Two Women in Rome

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Alan Watson, The Spirit of Roman Law (University of Georgia Press, 1995), p. 13; Thomas, "The Division of the Sexes," p. 135. The Economy of Prostitution in the Roman World: A Study of social History and the Brothel By Thomas A. McGinn. pg. 52 Susan Treggiari, Roman Marriage: Iusti Coniuges from the Time of Cicero to the Time of Ulpian (Oxford University Press, 1991), pp. 258–259, 500–502 et passim.

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Bruce W. Frier and Thomas A.J. McGinn, A Casebook on Roman Family Law (Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 20. Harlow, Mary, and Ray, Laurence (2002). Growing up and Growing old in Ancient Rome. New York, New York: Rutledge. pp.30–31. {{ cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list ( link) A daughter kept her own family name ( nomen) for life, not assuming that of her husband. Children usually took the father's name. In the Imperial period, however, children might sometimes make their mother's family name part of theirs, or even adopt it instead. [42] Women and sexuality [ edit ]Right image: A woman fixing her hair in the mirror, fresco from the Villa of Arianna at Stabiae, 1st century AD The Hippocratic view that amenorrhea was fatal became by Roman times a specific issue of infertility, and was recognized by most Roman medical writers as a likely result when women engage in intensive physical regimens for extended periods of time. Balancing food, exercise, and sexual activity came to be regarded as a choice that women might make. The observation that intensive training was likely to result in amenorrhea implies that there were women who engaged in such regimens. [184] Some typical occupations for a woman would be wet nurse, actress, dancer or acrobat, prostitute, and midwife — not all of equal respectability. [119] Prostitutes and performers such as actresses were stigmatized as infames, people who had recourse to few legal protections even if they were free. [120] Inscriptions indicate that a woman who was a wet nurse ( nutrix) would be quite proud of her occupation. [121] Women could be scribes and secretaries, including "girls trained for beautiful writing," that is, calligraphers. [122] Pliny gives a list of female artists and their paintings. [123] Eva Cantarella, "Marriage and Sexuality in Republican Rome: A Roman Conjugal Love Story," in The Sleep of Reason: Erotic Experience and Sexual Ethics in Ancient Greece and Rome (University of Chicago Press, 2002), p. 276.

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Bruce W. Frier, Thomas A. J. McGinn (2004). A casebook on Roman family law. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-516186-6. One of the most important tasks for women was to oversee clothing production. In the early Roman period, the spinning of wool was a central domestic occupation and indicated a family's self-sufficiency, since the wool would be produced on their estates. Even in an urban setting, wool was often a symbol of a wife's duties, and equipment for spinning might appear on the funeral monument of a woman to show that she was a good and honorable matron. [109] Even women of the upper classes were expected to be able to spin and weave in virtuous emulation of their rustic ancestors — a practice ostentatiously observed by Livia. In the early Republic, the bride became subject to her husband's potestas, but to a lesser degree than their children. [37] By the early Empire, however, a daughter's legal relationship to her father remained unchanged when she married, even though she moved into her husband's home. [38] This arrangement was one of the factors in the degree of independence Roman women enjoyed relative to those of many other ancient cultures and up to the early modern period. Although a Roman woman had to answer to her father legally, she didn't conduct her daily life under his direct scrutiny, [39] and her husband had no legal power over her. [38] Dressing of a priestess or bride, Roman fresco from Herculaneum, Italy (1-79 AD) Some Roman women did rise above the limited role of family and household guardian that society prescribed and reached positions of real influence. Hortensia is one of the earliest. She, in 42 BCE, gave a famous speech in Rome's Forum in defiance of the triumvirate's proposal to tax the wealth of Rome's richest women to fund the war against Caesar's assassins. Other women who caused ripples in public waters were Cornelia (mother of the Gracchi brothers), Servilia (half-sister of Cato and mother of Brutus), and Fulvia (wife of Mark Antony). With the arrival of the emperors, their mothers, wives, sisters and even daughters could wield significant political influence and also large building projects often came to be sponsored by and dedicated to these women. One of the most celebrated wives of an emperor was Iulia Domna (170-217 CE), wife of Septimius Severus and mother of Caracalla. Iulia was given the title of Augusta and she was a noted patron of the arts, in particular, literature and philosophy. In her eventful life she had also been a priestess in Syria, travelled to Britain and, when Caracalla became emperor, she was given the impressive title of 'mother of the senate and of the fatherland'. In late antiquity there was the most famous female philosopher of ancient times, Hypatia of Alexandria. She wrote several treatises and became head of the Neoplatonic school in the Egyptian city but was brutally murdered by a Christian mob in 415 CE. ConclusionThe age of Augustus brought some of the most significant changes in the status of women. While unmarried women faced hefty penalties, and the laws punishing adulterous women were toughened, the Julian laws also allowed women who bore at least three children to win exemption from the guardianship of a man.