Judith P. Hallett, Fathers and Daughters in Roman Society: Women and the Elite Family (Princeton University Press, 1984), 142. A daughter was expected to be deferential toward her father and to remain loyal to him, even if it meant having to disagree with her husband's actions. [40] For some, "deference" was not always absolute. After arranging his daughter's first two marriages, Cicero disapproved — rightly, as it turned out — of her choice to marry the unreliable Dolabella, but found himself unable to prevent it. [41] Large families were not the norm among the elite even by the Late Republic; the family of Clodius Pulcher, who had at least three sisters and two brothers, was considered unusual. [100] The birth rate among the aristocracy declined to such an extent that the first Roman emperor Augustus (reigned 27 BCE–14 CE) passed a series of laws intended to increase it. These laws provided special honors for women who bore at least three children (the ius trium liberorum). [101] Women who were unmarried, divorced, widowed, or barren were prohibited from inheriting property unless named in a will. [102] Karen K. Hersh, The Roman Wedding: Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity (Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 4, 48, et passim citing Humbert (1971), pp. 1–11. See also Treggiari, Roman Marriage. Hallet, Judith (1984). Fathers and Daughters in Roman Society. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University. pp.8, 10.

Women in the Roman World The Role of Women in the Roman World

One of the most curious characteristics of that age," observed French classical scholar Gaston Boissier, "was that the women appear as much engaged in business and as interested in speculations as the men. Money is their first care. They work their estates, invest their funds, lend and borrow. We find one among Cicero's creditors, and two among his debtors." [110] Although Roman society did not allow women to gain official political power, it did allow them to enter business. [111] She is highly intelligent and a careful housewife, and her devotion to me is a sure sign of her virtue,” scholar Pliny the Younger wrote in a letter of his teenage bride, Calpurnia—who, at about 15, was some 25 years younger than him when they wed. Pliny also affectionately lauded his wife’s ability to memorize his writings. Wealthy women traveled around the city in a litter carried by slaves. [156] Women gathered on a daily basis to meet with friends, attend religious rites at temples, or to visit the baths. The wealthiest families had private baths at home, but most people went to bath houses not only to wash but to socialize, as the larger facilities offered a range of services and recreational activities, among which casual sex was not excluded. One of the most vexed questions of Roman social life is whether the sexes bathed together in public. Until the late Republic, evidence suggests that women usually bathed in a separate wing or facility, or that women and men were scheduled at different times. But there is also clear evidence of mixed bathing from the late Republic until the rise of Christian dominance in the later Empire. Some scholars have thought that only lower-class women bathed with men, or those of dubious moral standing such as entertainers or prostitutes, but Clement of Alexandria observed that women of the highest social classes could be seen naked at the baths. Hadrian prohibited mixed bathing, but the ban seems not to have endured. Most likely, customs varied not only by time and place, but by facility, so that women could choose to segregate themselves by gender or not. [157] An all-women dinner party depicted on a wall painting from Pompeii The story is one of love, intrigue and danger and I enjoyed the female focus within the story. Both women were so brave and I loved the loyalty Lottie showed a woman she never even met.

This close dependence of women on their male relatives was also reflected in such matters as law and finance where women were legally obliged to have a nominated male family member act in their interests ( Tutela mulierum perpetua). The only exceptions to this arrangement were women with three children (from c. 17 BCE), freedwomen with four children, and Vestal Virgins. This rule was designed to keep property, especially inherited property, in the male-controlled family, even if male and female offspring had equal inheritance rights under Roman law. However, in actual practice families may not always have followed the letter of the law in this area, just as with many other matters, and there is evidence of women running their own financial affairs, owning businesses, running estates etc., especially in cases where the principal male of the family had died on military campaign.

Two Women in Rome by Elizabeth Buchan | Goodreads

It’s clearly a very well written and researched book but I didn’t love it as much as I would have liked. Jasper Burns, "Sabina," in Great Women of Imperial Rome: Mothers and Wives of the Caesars (Routledge, 2007), pp. 124–140. 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) As is the case with male members of society, elite women and their politically significant deeds eclipse those of lower status in the historical record. Inscriptions and especially epitaphs document the names of a wide range of women throughout the Roman Empire, but often tell little else about them. Some vivid snapshots of daily life are preserved in Latin literary genres such as comedy, satire, and poetry, particularly the poems of Catullus and Ovid, which offer glimpses of women in Roman dining rooms and boudoirs, at sporting and theatrical events, shopping, putting on makeup, practicing magic, worrying about pregnancy — all, however, through male eyes. [6] The published letters of Cicero, for instance, reveal informally how the self-proclaimed great man interacted on the domestic front with his wife Terentia and daughter Tullia, as his speeches demonstrate through disparagement the various ways Roman women could enjoy a free-spirited sexual and social life. [7] Roman women had a very limited role in public life. They could not attend, speak in, or vote at political assemblies and they could not hold any position of political responsibility. Whilst it is true that some women with powerful partners might influence public affairs through their husbands, these were the exceptions. It is also interesting to note that those females who have political power in Roman literature are very often represented as motivated by such negative emotions as spite and jealousy, and, further, their actions are usually used to show their male relations in a bad light. Lower class Roman women did have a public life because they had to work for a living. Typical jobs undertaken by such women were in agriculture, markets, crafts, as midwives and as wet-nurses.Mary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, Religions of Rome: A History (Cambridge University Press, 1998), vol. 1, p. 297. There are times when Lottie truly believes Nina is speaking directly with her, wanting her story to be told which causes her to begin to doubt everything is being told and when she gets a little too close to the truth, Tom has to ‘fix’ things to keep her out of danger.

Two Women in Rome, by Elizabeth Buchan - Aspects of History Two Women in Rome, by Elizabeth Buchan - Aspects of History

Forsythe, A Critical History of Early Rome, p. 136, based on Festus on the ordo sacerdotum (hierarchy of priests), 198 in the edition of Lindsay.Ariadne Staples, From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins: Sex and Category in Roman Religion (Routledge, 1998), p. 184.

Two Women in Rome by Elizabeth Buchan | Goodreads Two Women in Rome by Elizabeth Buchan | Goodreads

a b Lauren, Caldwell, "Roman Girlhood and the Fashioning of Femininity" (Cambridge University Press, 2014), pp. 3–4. Freisenbruch, Annelise (2010). The First Ladies of Rome: the Women behind the Caesars. London: Jonathan Cape. We start during the 1970s, as the independent minded Nina finds herself falling for a man who she knows she cannot have a life with. Leo has his own familial demons to contend with, whilst Nina has secrets of which Leo can never be party to. Nina’s life is snatched away from her but nobody seems to know anything or care; or do they? Further information: Concubinage in ancient Rome Roman fresco with a banquet scene from the Casa dei Casti Amanti, PompeiiRoman religion was male-dominated but there were notable exceptions where women took a more public role such as the priestesses of Isis (in the Imperial period) and the Vestals. These latter women, the Vestal Virgins, served for 30 years in the cult of Vesta and they participated in many religious ceremonies, even performing sacrificial rites, a role typically reserved for male priests. There were also several female festivals such as the Bona Dea and some city cults, for example, of Ceres. Women also had a role to play in Judaism and Christianity but, once again, it would be men who debated what that role might entail. The Other Women The rise of Augustus to sole power in the last decades of the 1st century BCE diminished the power of political officeholders and the traditional oligarchy, but did nothing to diminish and arguably increased the opportunities for women, as well as slaves and freedmen, to exercise influence behind the scenes. [127] [43] Augustus' wife, Livia Drusilla Augusta (58 BCE – CE 29), was the most powerful woman in the early Roman Empire, acting several times as regent and consistently as a faithful advisor. Several women of the Imperial family, such as Livia's great-granddaughter and Caligula's sister Agrippina the Younger, gained political influence as well as public prominence. According to the Historia Augusta the emperor Elagabalus had his mother or grandmother take part in Senate proceedings. [130] The author regarded this as one of Elagabalus's many scandals, and reported that the Senate's first act upon his death was to restore the ban on attendance by women. According to the same work, Elagabalus also established a women's senate called the senaculum, which enacted very detailed rules prescribing the correct public behaviour, jewelry, clothing, chariots and sundry personal items for matrons. This apparently built upon previous, less formal but exclusive meetings of elite wives; and before that, Agrippina the Younger, mother of Nero, had listened to Senate proceedings, while concealed behind a curtain, according to Tacitus ( Annales, 13.5).