Karina Gonzalez
Coody
History 2311
Roles of Roman Women
Roman women by J.P.V.D. Balsdon clearly explains the prominent women in roman
history as individuals and gives credit to the general features of the public and private and
especially the family life of the Roman women of all classes. The book covers the period
of just over one thousand years from the foundation of Rome to the Constantine death.
The book begins with the She-Wolf and ending with Helena’s visit to Jerusalem and the
building of Santa Costanza at Rome. Most of the book covers the early legend of virtuous
women, the emancipation of the female sex around the late republic and the notable
women of the Roman Empire. In the second part of the book the roman marriage
ceremony is described in great detail, the features of how a marriage life was back then
whether it was good or bad were revealed. Women’s daily life is also described with
great depth, from the way she wears her makeup to her personal appearance in the public.
There are separate chapters in which the roman women’s religious life is explained and
especially the remarkable society, the Vestal Virgins.
In my opinion the title “Roman Women, their history and habits” had a lot to do with
the book it was a good title for the book, because the book dealt with Roman women and
all their history and habits. It did not have a discrepancy with the authors intentions, I
belief he author wanted to let the readers know how the life of Roman women was back
then and made his points clear. I would not have changed the name of this book at all it
goes very well with the way the book explains the life of Roman women. The book is
structured in a very particular way because the book has two parts. In the table of
contents it list the chapters that are in part one and the chapters that are in part two, part
one deals with the history of Roman women for example the foundation of the city, SheWolf, female emancipation, noble women, and part two deals with the habits of the
roman women as, wedding ceremony, how they choose the husband, children, holy,
religious women, and the daily life of women. While looking at the table of contents it
can reveal how Mr. Balsdon argument was for the readers to learn about Roman women’s
history and their particular habits that they had. The expectations that you get when
looking at the table of contents is that by the time you finish reading the book you should
know a lot of information about the Roman women, and should be able to explain it in
great depth. Some of the suspicions I got when I glanced at the table of contents was that
I knew I was going to learn quite a bit of information about the women of Rome and their
special habits and history’s. There is nothing that the author would have to include in this
book it practically mentions everything about Roman women’s habits and history that
anyone would want to know.
In Balsdon book of Roman Women he mentions that he is in debt with various
people. He mentions that his most important debt to him is the Director and staff of
British School at Rome, especially Signorina Anna Fazzari and to Signorina Luciana
Valentini. He also seems to be in debt with the Sopraintendenza alle Antichita di Napoli,
because he was generous in providing him with special photographs of Roman Women’s
jewelry. He also mentions that when he was in Oxford he received great help from a
number of my friends. The way Balsdon mentions that the roman women are the subject
of no single work of deep and learned scholarship in English or in any other language. In
this book Balsdons scholarship is very well and any one can see it by the way this book is
written. Although it might be too broad for the author to have too much information
about roman women, because it seems like he gets carried away on certain issues. The
Author does use appropriate evidence because he uses evidence which he knows is
correct and not fiction. There were no footnotes in the book, but close to the last pages
there are various genealogical tables one of those is the genealogy of the Julii and the
Claudii, the next one is the womenfolk of trajan and Hadrian, the womenfolk of the
Antonines, and the last one is the womenfolk of Septimius severus, Elagabalus and
Severus Alexander. These tables are very helpful for any reader to look back and answer
some questions the reader might have. Although some of the tables are somewhat hard to
interpret because they have no actual key to follow. The notes that are towards the back
of the book are written from each chapter, but are not really helpful because most of it is
abbreviated and you have to go to a different page to see what the abbreviation means.
The bibliography is very well written, because it had grouped the certain criteria like
marriage, books on Roman women, jewelry, etc. This makes it easier for the reader to
choose out where e, xactly the article about marriage was taken from.
What the author has to say is he wants the readers to realize how important and
historical the Roman women have been for many generations and for the readers to never
forget this. The books main thesis would be the great history and particular habits of
Roman women. The author makes this case because most of the writings are particularly
about the history and personal habits of the Roman women, his also true examples. The
only thing I would say that is wrong is that the way the notes are produced and that there
is some information about Constantine that we could do without. Other than that the book
is a great resource for anybody who needs to know all about the habits and history of the
roman women. The book has very good Bibliography is very well written and categorized
for readers to find the certain topics.
This book makes you clearly understand the history of the Roman women and how
they were not just like any other typical women. They also deserved their rights, although
back then this was not an option. The history of Roman women has changed and we all
know it is not somewhat similar to what Balsdon has to say.