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The Role of Women in Ancient Rome
Political roles for women in ancient Rome
Political roles for women in ancient Rome
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The time is the sixth century, the place is Rome and the person is Lucretia, a woman who contributed to one of the biggest parts of Roman history: the creation of the Roman republic. The rape of the virtuous Lucretia by Sextus Tarquinius, the son of Tarquinius Superbus' (an Etruscan king) was the final straw for the Roman people and pushed them to want to change from a monarchy to a republic. From the accounts of the rape of Lucretia from ancient historians like Livy, Cicero and Dionysius, it is clear that Lucretias rape not only spurred the roman people to want to get rid of the Etruscan King and his family, but also revealed the important role of virtue in women in roman society.
There is no doubt that Lucretia, the wife of Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus who was the son of Arruns Tarquinius, was a virtuous woman. This is evident through Cicero who describes her as a 'noble and chaste woman' (Cicero 100), Dionysius who describes her as a woman who 'excelled all the women in beauty as well as in virtue' (Dionysius, Book IV 64) and finally through Livy who explains how she 'won the contest of womanly virtue' (Livy, Book 1, 100). It was this contest that 'kindled in Sextus Tarquinius the flame of lust' (Livy 101) and it was started by Lucretias own husband, Collatinus, during a drunken dinner party in the quarters of Sextus. The contest was between all of the men present at the party and its purpose was to discover who had the most virtuous wife out of all of them. Collatinus, who was very drunk and therefore overly confident, declared that none of the other men's wives could beat the 'incomparable superiority of my Lucretia' (Livy 100). The men decided to participate in Collatinus' contest and so all of them went back to Ro...
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In Rape of Lucretia, Lucretia integrity is at risk, due to her being forced into unchastity by Sextus Tarquinius(58). During this time, having one unclean act carried out by a woman, could attach the reputation of performing such acts to her, and she herself can be used to represent shame. In Rape of Lucretia, Lucretia states that no women will use her as a dishonored example(58). She then commits suicide by stabbing herself (58). Here, Lucretia is trying to erase the corruption that her name may carry in Roman society. This will result in the Roman society not being able to use her as an example of a woman being unchaste. This in turn will keep the expectations of women, which is to not be unchaste with anyone besides her
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In Rape of Lucretia, Lucretia integrity is at risk, due to her being forced into unchastity by Sextus Tarquinius(58). During this time, having one unclean act carried out by a woman, could attach the reputation of performing such acts to her, and she herself can be used to represent shame. In Rape of Lucretia, Lucretia states that no women will use her as a dishonored example(58). She then commits suicide by stabbing herself (58). Here, Lucretia is trying to erase the corruption that her name may carry in Roman society. This will result in the Roman society not being able to use her as an example of a woman being unchaste. This in turn will keep the expectations of women, which is to not be unchaste with anyone besides her
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