Roman Women

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Roman Women
The Early Republic
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Early Rome
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Early Rome
Traditional Foundation by Romulus and Remus 753
BCE
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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
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Rape of the Sabine women

• Feminization of enemies and allies Rome in
  masculine role

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Rape of the Sabine women

• Marriage as transfer of loyalty to husbands
  family

Livy Historical account Ovid Eroticization of
the rape
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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?

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Rape of Lucretia

• husbands attitude that she is not guilty, only
  the rapist (while under Greek law, woman is still
  punished equally for rape or adultery)

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Rape of Lucretia

• woman as inspiring the revolution her suicide
  makes vengeance completely mandatory
• symbolism of womens authoritative voice (like
  Veturia and Volumnia)

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Veturia and Volumnia

• Mothers moral authority
• Women symbolize the land, the birthplace, the
  home, the unchanging (unlike political turmoils)

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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)

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Vestal Virgins
(Atrium Vestae) view from Palatine
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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)
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Vestal Virgins
Julia Aquilla Severa, wife of Elegaballus, former
vestal Virgin
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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

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Cloelia

• girls rarely hostages
• courage as a girls 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)

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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)
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Roman Women Concepts

• Familia like Greek oikos, the household, under
  paternal authority.
• Pudicitia modesty, but even more, a kind of
  centered self-restraint that has strength and
  moral conviction behind it, reflected in
  appropriate behavior.

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Roman Women Concepts

• Paterfamilias The male head of a family, who
  retained power over it until his death.
• patria potestas Paternal authority, the
  (officially) life-and-death power of a father
  over all his children, until his death.

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Roman Women Concepts
Paterfamilias and matrona united
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Roman Women Concepts
Images of the Roman family show the importance of
the bond between husband and wife.
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(identity contested see Valerius Maximus,
Memorabilia 6.7.2) two fragments of a marble
plaque with inscribed text, beginning UXORIS,
dedicated by a grateful and admiring husband. 1st
century BCE.Baths of Diocletian, Rome. Credits
Ann Raia, 2005
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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

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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
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Children
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Children
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Clothing
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Clothing
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Clothing
palla over stola
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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
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Proserpina
Ceres
Religion
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Religion
Personified concepts
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Religion Locri
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terracotta relief of ships, monuments,
divinities.Vatican Museum, Rome. Credits Ann
Raia, 2005
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