Roman society was made of heavily defined categories and classes of people. Patricians and plebians, freedmen and slaves, and men and women all experienced Roman culture differently. More importantly, they were held to separate expectations and degrees of “penetrability.” Penetrability, in Roman history, could be defined as simply sexual penetrability or be considered a more complex topic. For this essay, penetrability is a method of differentiating the more powerful, near impenetrable elites and the almost always penetrated periphery. By examining the difference between the periphery and the acceptable Roman culture, this essay intends to showcase that the periphery and power imbalance helped define and form Roman social norms. Roman societal …show more content…
Still, “some free men also volunteered to be gladiators.” (Toner, Commodus, 56) In such cases, the volunteers were from groups along the margins of society, including freedmen. (Ton., Com., 56) Charioteers were also mostly slaves or freedmen and therefore similarly penetrable. (Toner 56) The vulnerable position that gladiators and charioteers faced led to laws to “prevent high-class men and women from appearing in the games.” (Ton., Com., 58) By examining the relation between freedmen or slaves themselves and the most penetrable groups of society, Roman societal margins can be defined as the groups who were always penetrable. These groups would find it very hard to escape their own penetrability, as even wealthy freedmen were often the client of another. The imbalance of power itself drove Roman culture by defining manumission and power, making the penetrable contrast to the impenetrable was an important definition to Roman society. Ideas of gender within Roman culture also exemplify how Romans were defined by what they were …show more content…
(Saw., Wom., 128) While these women possessed independence and power that was near the opposite of what most women in Rome experienced, were “the ultimate religious expression of the state itself.” (Saw., Wom., 128) The Vestal Virgins, with the Pontifex Maximus over them, were an effectively very Roman outlook and undertaking of religion. Unlike the Vestal Virgins, non-Roman religions like the Cult of Magna Mater also came into some popularity. Magna Mater offered “an attractive alternative to the traditional Roman cults” and therefore attracted people within the marginal groups of Roman society and who didn’t possess “significant social standing.” (Saw., Wom., 124) The most offensive part of this cult to most Romans were the priests themselves, who participated in