ROMAN WOMEN
Valeria Arpa
Christina Bazzo
Lilianna Colella
Ross Colins
Bruna Gaglioreli
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Cornelia


" In the old days, every child born to a
respectable mother was brought up
not in the room of a bought nurse but
at his mother's knee. It was her
particular honor to care for the home
and serve her children…and no one
dared do or say anything improper in
front of her. She supervised not only
the boys' studies but also their
recreation and games with piety and
modesty. Thus, tradition has it,
Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi,
Aurelia, mother of Julius Caesar, and
Atia, mother of Augustus, brought up
their sons and produced princes. "
Tacitus, Dialogue 28, quoted in
Women's Life in Greece and Rome,
Lefkowitz,Fant, 191
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Women as Slaves
•
•
•
•
Forty percent of the Italian peninsular
• “A female slave could, in time, save
population was enslaved.
up the modest amounts paid to her
Wealthy women enjoyed hundreds to the point of purchasing her own
freedom, and sometimes the
of slaves, while poorer women would
freedom of a husband or son.”
only have a few slaves.
• “Slave-status derived from the mother;
Slaves would carry out domestic duties,
thus the children of a female slave were
entertaining and creating supplement
also enslaved. Roman society was,
income.
however, somewhat flexible in the
“Women were often spared some ofability
the to purchase individual freedom
worst physical horrors of Roman slavery,
and then, over time, in the status of
including the mortal dangers of mines
children and grandchildren to rise
and galleys.”
above the freedwoman's limitations
and even attain rank and wealth.”
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Women in Trade


“Women worked with men in
innumerable trades as Romans by
the tens of thousands moved to the
cities throughout Italy; in taverns,
poultry shops (both the cashier and
the assistant and their stock,
above), laundries and fuller-shops.”
“The poor lived crowded into
insulae, multistory housing blocks
which were apparently frequently
overcrowded and usually
ramshackle. Often the lower stories
operated small shops. The daily
danger of fires (the Great Fire of
Nero's reign was only one of
dozens of Roman conflagrations
throughout the Empire) could wipe
out a family's possessions and its
small business in one blaze.”
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Imperial Women

“Our perceptions of Imperial women are
also influenced by the fact that, for
hundreds of years in the West, the
alleged "decadence" of Imperial Rome
has created its own evergreen tradition,
in which women, as well as men, were
sexually perverse and morally bankrupt.
The more sensational tales of historians
such as Plutarch and Suetonius and
legends of women like Messalina and
Agrippina have created the image of
female depravity that artists have
delighted to portray (such as Couture's
painting in which the "abandoned"
woman is the centerpiece of the painting,
embodying Rome's fall from moral
grace.) Obviously the Romans
themselves viewed the increasing
emancipation of their women with deep
and abiding doubts.”
The Romans of the Decadence, Couture, 1847.
Image courtesy of Thomas Couture.
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Tablets from Murecine, near Pompeii
“The first were excavated in

The1875-6
waxedfrom
tablets
of
the
archive
of
the house of the

thebanker
SulpiciiLucius
were found
in 1959 at
Caecilius
Jucundus.
A cabinet
with 154
Murecine,
about
600 metres
tablets
receipts
for
(1,970
feet)comprising
from one of
Pompeii's
various payments and colonial
gates,
during
construction
taxes
was the
found
in a room of
at a
highway.
Theoftexts,
170 of
which have
the back
the inner
courtyard.
Financial
activities
been
been
published,
rangehad
in date
from AD
recorded
to the year
theSulpicii
26 to
61, andup
originated
withofthe
earthquake.”
firm of financiers, all of whom were
freedmen. They lent huge sums either as
money lenders or as bankers to local
businessmen.

http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/
H/history/rome/pompeii1.html
“Here is one from AD 56:
Umbricia Januaria declares that
she has received from Lucius
Caecilius Jucundus 11,039
sesterces, which sum came into
the hands of Lucius Caecilius
Jucundus by agreement as the
proceeds of an auction sale for
Umbricia Januaria, the
commission due him having
been deducted. Done at
Pompeii, on the 12th of
December, in the consulship of
Lucius
Duvius and atPublius
The building-complex
Murecine in AD 79.
The tablets were found in a wicker basket in
Clodius.”
triclinium “B” (De Simone and Ciro Nappo
2000)
http://www.unine.ch/antic/Rowe.handout.doc
Bibliography
Apuleius, The Golden Ass, translated by P.G. Walsh, Oxford University Press.
Cicero, Murder Trials, translated by Michael Grant, Penguin. London, England, 1975
Cross, Suzanne. “Feminae Romanae: The Women of Ancient Rome” (2001-2004).
5 Mar. 2004 http://www.dominae.fws1.com/Influence/Index.htm/
Jones, Peter and Sidwell, Keith, ed., The World of Rome: An Introduction to Roman
Culture. Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom, 1997
Muller. “Widows in a Slave Society. Chapter 4” (unpublished)
Pliny, The Letters of the Younger Pliny, translated by Betty Radice, Penguin. Londo
England, 1963
Plutarch, Fall of the Roman Republic, translated by Rex Warner, Penguin. London,
England, 1958
“Plutarch, Marriage Advice (Moralia) 138A-146A (abridged): From LCL” in Roman
Civilization: The Empire, ed. Naphtali Lewis and Meyer Reinhold, New York:
Columbia University Press, p.344-45
“Propertius, Elegies book IV, no.” 11 in Roman Civilization: The Empire, ed. Naphta
Lewis and Meyer Reinhold, New York: Columbia University Press, p. 351