He is either blind to reason or mad for I have heard
and can believe that he is bewitched by that accursed woman, and therefore
disregards all our efforts to show him goodwill and humanity. And so being
enslaved by her, he plunges into war with all its attendant dangers which he
accepted for her sake, against ourselves and against his country. (50.25-26)91
Dio has his Octavian paint a portrait of a dangerous Cleopatra, who possesses the ability to
emasculate men. Pretending to lament Antony’s downfall at her hands, he reminds his troops of
Antony’s many betrayals; for despite the many honors Antony was awarded by the Roman state,
he has forsaken his countryman and their masculine Roman virtues to emulate the effeminate and
decadent Egyptians and pay homage to their monstrous queen, as though she were a goddess.92
Octavian knew how effective the combined propagandistic weapons of xenophobia and
misogyny were and played to his audience’s prejudices.93 The Roman “allergy to the powerful
89
Preston. Cleopatra and Antony: pg. 228, 236-237 Schiff. Cleopatra: A Life. pg. 239-240; Roller. Cleopatra: A
Biography pg. 130-133.
90
Schiff. Cleopatra: A Life. pg. 236; Roller pg. 131; Preston. Cleopatra and Antony: pg. 228, 236-237
91
Dio. The Reign of Augustus. pg. 54.
92
Schiff. Cleopatra: A Life. pg. 247-248; Preston. Cleopatra and Antony: pg. 237; Horace calls her “fatale
monstrum.” Roller. Cleopatra: A Biography pg. 130.
93
Goldsworthy. Antony and Cleopatra pg. 347.
Gray 20
woman was sturdier than even than that to monarchy or to the depraved East.”94 He further
claimed Cleopatra used magic to take away his reason and make him wholly subservient to her.
Octavian stressed, in his official propaganda, that war had not been declared against Antony, a
Roman citizen, and that Antony was a traitor to his country as he fought in this war against his
citizens for the sake of Cleopatra, a foreign barbarian queen and formal enemy of Rome.95 .
Wishing to eliminate his rival but unwilling to be accused of causing a civil war, Octavian
portrayed the foreign Cleopatra as the true enemy of Rome and described Antony as a slave to
her desires. 96
Dominating Figures: Omphale as a Symbol of Eastern Decadence and the Usurpation of the Male Role One feature of the accusations against Aspasia and Cleopatra is particularly notable in its
demonstration of the stereotypical nature of allegations against women in antiquity. For
although the lives of these two women were separated by hundreds of years, certain authors used
identical mythical allusions to denounce them for being overly influential in the lives of their
male associates, causing wars, and for usurping the male role entirely.
The comic poet Eupolis (5th century BCE) mentioned Aspasia in at least three separate
plays.97 In two, Prospaltians and the Philoi she was compared to mythical women with negative
reputations. In Prospaltians, which was written during Peloponnesian War, she was referred to
as “Helen.”98 The implication of associating her with the temptress Helen of Troy is clear; she
94
Schiff. Cleopatra: A Life. pg. 240.
Dio states: “This was the reason why the Romans voted to declare war against Cleopatra but passed no such
declaration against Antony. They knew very well he would be at war with them in any event…and they wished to
have this additional charge to lay against him—that he had of his own accord declared war for the sake of the
Egyptian woman against his own country…” (50.6) The Reign of Augustus. pg. 3.
96
Goldsworthy. Antony and Cleopatra pg. 346-347; Roller pg. 131.
97
Henry, Prisoner, pg. 29.
98
Henry, Prisoner, pg. 30.
95
Gray 21
was being accused of causing the war.99 This unflatteringly, made Pericles the Paris figure, a
man who fought a war for the sake of a woman and brought about the destruction of his own
country.100
In the Philoi, Aspasia was called “Omphale tyrannos,” Omphale the tyrant.101 In Greek
mythology, Omphale was a queen of Lydia, who purchased Heracles when he was sold as a slave
as punishment for the murder of Iphitos.102 During his time in service to her, Omphale stripped
Heracles of his lion-skin and weapons and took them for herself, wearing them as a symbol of
her dominance over him, thoroughly emasculating him in the process.103 She was also said to
have dominated him sexually.104 The identification of Aspasia with Omphale, who was also from
Asia Minor, would have made Pericles Heracles and although a comparison to Heracles was
often considered desirable by both the Greeks and later the Romans, in this context, it was
entirely negative. In this excerpt, it is Aspasia who is called a tyrant, which suggests that she was
being accused of running the Athenian state with the subordinated and emasculated Pericles as
her puppet.105
99
More correctly Helen of Sparta.
Pericles had previously been compared to Paris in Cratinus’ Dionysalexandros and Aspasia’s association with
Helen may have originated with that play as well. Henry, Prisoner, pg. 22
101
Henry, Prisoner, pg. 30
102
The murder took place at Heracles’s home where Iphitos was a guest. In addition to being a “base and cowardly
act” it was also a gross violation of xenia, guest-friendship, which incensed the gods. Timothy Gantz. Early Greek
Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources. Baltimore and London: The John's Hopkins University Press, 1993.
pg. 434-435; The duration of Heracles’ servitude is variously reported as between one and three years. Gantz. Early
Greek Myth pg. 439; The number of children whom Omphale is said to have borne Heracles varies as well. Early
Greek Myth pg. 440; Robert E Bell. Women of Classical Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary. New York and
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. pg. 332. If the larger number is accepted it suggests that he stayed with her
for at least four years, although he did not nessessarily spend all of his time with her as a slave. Bell. Women of
Classical Mythology. pg. 332.
103
Bell. Women of Classical Mythology pg. 332; Gantz. Early Greek Myth pg. 439.
104
Henry, Prisoner, pg. 23.
105
Powell. "Athens’ Pretty Face” pg. 259-260. Previously, in Cratinus’s play Cheirons it was Pericles, who was
called a tyrant. See above pg. 8.
100
Gray 22
Several centuries later, Plutarch in his comparison between Demetrius and Antony
explicitly likened Cleopatra to both Omphale and Helen of Troy and Antony to Heracles and
Paris.106
Antony… like Heracles in paintings where Omphale is seen taking away his club
and stripping off his lion's skin, was often disarmed by Cleopatra, subdued by her
spells, and persuaded to drop from his hands great undertakings and necessary
campaigns, only to roam about and play with her on the sea-shores by Canopus
and Taphosiris. And at last, like Paris, he ran away from the battle and sank upon
her bosom; although, more truly stated, Paris ran away to Helen's chamber after
he had been defeated; but Antony ran away in chase of Cleopatra, and thereby
threw away the victory. (3.3-3.4)107
In this passage, Plutarch blames Cleopatra for Antony’s moral decay and personal failings. He
states that due to Cleopatra’s unnatural influence and her magical enchantments, Antony became
entirely subservient to her desires. He neglected the essential affairs of the Roman statesman, and
under her influence was corrupted and became totally addicted to the effeminate pleasures of the
East. This all meshed nicely with the allusion to Omphale, as during the Roman period the figure
of Omphale became a symbol of eastern decadence, an accusation the Romans often used in
criticizing their opponents and one which Octavian masterfully exploited against Antony.108 The
myth of Omphale and Heracles had evolved in other ways as well. It was well known that
during Heracles’s enslavement to her, not only had Omphale appropriated the masculine items of
his apparel to herself but had also forced him to dress in women’s clothing and do servile tasks
106
Cleopatra had previously been associated with Omphale to Antony’s Heracles in propaganda circulated by
Octavian during her lifetime and by Propertius in Elegies 3.14 written in 23 BCE. Schiff. Cleopatra: A Life pg. 240;
Preston. Cleopatra and Antony pg. 238; , Prudence J. Jones, ed. Cleopatra: A Sourcebook. Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 2006. pg. 169-173; Tyldesley, Last Queen pg. 208. Plutarch is the first surviving literary source to
compare Cleopatra to Helen of Troy. However, artwork which appears to link Cleopatra to Helen of Troy dates to
the Augustan period. Kleiner. Cleopatra and Rome. pg. 170-172.
107
Plutarch. "Comparison of Demetrius and Antony." The Parallel Lives. Trans. Bernadotte Perrin. Vol. IX.
Cambridge and London: William Heinmann and G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1920. 333-343. pg. 339.
108
Preston. Cleopatra and Antony: pg. 237; Schiff. Cleopatra: A Life pg. 240-241 .
Gray 23
such as spinning and weaving, which were women’s work.109 The fact that Antony personally
claimed descent from Heracles played directly into Octavian’s propaganda making the allusion
to Cleopatra as Omphale appear all the more fitting.110 The reference to Antony as Paris to
Cleopatra’s Helen concerned his actions during the battle of Actium when Cleopatra’s ships
retreated from the battle and sailed towards Egypt. Antony followed her with perhaps one-third
of their fleet. In doing so, he appeared to intentionally abandon the rest of his men to follow his
lover.111 Plutarch states that this action was worse than what Paris, widely considered an
effeminate coward, had done in fleeing from the aftermath of his battle with Menelaus, Helen’s
husband, as Paris had already been defeated when he fled.112 In contrast, Antony, desperate for
Cleopatra had left when, according to Plutarch and other writers following the official line of
Octavian’s propaganda, victory was still possible.113 Plutarch portrayed Cleopatra as the
dominant figure whereas Antony emerges as “a man so enslaved that he was as emasculated in
spirit as Cleopatra’s eunuchs were physically.”114
Cruelty, Murder, Poisoning and the Evil Stepmother Stereotype: Women’s Role in the Politics of Succession Successions rarely occurred smoothly and without some degree of bloodshed in antiquity.
This generally appears to have been acknowledged by the ancient sources when dealing with
109
Gantz. Early Greek Myth pg. 440; Bell. Women of Classical Mythology. pg. 332.
Tyldesley, Last Queen pg. 146; Schiff. Cleopatra: A Life pg. 240; Goldsworthy. Antony and Cleopatra pg. 343.
The Ptolemies also claimed descent from Heracles. Tyldesley, Last Queen pg. 146.
111
Goldsworthy. Antony and Cleopatra pg. 368-369; Schiff. Cleopatra: A Life pg. 257-258.
112
The battle between Paris and Menelaus and its aftermath are described in book three of the Iliad. Homer. The
Iliad Book 3.
113
It is considered more likely by modern scholars that the escape was premeditated and had been planned by both
Cleopatra and Antony. The entire fleet was probably intended to escape, but something went wrong. Goldsworthy.
Antony and Cleopatra pg. 368-369; Schiff. Cleopatra: A Life pg. 257-258; Tyldesley, Last Queen pg. 177-179.
Unlike Plutarch, Cassius Dio recorded in 50.15 of his Roman History that their escape was premeditated. The Reign
of Augustus. pg. 46-47.
114
Goldsworthy. Antony and Cleopatra pg. 369.
110
Gray 24
the actions of male rulers in successions. Their actions, no matter how brutal, aroused
comparatively little comment and the purely political nature of the acts themselves was taken
to be self-evident.115 However, actions taken by female rulers in matters of succession were not
viewed as generously.116 Actions which would have been considered rational and justified had
they been committed by men were instead interpreted as exceptionally cruel when committed
by women.117 Furthermore, as we saw earlier in the cases of other women, the motivation
behind these actions was assumed by the sources to have been personal rather than political in
nature.118 The stereotypically female accusation of poisoning and the literary archetype of the
evil stepmother also emerge in the sources when authors recount women’s involvement in
successions.
Olympias played a role in the successions of both her son Alexander III “the Great” and
her grandson Alexander IV. Plutarch repeats rumors that she poisoned and or used witchcraft
against her husband Philip II’s son Philip Arrhidaeus, destroying his mental abilities.119 In 336
BCE, Philip II was assassinated, by Pausanias, a former lover.120 After Philip’s assassination,
Olympias and Alexander came under suspicion of having been involved in the regicide because
115
Carney. “Image of the Virago." pg. 30; 35; 41 and 49; Carney. Olympias pg. 75. An exception to this is later
commentaries on the Roman Principate under the successors of Augustus. Authors such as Tacitus and Suetonius
criticized the emperors for the cruelty of their actions. However, their actions were still perceived as political,
merely unjust. The women of the principate were still villainized to a greater extent, indeed beyond all sense of
proportion, considering they tended to be mentioned much less frequently than their male counterparts. Livia,
Messalina, and Agrippina the younger are prime examples of this tendency. See Tacitus. The Annals; Suetonius. The
Lives; Dio. Dio's Roman History.
116
Carney. “Image of the Virago." pg. 30, 35, and 41; Olympias pg. 1-2.
117
Carney. “Image of the Virago." pg. 30, 35, and 41
118
Carney. Olympias pg. 1-2.
119
Plutarch. "Alexander." (77) pg. 381. The word in question is “Pharmaka (drugs or spells)” Carney. Olympias pg.
25; Elizabeth Carney. The Politics of Polygamy: Olympias, Alexander, and the Murder of Philip." Historia:
Zeitschrift fur Alte Geschichte 41.2 (1992): 169-189. pg. 172. For accusations of witchcraft between Philip II’s
wives. See: Daniel Ogden. "Son of the Witch: Traditions of Polygamy in the Macedonian Court." Daniel Ogden.
Alexander the Great: Myth, Genesis and Sexuality. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2011. 111-123.
120
Pausanias had been gang raped and publicly dishonored. He had come to Philip for help. Because Philip had not
punished those responsible and indeed had promoted them to positions of prominence, Pausanias planned and
carried out the assassination. Carney. Olympias pg. 38-41. Numerous others were also suspected of involvement as
Philip had many enemies. Carney. Olympias pg. 39-41.
Gray 25
of their recent dispute with Philip.121 The dispute began in 337 at the banquet “symposium”
held to celebrate Philip’s marriage to his seventh wife, the Macedonian noblewoman,
Cleopatra.122 At the banquet Attalus, Cleopatra’s uncle and legal guardian, “boasted that now
legitimate, not bastard, princes would be born,” questioning Alexander’s legitimacy and right
to inherit and dishonoring Olympias and her family.123 Philip failed to defend his son and
Alexander left Macedonia taking Olympias with him.124 Although Philip was publicly
reconciled with Alexander and Olympias the relationship appears to have remained strained.125
In the aftermath of Philip’s assassination, Alexander put numerous members of the
Macedonian nobility, including at least one relative, to death claiming that they had either been
involved in Philip’s assassination or were conspiring against him.126 Naturally, Attalus was
among those eliminated.127 The sources express little criticism of Alexander for his “postaccession purges,” convinced that he acted rationally given the politics of the time.128
However, the role Olympias is said to have played in the purge did arouse comment and
condemnation.129
Having described Olympias’ alleged role in the plot to assassinate Philip and the honors
he claimed she posthumously bestowed upon his assassin, Justin states:
After this she [Olympias] forced Cleopatra…to hang herself, having first
murdered her daughter in the mother’s arms; and it was with the sight of her rival
121
Carney. Olympias pg. 39; Carney. “The Politics of Polygamy” pg. 182-187; Plutarch. "Alexander." (10) pg. 320;
Justin. Epitome (9.7) pg. 90-91.
122
Carney. Olympias pg. 32.
123
Carney. Olympias pg. 32-35; Elizabeth Carney. "Alexander and His "Terrible Mother"." Alexander the Great: A
New History. Ed. Waldemar Heckel and Lawrence Tritle. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. 189-202. pg. 196.
124
Carney. Olympias pg. 32-39; Carney. "Terrible Mother" pg. 196.
125
Carney. Olympias pg. 37-41; Carney. "Terrible Mother" pg. 196-197.
126
Carney. Olympias pg. 42-43.
127
Carney. Olympias pg. 43; Carney. "Terrible Mother" pg. 198.
128
Carney. Olympias pg. 42-43.
129
Carney. Olympias pg. 42-43.
Gray 26
hanging there that Olympias achieved the revenge to which she had hastened by
murder. (9.7.12)130
In his account Justin ascribed the motivation behind the murders of Cleopatra and her
daughter, Europa, to Olympias’ desire for revenge against the woman whom Philip had
“preferred to her.” 131 He thereby implied that Olympias acted out of sexual jealousy and
resentment rather than from any political motivation. In doing so, Justin ignored the political
nature of Olympias’ actions. In bringing about the death of Cleopatra and her daughter,
Olympias removed the focal points of a court faction that had demonstrated itself to be hostile to
her son’s inheritance.132 Their deaths were characteristic of the dynastic murders which were an
inevitable part of post-succession politics in ancient Macedonia.133 Justin also ignored the fact
that by his own admission, Olympias respected Cleopatra’s position of royal wife by allowing
her a private and gender appropriate death in the solitude of her rooms rather than having her
publicly executed before the eyes of men, something, which would have dishonored her.134 The
death of Europa, was a matter of course, as children “tended to be killed almost automatically
when the rest of their kin were.”135 Justin further suggested that the murder of Cleopatra gave
Olympias sadistic pleasure, something which it is impossible he could have known. However,
because the murders were committed by a woman, he assumed the motivation behind them to
130
Justin. Epitome pg. 91
Justin. Epitome (9.7.2) pg. 90. Justin claims that Philip divorced Olympias in favor of Cleopatra. He is the only
source to make such a claim and all other evidence suggests that this was not the case. Carney. Olympias pg. 36. It
appears Justin either did not realize that Philip was polygamous or did not understand the concept of polygamy and
that it would therefore have been unnecessary for Philip to divorce Olympias in order to take another wife. Carney.
Olympias. pg. 154 n. 96.
132
Carney. Olympias pg. 44-45.
133
Carney. “Image of the Virago pg. 40-41.
134
Carney. Olympias pg. 46-47; Image of the Virago pg. 50-53.
135
Carney. Olympias pg. 47; Justin’s passage suggests that Europa’s murder was horrific not in itself but because
she was killed before the eyes of her mother “as though the baby’s murder was most poignant because of the
mother’s pain.” Carney. Olympias pg. 47.
131
Gray 27
have been personal and irrational, vengeance and sadism, rather than a calculated political action
intended to protect her son’s inheritance and stabilize the kingdom.136
After Alexander’s death, Olympias became involved in another dynastic struggle. The
throne of Macedon was jointly held by Alexander’s son Alexander IV and Alexander’s
“mentally limited” half-brother Philip Arrhidaeus .137However, the real power belonged to the
king’s guardian, the regent of Macedonia. In 317, Olympias entered into a political alliance with
Polyperchon.138 She agreed to return to Macedonia and undertake the guardianship of her
grandson.139 Adea Eurydice, the wife of Philip Arrhidaeus, who was likely his guardian and
regent, was violently opposed to Olympias’ return.140 She attempted to prevent Olympias’ return
to Macedonia by waging war against her.141 However, her troops defected and she and her
husband were captured by Olympias and her supporters.142
Diodorus of Sicily remarked:
But after Olympias had thus captured the royal persons and had seized the
kingdom without a fight, she did not carry her good fortune as a human being
should, but first she placed Eurydice and her husband Philip under armed guard
and began to maltreat them. Indeed she walled them up in a small space and
supplied them with what was necessary through a single opening. But after she
had for many days unlawfully treated the unfortunate captives, since she was
thereby losing favor with the Macedonians…she ordered certain Thracians to stab
136
Carney. “Image of the Virago pg. 39. It is likely that Olympias acted with her son’s permission, if not on his
orders. Carney. Olympias pg. 43-44 .
137
Elizabeth Carney. Women and Monarchy in Macedonia. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000. pg.
114;Carney. Olympias pg. 62 and 69. Alexander IV was born several months after his father’s death.
138
Carney. Olympias pg. 71.
139
Carney. Women and Monarchy pg. 120-121.
140
Carney. Olympias pg. 72; Women and Monarchy pg. 134-135; Carney. “Image of the Virago” pg. 47 Adea
Eurydice was the granddaughter of Philip II. She was Alexander the Great’s niece as her mother was his half-sister
Cynnane. Her husband, Philip Arrhidaeus, was also her uncle. She had every reason to be hostile to Olympias and
Alexander’s descendants as Alexander had killed her father Amyntas, who was his cousin when he executed those
he felt, threatened his rule at the beginning of his reign. Carney. Olympias pg. 72. It is possible that Cassander was
regent for Philip Arrhidaeus, however, Cassander was not in Macedonia at the time and did not participate in the
attempt to stop Olympias from returning. Women and Monarchy pg. 121.
141
Women and Monarchy pg. 135.
142
Women and Monarchy pg. 136; Olympias pg. 74.
Gray 28
Philip to death…but she judged that Eurydice who was expressing herself without
restraint and declaring the kingdom belonged to her and not to Olympias, was
worthy of a greater punishment. She therefore sent her a sword, a noose and some
hemlock and ordered her to choose whichever of these she pleased as her means
of death, neither displaying any respect for the former dignity of the victim whom
she was unlawfully treating, nor moved to pity by the fate which is common to
all. Accordingly, when she herself met with a similar reversal, she experienced a
death worthy of her cruelty. (19.3 -19.7)143
Diodorus’s tone is moralizing throughout. He openly condemns Olympias’ actions and
demonstrates a marked sympathy for Adea Eurydice and Philip Arrhidaeus.144 He accuses
Olympias of being inhumane because she imprisoned and “walled up” Adea Eurydice and Philip
Arrhidaeus and fed them through a small opening. He does not attribute any motivation, political
or otherwise, for this action to Olympias but simply portrays her as being needlessly and
excessively cruel.145 He disapproved of her imprisonment of the royal pair but in spite of his
knowledge that in matters of succession it was expected that the losing side would be put to
death, even more emphatically condemned their murders.146 He does not acknowledge that when
Olympias realized the Macedonians objected to the imprisonment of Philip Arrhidaeus and Adea
Eurydice she did not have them killed in arbitrary manners but ensured that they would be
allowed to die gender-appropriate deaths.147 Diodorus perceived Olympias’ behavior toward
Adea Eurydice to be particularly monstrous, believing that because she had claimed the kingdom
belonged to her, likely both through her role as the wife Philip Arrhidaeus and because she
possessed more Argaed blood than any left alive, Olympias felt she deserved “a greater
143
Diodorus of Sicily. Diodorus of Sicily. pg. 257.
Carney. Olympias pg. 75.
145
A plausible motivation for their treatment is that she desired Philip Arrhidaeus to officially abdicate in favor of
her grandson Alexander IV. Carney. “Image of the Virago." pg. 47; Carney. Olympias pg. 76.
146
Carney. Olympias pg. 76.
147
Culturally it was expected that men should “die by the blade” whereas women should die private bloodless
deaths. This can be seen in Greek tragedy. Carney. Olympias pg. 75.
144
Gray 29
punishment.”148 Although Diodorus is undoubtedly correct in his belief that Adea Eurydice was
killed because she threatened the succession, he is mistaken in his dual claims that her death was
worse than her husband’s and that Olympias failed to show “any respect for the former dignity of
the victim.”149 In allowing Adea Eurydice to choose her own manner of death and to die
privately Olympias did display respect for her station.150 Diodorus intended this passage to be a
read as a moral example; he clearly states that Olympias’ murder, which was neither private nor
gender appropriate, was a just punishment for her allegedly merciless and vindictive treatment of
Philip Arrhidaeus and Adea Eurydice.151 Diodorus did not criticize the violent actions of male
rulers but accepted them as political necessities.152 In contrast, he viewed Olympias’ actions,
although clearly politically motivated, as acts of senseless brutality.
Livia was also accused of dynastic murder. However, the method she is said to have
employed most frequently is more stereotypically feminine in character than any employed by
Olympias, as poison was, and still is, widely considered a woman’s weapon. Livia was portrayed
by Tacitus (1st- early 2nd century CE), who despised the Julio-Claudians, and to a lesser extent by
Dio as a real-life instance of the Roman literary archetype of the evil stepmother who eliminates
her son’s rivals to ensure his inheritance.153 Over the course of thirty-seven years, the sources
claim or insinuate she was responsible for the deaths of four of Augustus’s heirs and of Augustus
himself.
148
The Argead’s were the ruling dynasty of Macedonia. As noted above n. 138 Adea Eurydice was an Argead on
both sides her mother being the daughter of Philip II and her father being his nephew and the son of a former king.
149
Carney. “Image of the Virago." pg. 54; Diodorus of Sicily. Diodorus of Sicily. (19.6-19.7) pg. 257.
150
Carney. Olympias pg. 75
151
Carney. “Image of the Virago." pg. 43.
152
Carney. “Image of the Virago." pg. 42. n. 33.
153
Patricia Watson. Ancient Stepmothers: Myth, Misogyny and Reality. Leiden and New York: E.J. Brill, 1995. pg.
141 and 176-192.
Gray 30
Cassius Dio claimed there were rumors that she caused the death of Marcellus, Augustus’s
nephew and the husband of Julia, Augustus’s only child in 23 BCE.154 He related:
At this time the accusation was current that Livia had had a hand in the death of
Marcellus, because he had been preferred for the succession before her own sons.
The suspicion was much disputed because of climatic nature both of that year and
the one that followed, which proved so unhealthy that there was a high mortality
rate in both. (53.33)155
Similarly, both Tacitus and Dio recorded that when Gaius and Lucius Caesar, Augustus’s
grandsons and adopted sons, who died within two years of each other, in 2 and 4 CE,
respectively Livia was rumored to have been responsible.156 Tacitus stated:
…both L. Caesar, while travelling to the Spanish Armies, and Gaius, while
retiring from Armenia and weakened by a wound, were carried off by fatefully
early deaths or by the guile of their stepmother Livia... (3.3)157
Tacitus and Dio also both claimed that some suspected Livia when Augustus died in 14 CE.158
Dio states:
So Augustus fell sick and died. Some suspicion attached itself to Livia concerning
the cause of death, because he had secretly sailed over to the island of Planasia to
visit Agrippa Postumus, and it appeared that he was about to become completely
reconciled with him. Livia was afraid, some people allege, that Augustus might
bring him back to make him emperor, and so she smeared with poison some figs
which were still ripening on trees from which Augustus was in the habit of
picking the fruit with his own hands. She ate those that had not been smeared, and
offered the poisoned fruit to him (56.30)159
After Augustus’s death, Agrippa Postumus was executed by his guard and it was not known who
had given the order. Tacitus, Dio and Suetonius all related rumors that Livia was suspected.160
154
Dio. The Reign of Augustus. pg. 154.
Dio. The Reign of Augustus. pg. 154.
156
Dio. The Reign of Augustus. (55.10) pg. 202.
157
Tacitus. The Annals pg. 2.
158
Tacitus. The Annals (1.5) pg. 4.
159
Dio. The Reign of Augustus. pg. 245.
160
Suetonius “Tiberius” (22) pg. 100; Dio. The Roman History Vol. VII (56.30) pg. 69.
155
Gray 31
Tacitus, after having dismissed the idea that Augustus may have ordered his grandson’s death to
ensure that Tiberius, his chosen heir, would inherit the principate, stated:
…more likely Tiberius and Livia—the former through dread the latter through
stepmotherly hatred –had speeded the slaughter of the suspected and resented
young man. (7.6.2)161
Combined, these excerpts paint a portrait of a scheming serial murderess determined to stop at
nothing to see her son inherit her husband’s wealth and power, the very image of the noverca of
Roman legend.162 That Livia is said to have brought these deaths about, with one exception, by
poison furthers the association between her and the evil stepmother of Roman folklore.163 The
deaths of Marcellus, Lucius and Gaius when taken together create a damaging effect. However,
the Julians were not known for their robust constitutions and three deaths in a single family over
the course of twenty-seven years is not truly remarkable. None of the deaths themselves were
suspicious. Marcellus died of an illness in a year known for its unhealthiness; plague was
rampant, and Augustus himself had nearly died. 164 Lucius died twenty-five years later of an
illness while far from home.165 Gaius, who had always suffered from ill health, died two years
later of complications from a battle wound which would not heal; he too died far from Rome.166
Nor was the death of Augustus at the age of seventy-six unexpected. His health had been steadily
declining for many years and even as a young man he had never been strong.167 Dio’s account of
Augustus’s journey to visit Agrippa Postumus is highly suspect. In the last year of his life
Augustus’s health was in serious decline, and it is unlikely that he would have been capable of
161
Tacitus. The Annals pg. 5.
Watson. Ancient Stepmothers pg. 177.
163
Barrett. Livia, pg. 241-242.
164
Barrett. Livia, pg. 36; Dennison. Empress of Rome pg. 130-131.
165
Barrett. Livia, pg. 36; Dennison. Empress of Rome pg. 130-131.
166
Barrett. Livia, pg. 53.
167
Barrett. Livia, pg. 62.
162
Gray 32
making the difficult journey to Planasia, much less of doing so secretly.168 Moreover, there is no
indication that Augustus desired to reconcile with Agrippa Postumus whom he had placed under
military guard and whose supporters actively plotted against him.169
Additionally, in 14 CE, Tiberius had been treated as Augustus’s designated heir for ten
years and having shared Augustus’s constitutional powers, he was the only individual with
sufficient experience to be able to assume the position of princeps upon Augustus’s death.170
Livia had no reason to fear Agrippa Postumus. The extraordinary similarity between Livia’s
alleged murder of Augustus and accounts of her great-granddaughter Agrippina the Younger’s
murder of her husband, the Emperor Claudius, who was Livia’s grandson, has been noted by
scholars.171 Because the tradition behind Agrippina’s guilt is so much stronger, none of the
major sources voice any reservations; it is considered likely that Livia’s alleged murder of
Augustus was retroactively inserted into the historical record after the death of Claudius in 54
CE.172 The execution of Agrippa Postumus directly after the death of Augustus is the only truly
suspicious death with which Livia’s is connected. Modern scholars largely discount the
possibility of her involvement and it is commonly argued that the most likely individual to have
ordered the death of Agrippa Postumus was Augustus himself, a suggestion that Tacitus, who
“nursed an intense hatred of Livia and Tiberius” argued against.173 In Tacitus’s account, there is
a clear indication that he is deliberately appealing to the stereotype of the evil stepmother, as he
does throughout his narration when discussing Livia.174 In this instance, even though Agrippa’s
death had clear political implications, as he was last male Julian who was not related by blood to
168
Barrett. Livia, pg. 64.
Barrett. Livia, pg. 64.
170
Barrett. Livia, pg. 55 and 62.
171
Barrett. Livia. pg. 243-246; Watson. Ancient Stepmothers pg. 184.
172
Barrett. Livia. pg. 243-246.
173
Burns. “First Lady of the Empire” pg. 14; Barrett. Livia. pg. 70-71; Watson. Ancient Stepmothers pg. 185.
174
Tacitus. The Annals (7.6.2) pg. 5.
169
Gray 33
the Claudian family, Tacitus does not even ascribe Livia’s motivation to political ambition for
her son but rather to pure feminine malice or “stepmotherly hatred.”175
Conclusion Ridiculed, demonized, and often portrayed as sexually voracious, their intelligence and
political acumen ignored or misrepresented, women who occupied positions of political power
have been disparaged throughout the ages. Aspasia of Miletus, Olympias of Molossia, Cleopatra
VII of Egypt and Livia of Rome were not exceptions to this general principle. The authors who
commented on these women’s lives interpreted their actions in light of their own cultural
prejudices. Misogyny and xenophobia are prevalent in the sources. Sexual stereotypes are
ubiquitous and mythological precedents are frequently invoked. Women are disparaged to vilify
or ridicule their male relatives or partners. The same actions are described differently when
committed by women instead of men. Actions which are considered politic and necessary when
undertaken by men are considered ruthless and unnatural when committed by women. The
accusations which were directed against these women are found in other sources that detailed
other women’s lives. Five-hundred years after the death of Livia, in the sixth-century CE,
accusations of a nearly identical nature were made against the Byzantine empress Theodora, wife
of Justinian II.176 The author of the criticisms, Procopius of Caesarea, used biblical rather than
mythological allusions but otherwise, remarkably little distinguished his allegations from those
of the pre-Christian era. Although, some of these accusations became less frequent and others
175
Dennison. Empress of Rome pg. 243; Tacitus. The Annals (7.6.2) pg. 5.
See James Allan Evans. The Empress Theodora: Partner of Justinian. University of Texas Press, 2003; Lynda
Garland. "Theodora, Wife of Justinian (527-48)." Lynda Garland. Byzantine Empresses: Women and Power in
Byzantium, AD 527-1204. London: Routledge , 1998. 11-39; Prokopios. Secret History: with Related Texts. Ed.
Anthony Kaldellis. Trans. Anthony Kaldellis. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2010.
176
Gray 34
eventually disappeared, many of these charges were still being directed against women who
occupied positions of political power until the early modern period.
Gray 35
Appendix A N=5
Aspasia Olympias
Cleopatra
Livia
f
%
Interfering in
Political
Sphere
Causing
Estrangement
Between her
Partner and
his Relatives
Dominating
Male Partner
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
4
100%
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
4
100%
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
3
75%
Murder
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
3
75%
Cruelty
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
3
75%
Causing Wars
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
3
75%
Poisoner
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
3
75%
Blasphemy
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
3
75%
Barbarian
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
3
75%
Sexual
Promiscuity
Yes
No
Yes
No
2
50%
Prostitution
Yes
No
Yes
No
2
50%
Witchcraft
No
Yes
Yes
No
2
50%
Evil
Stepmother
No
Yes
No
Yes
2
50%
Gray 36
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