ROMAN WOMEN Valeria Arpa Christina Bazzo Lilianna Colella Ross Colins Bruna Gaglioreli

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

Women as Slaves Forty percent of the Italian peninsular population was enslaved. Wealthy women enjoyed hundreds of slaves, while poorer women would only have a few slaves. Slaves would carry out domestic duties, entertaining and creating supplement income. “ Women were often spared some of the worst physical horrors of Roman slavery, including the mortal dangers of mines and galleys.” “A female slave could, in time, save up the modest amounts paid to her to the point of purchasing her own freedom, and sometimes the freedom of a husband or son.” “ Slave-status derived from the mother; thus the children of a female slave were also enslaved. Roman society was, however, somewhat flexible in the ability to purchase individual freedom and then, over time, in the status of children and grandchildren to rise above the freedwoman's limitations and even attain rank and wealth.”

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.”

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, Image courtesy of Thomas Couture.Thomas Couture

Tablets from Murecine, near Pompeii “The first were excavated in from the house of the banker Lucius Caecilius Jucundus. A cabinet with 154 tablets comprising receipts for various payments and colonial taxes was found in a room at the back of the inner courtyard. Financial activities had been recorded up to the year of the earthquake.” “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 Publius Clodius.” The waxed tablets of the archive of the Sulpicii were found in 1959 at Murecine, about 600 metres (1,970 feet) from one of Pompeii's gates, during the construction of a highway. The texts, 170 of which have been published, range in date from AD 26 to 61, and originated with the Sulpicii firm of financiers, all of whom were freedmen. They lent huge sums either as money lenders or as bankers to local businessmen. H/history/rome/pompeii1.html The building-complex at Murecine in AD 79. The tablets were found in a wicker basket in triclinium “B” (De Simone and Ciro Nappo 2000)

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” ( ). 5 Mar 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. London, 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 “Propertius, Elegies book IV, no.” 11 in Roman Civilization: The Empire, ed. Naphtali Lewis and Meyer Reinhold, New York: Columbia University Press, p. 351