Some women in Ancient Rome had significant political influence in society, especially influence over males who are perceived as being more powerful throughout history.
Although some women of the upper class were influential in Ancient Rome, many women who were in the lower or middle classes were oppressed within society. In Ancient Rome, women were considered inferior to men, and often had jobs like prostitution and barmaids (D). These jobs are considered degrading and below many people, but women usually didn’t have a choice. They often served men, and were abused to some degree. Legally, women always “belonged” to their father’s family, even after marriage (M). Women are always considered“under the protection” of a male guardian, whether
…show more content…
it's their father or husband. Compared to men, women at that time had very little rights. They couldn’t vote, hold office or a political position, or even have their own names. Women often took the name of their father, for example, the daughter of Julius Caesar was named Julia (M). Also, in the event of divorce, the father would automatically take custody of the children, without trial. Within the boundaries of historical and regional developments, the most crucial factor in determining a woman's life is her social status, and because of this, they depended upon their husbands or fathers if they were freeborn. Women technically did not have any “public rights”, but they did have some private rights. The hierarchical system of Rome did not allow middle-aged women to be “self possessed’ or “probital”, meaning that they couldn’t be independant from men’s protection. Although women in Ancient Roman society were generally opressed, some elite women of the upper class had a lot of influence on men, like in their business decisions or even political decisions. An example of this is represented in a painting titled, “Terentius Neo and His Wife”, which depicts a successful business owner and his wife (F). In the painting, the man is holding a scroll, and his wife is holding a stylus and a diptych, which implies that they are both educated, therefore they may be the upper class. The painting itself is of the two people, one being a women, which is significant because she is being represented in a piece of art, which is for a form of respect and recognition. They are portrayed as equal because they are presented equally and frontally, which also implies that the woman had some degree of power over her husband. Another example of an influential woman is Livia, the first Empress of Rome.
Livia was the mother of three, but the surviving son was named Tiberius, who eventually became Emperor of Rome; she was also the wife of Augustus, the Emperor of Rome at the time. Livia was very proud to be associated with Tiberius while he was in power, and influenced him significantly throughout his life (I). Livia was joined by Tiberius in dedicating the great monument that bears Livia’s name, the Porticus Liviae. Livia is known for taking drastic measures to achieve her goals and get where she wanted to be, which implies that she had at least some degree of power. She eliminated many of her enemies to advance her family, specifically her son, Tiberius, in politics. She poisoned many people to aid Tiberius with becoming Emperor of Rome. In 35 BC, Livia received her first marks of status, the right to manage her own affairs, meaning controlling her own financial resources, without a guardian and a grant of sacrosancitas, which is a doctrine that protected tribunes from harm and was the basis of tribune's power (J). Liva had the inviolability that tribunes had which gave her the same protection of Augustus. Livia had a public statue made of her, which was unique for a woman at the time. In 9 BC, she received a second statue made in honor of her, that was intended to console her for the loss of her son, Drusus. Livia was also given the ius liberorum, the collection of rights given to the
mother of four children, even though she was technically a mother of one. Livia was wealthy independent of her husband Augustus, in contrast to a majority of the women in Rome, who often depended upon their husbands for money. She is commonly known for being a “wicked stepmother” because she was ambitious for her own sons (Drusus and Tiberius) at the expense of the other members of her family, such as her adopted children Lucius and Gaius, the oldest sons of Agrippa and Julia. Her step children both died at a young age, and it is hinted that she played a role in their deaths. An example of her cruelty is when after Augustus made his nephew C. Claudius Marcellus, the son of his sister Octavia, his successor by marrying his daughter, Julia, to him. Marcellus died shortly after in 23 BC, and it is suspected that Livia had something to do with his death, which is an example of how Livia used her political influence to get what she wants, in this case to ensure her son’s power. When Augustus died, Livia inherited 1/3 of his estate, which was rare for a woman to do so in that time in Rome. One example of her unofficial power was when she saved her friend, Plancina, the wife of Cn. Calpurnius Piso, who was accused of complicity in insureection and poisoning when Germanicus died. In the end, Plancina was found guilty, but was pardoned form her punishment “by the request of [Tiberius] mother” which demonstrates Livia’s influence.
Cole's article is not to attack Aristotle on his views of where a woman should be placed within the social and political order, in accordance to the Classic Greek period. Her intrigue is within "surveying some central values of that particular social and political institution," (Sterba 79). At first she begins with Aristotle's view on gender and class in ethics. Making a definite point among the social/political class, ancient Greek women and slaves were only allowed their male citizens to think for them. Being dependent on men silences the women and slaves without a voice to speak out, for the women work while the men socialize with others, the men assume that the women do not need a voice. According to Aristotle, even a woman's virtue is to be subservient to all males. As a part of common life the woman is considered the pack horse and the mother to raise the children, for the men. With all the work that women put into their specific households, some education and training would mature from the experience. It was thought again by Aristotle within; Deliberation, Education, and Emancipation, that woman did not possess the aptitude for practical reasoning. For whomever possessed practical reasoning carried with them authority on their decisions and the action pending. From these three classic Greek examples of how women were considered mentally and treated physically, the author Cole provides a progressive outlook of how women could have gained social and political power in a society of male dominant figures.
Roman men censured the fact that rich women were more concerned with their own figures and luxuries than with their families. Unlike the good, old-time matrons, according to the historian Tacitus around 100 CE, these modern women did not spend time with their childre...
Roman society operated under the authority of paterfamilias. Paterfamilias is where the oldest living male of the family was considered to be the father of the household; he had “virtual life and death authority over the entire household” (MPN, 107). He would make the all the decisions in the family, and made the rules and standards, including the moral standards that women were expected to follow. Ideal Roman women were valued for their piety, modesty, performance of womanly duties, and faithfulness to their husbands. In both their stories, Lucretia and Dido do what is necessary to maintain their image of the ideal Roman woman.
This paper will discuss the well published work of, Pomeroy, Sarah B. Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. New York: Schocken, 1975. Print. Sarah B. Pomerory uses this book to educate others about the role women have played throughout ancient history. Pomerory uses a timeline to go through each role, starting with mythological women, who were called Goddesses. She then talks about some common roles, the whores, wives, and slaves during this time. Pomerory enlightens the audience on the topic of women, who were seen as nothing at the time. Men were seen as the only crucial part in history; however, Pomerory’s focus on women portrays the era in a new light.
During this time period women were not respected at all and were belittled by all med in their lives. Even though men don’t appreciate what women they still did as they were told. In particular, “Women have an astoundingly long list of responsibilities and duties – th...
When a beloved great grandson of Augustus’. died (a son of Germanicus’), she saw to it that the child’s statue was. placed in his private quarters, demonstrating the power she contained. However modestly she presented herself, Livia's life was showcased by.... ...
In Ancient Greece, women had little to no freedom in their lives. For instance, they had no role in politics, leaving that completely to men, were expected to stay indoors for the majority of their lives doing household work because they were under the control of a male relative, usually being their father or husband, and they were not allowed to study medicine. These standards were set by great writers such as Aristotle who wrote of women being inferior to men. He believed women were more emotional, which is why they would be useless in politics, and they were more deceptive and mischievous. Because only men were doctors, many women were dying during childbirth due to the fact that they felt uncomfortable about having a man handle their pregnancy.
The Roman Empire had a social system that was based on autonomy, heredity, citizenship and property as well as distinguishing men and women by their social status. The women had the lowest position in society which were depended on the status of their husbands and fathers. They lacked independence and ...
Lefkowitz, Mary R., and Maureen B. Fant. Women's Life in Greece and Rome. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 2005.
Women in antiquity did not have an easy lot in life. They had few, if any, rights. Surviving early records of the civilizations of antiquity from ancient Greece, Egypt, China, and Rome suggest the diversity of women’s roles differed little from region to region. There were a few exceptions, mostly concerning women of nobility and the city-state of Sparta. Excluding the rare instances mentioned most antique women were generally limited on education, mobility, and almost all possibilities interfering with domestic or childbearing responsibilities. The limited social roles of women in antiquity suggest the perceived c...
Greek and Roman women lived in a world where strict gender roles were given; where each person was judged in terms of compliance with gender-specific standards of conduct. Generally, men were placed above women in terms of independence, control and overall freedom. Whereas men lived in the world at large, active in public life and free to come and go as they willed, women's lives were sheltered. Most women were assigned the role of a homemaker, where they were anticipated to be good wives and mothers, but not much of anything else. The roles of women are thoroughly discussed in readings such as The Aeneid, Iliad, Sappho poetry, and Semonides' essay.
Any examination of women in Livy’s writing demands not only a literal interpretation of their character development and values, but also must account for their symbolic importance—thus creating a much more complex representation. Livy, an ancient historian, authored The Early History of Rome to be an exploration of Rome from its foundation, focusing on historical events and societal organization. In it, he examines the patriarchal society that stabilized Rome throughout its dominance. However, as a result of this explicitly defined hierarchy in Rome, women were seen as secondary figures in society. Most were viewed as submissive and passive, and it was well within the rights of men to assert their dominance—many women even agreed with these values. This can be seen in Livy’s portrayals of such women as the Sabine women, Horatia, and Lucretia. Yet Lucretia provides an interesting complexity to the exempla of women. On a symbolic level, Lucretia is an important catalyst in affecting the political organization of Rome. This representation is furthered with Livy’s descriptions of Lavinia, Rhea Silvia, and Verginia. Despite the work of Livy to create an accurate portrayal of women in ancient Rome, other authors showed women to actively defy this patriarchal society he describes. However, Livy’s effort to create the most accurate explanation of early Rome through a historical representation drives this discrepancy in characterization through genre. Therefore, Livy’s work serves as both an accurate and complex examination of the role of women in ancient Rome. According to Livy, a woman’s role was defined by her sacrifice; culturally, women were to be subordinate to men in the patriarchal structure of society, but also served as important...
Women “were expected to bear children, stay home, cook and clean, and take care of the children” (Cobb 29). They were expected to be weak, timid, domestic, emotional, dependent, and pure. Women were taught to be physically and emotionally inferior in addition morally superior to men. During this time, women were ostracized for expressing characteristics and wants that contradicted those ideals. For women, the areas of influence are home and children, whereas men’s sphere includes work and the outside world” (Brannon 161).
Women in Ancient Rome did not have equal legal status as their husbands, fathers, or any other male figures in the society. Women were not allowed to make legal transactions without her husband’s or father’s consent. This showed how men were superior and controlled the money in the family. A woman was permanently attached to her family of birth and her husband’s family, if she got married.
Families were the basis of Roman society while the dominant males-paterfamilias, “held absolute authority over his children” (Spielvogel 129) and others in his household . Roman citizens were classified with three names to differentiate them from other families, but women were usually only known by one. “Females shall remain in guardianship even when they have attained their majority”, (Spielvogel 119) upper-class women were never granted true freedom, but they started making breakthroughs and found ways around the “guardianship” of the males in their households.