Download Republican Rome - People Server at UNCW

Roman
Women
The Early Republic
Early Rome
Early Rome
Traditional Foundation by
Romulus and Remus: 753 BCE
Rape of the Sabine women
•Rape and
marriage – repeats
traditions of
marriage by rape
•Marriage as
helpless
experience; need
for myths that
show both violence
and resolution?
•Purity of first
women (Roman
women as chaste,
not outlaws)
88 BCE
Rape of the Sabine women
•Feminization of enemies and allies; Rome in masculine role
Rape of the Sabine women
•Marriage as transfer of loyalty to husband’s family
Livy:
Historical
account
Ovid:
Eroticization
of the rape
Rape of Lucretia
•outstanding pudicitia
not outstanding beauty
– or, industry as
arousing
•she can receive
visitors alone (though
it is dangerous …)
•violation of her honor
– reputation?
humiliation, losing
“face”?
•what kind of
response is suicide?
Rape of Lucretia
•husband’s
attitude that she
is not guilty,
only the rapist
(while under
Greek law,
woman is still
punished
equally for rape
or adultery)
Rape of Lucretia
•woman as inspiring
the revolution – her
suicide makes
vengeance completely
mandatory
•symbolism of women’s
authoritative voice (like
Veturia and Volumnia)
Veturia and Volumnia
•Mother’s
moral
authority
•Women
symbolize the
land, the
birthplace, the
home, the
unchanging
(unlike
political
turmoils)
Vestal Virgins
•Aristocratic girls, chosen in
childhood
•30 years of service
•Exempt from tutelage
•Have masculine privileges:
making wills, etc.
•Feminine task (guarding the
flame) but on a civic level
•Sometimes heroic action
(guarding the flame in the Gallic
invasion)
Vestal Virgins
(Atrium Vestae): view from Palatine
Vestal Virgins
(Augustus): “He increased the
numbers and dignities, and
likewise the privileges of the
priests, and especially the Vestal
Virgins. Once, when a Virgin
died and had to be replaced and
many parents tried to keep their
daughters from being picked by
lot, he swore that is one of his
granddaughters had been the
right age, he would have
offered her.” (Suetonius)
Vestal Virgins
Julia Aquilla Severa, wife of Elegaballus, former
vestal Virgin
Verginia
•not the actor in this story
– her father is
•point about virtue over
life – a value both are
expected to share
•as elsewhere, important
development in Roman
history (writing of
lawcodes) connected with
an abuse that required
fixing
Cloelia
•girls rarely hostages
•courage as a girl’s virtue too –
usually heroines are matrons who
influence men . . . (like Veturia and
Volumnia)
•military honors – rare but there
was the model. Hellenistic queens?
•Something in Roman culture that
favors this image (Camilla in
Vergil)
Roman Names
Men have three names: e.g.
Gaius Julius Caesar
Personal name
Gens name
Family name
There were only about 10 personal names to choose from.
Women have one name: the feminine form of the gens
name: e.g. Julia (of the Julius gens), Clodia (of the Clodius
gens)
Sometimes a woman might be known by two names, e.g.
Clodia Metella (Clodia who was married to Metellus)
Roman Women: Concepts
•Familia: like Greek
“oikos,” the household,
under paternal
authority.
•Pudicitia: “modesty,”
but even more, a kind
of centered selfrestraint that has
strength and moral
conviction behind it,
reflected in appropriate
behavior.
Roman Women: Concepts
•Paterfamilias:
The male head of a
family, who
retained power
over it until his
death.
•patria potestas:
“Paternal
authority,” the
(officially) lifeand-death power
of a father over all
his children, until
his death.
Roman Women: Concepts
Paterfamilias and matrona united
Roman Women:
Concepts
Images of the Roman
family show the
importance of the bond
between husband and
wife.
(identity contested;
see Valerius
Maximus,
Memorabilia 6.7.2):
two fragments of a
marble plaque with
inscribed text,
beginning
[U]XORIS,
dedicated by a
grateful and
admiring husband.
1st century BCE.
Baths of Diocletian,
Rome. Credits: Ann
Raia, 2005
Roman Women: Concepts
•Manus: legal authority over
children or (in some cases)
wife
•Sui juris: “legally responsibe
for oneself,” rare for women
but attainable in some
circumstances.
•Tutor: Like a Greek kyrios,
the tutor handled public
business for the woman in his
charge.
•Tutelage: reliance on a tutor
Roman Women: Concepts
Gens Essentially, “Clan,”
or extended family with
the same clan name (e.g.
“Julius” or “Claudius”).
Matrona: A married
woman, with all the
expectations of behavior
and authority involved
Univira: “one-man” or
“one-husband” woman
who does not remarry
after being widowed
Children
Children
Clothing
Clothing
Clothing
palla over stola
2 women stand on left with girl child; 2 males, holding scroll, one holding
patera, stand on right with boy; center: aedicula ( house or mausoleum)
with slightly open figured doors, flanked by nude, crowned boys
Proserpina
Ceres
Religion
Religion
Personified concepts
Religion: Locri
terracotta relief of ships, monuments, divinities.
Vatican Museum, Rome. Credits: Ann Raia, 2005