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Female Travellers in Roman Britain: Vibia Pacata and Julia Lucilla

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Female Travellers in Roman Britain: Vibia Pacata and Julia Lucilla FEMALE TRAVELLERS IN ROMAN BRITAIN: VIBIA PACATA AND JULIA LUCILLA Lien Foubert Though classical scholars have highlighted the central importance of mobil- ity in the Roman world, travel itself remains an understudied subject.1 Re- search on women’s travels in the Roman world is almost nonexistent; only the religious travels of Christian women in Late Antiquity have attracted much scholarly attention.2 Scholars have overlooked numerous examples of travelling women in the rst centuries of the Roman Empire, a period in which travelling became more common. Women of various social strata commemorated their journeys in gra ti, letters, and votive objects, which constitute a fascinating collection of sources. When scholars do include women in general overviews of mobility in the Roman period, this often occurs in an anecdotal manner, or by focusing on the exceptional character of the examples selected. The present article emphasizes the importance of women’s travels for a better understanding of the public image of women during the Roman imperial period. Since an exhaustive study of the subject is far beyond the scope of a short article, the focus will lie on the province of Roman Britain. On the basis of an in-depth study of two female travellers in Britannia, Vibia Pacata and Julia Lucilla, the article aims to answer the following question: what inuence did travel have on the public identity of women, and to what extent did these female travellers to Britannia play an active role in shaping that identity?3 1 Recent studies that focus on mobility in the ancient world include Horden-Purcell (2000) and Moatti (2004). The most extensive study on the practice of travel is still Casson (1974). Speci c aspects of travelling or travelling in speci c regions have been studied by Foertmeyer (1989); Guédon (2004); and Lomine (2005). 2 On travelling women in the Roman Empire, see Frass (2006); Parker (2008); Foubert (2011). On the travels of Christian women in Late Antiquity, see, for instance, Lenski (2004) and Dietz (2005). 3 ‘Travel’ is understood as a voluntary or involuntary movement, of a non-permanent nature, made by an individual or a group, to a destination other than what is at the point of departure considered as home. The motives for this movement may be of a military, political, economic, legal, cultural or familial nature, or a combination of these. The journey is marked by three stages: departure, passage, and arrival. For a de nition of ‘identity’ see below. 392 lien foubert Motives for Travelling in Roman Britain Sources such as funerary monuments, dedications to Roman or local deities, curse tablets, and the writing tablets of Vindolanda provide insight into the various motives that both local and foreign women had for travelling in, to, and from Britannia. Generally speaking, two types of travel can be distinguished: short-distance travel within the borders of a single province, and long-distance travel, from one province to another. Each of these types had its own set of motives that played a role to a greater or lesser degree. An extreme example of this is travelling because of exile. This necessarily prompted travellers to cross the borders of a province, while it was less likely to be a reason to travel within a province. My corpus of evidence of women’s travels in the Roman Empire4 reveals a great many diferent motivations for travel, but the ancient sources attest only four for Britannia: travel for military reasons, journeys in the context of trade and commerce, travels for religious reasons, and visits to relatives or friends.5 In most cases, more than one reason played a part in the decision to embark on a journey. Depending on a given woman’s living circumstances, being mobile was more or less a necessity. Women from rural settlements would probably have felt little requirement to leave their villages. Many of these settlements were largely self-supporting, and occasional visits to more densely populated areas on market days were probably the exception. Women from more remote estates or villas, especially members of upper-class families who lived a life of ease, were probably more inclined to travel.6 4 A systematic typology of women’s travels in the Roman Empire has not yet been published. The general propositions made in this article are based on a database in which I have so far collected 300 attestations of women’s travels, based on literary, papyrological, and epigraphical sources. In this database, I collect information on the attested women travellers: place of residence, travel destination, number of travels, travel companions, socio-cultural background (class, marital status), commemoration practices and motives for travelling. In the future, I plan to use this database for more research on general travel patterns (e.g. the geographical or social range of these travels) and to give insight in the practice of female travelling (e.g. transport, dress, agency, representation, etc.). 5 Obviously other motives, such as travel for sightseeing, for instance, may have occurred, but they are not attested in the sources. 6 Allason-Jones (2005) 67, without giving arguments, denotes Candiedinia Fortunata (RIB 632), Titia Pinta (RIB 720) and Cosconia Mammiola (JRS 47 [1957] no. 228) as upper- class ladies who divided their time between Eboracum (York) and their northern villas at Adel, Eastness, and Sutton-Under-Whitestone Clif, where the funerary inscriptions of these women were found. I fail to see, however, what makes them estate owners or inhabitants and what links them to Eboracum. Since Candiedinia died when she was fteen, one can wonder how much of an active traveller she really was. Of course, Allason-Jones’ statement remains conceivable..
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