CLA /GWS 206: Women in the Ancient World

Early Rome Plan for Today

• Article Discussions Debrief • Transition to Rome • Historical Context • The Roman Family • Marriage • vs Greek women Articles on Ancient Medicine/Health

• Demand, N. 1994. “Appeal to the Gods.” In Birth, Death, and Motherhood in Classical Greece. Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 87-101. • King, H. 2013. “Sex and Gender: the Hippocratic Case of Phaethousa and her Beard.” EuGeStA: Journal on Gender Studies in Antiquity 3 pp. 124–142. • Walker, A. 2020 (forthcoming). “Female Transition and the Bride of Hades.” In Bride of Hades to Bride of Christ: The Virgin and the Otherworldly Bridegroom in Ancient Greece and Early Christian Rome. pp. 1-43 (esp. 1-21, 29-32, 41-43) TIMELINE OF CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY Greece ANCIEN LATE BRONZE AGE IRON AGE ARCHAIC CLASSICAL HELLENISTIC ROMAN T 1200 BCE 700 BCE 480 BCE 323 BCE 31 BCE 330 CE

ANCIEN LATE BRONZE AGE Rome T 1650 – 1200 BCE MONARCHY REPUBLIC EMPIRE EARLY IRON AGE 1100 – 700 BCE 510 BCE 27 BCE 476 CE

ARCHAIC PERIOD MONARCHY 700 – 500 BCE 753 - 510 BCE

CLASSICAL PERIOD REPUBLIC 500 – 323 BCE 510-27 BCE

HELLENISTIC PERIOD EMPIRE 323 – 31 BCE 27 BCE– 476 CE

ROMAN PERIOD 31 BCE – 330 CE Geography of Early Rome

• Latium • Etruria • Etruscans • Campania • “the countryside” • Samnites • Calabria and Magna Graecia • Greeks • Sicily • Greeks and Carthaginians Roman History Roman Society and Values

• Classes: patricians and plebeians • mos maiorum: “way of the ancestors” • Virtus: “manliness/courage/virtue” • gravitas: “seriousness” • severitas: “moral austerity” • pietas: “filial devotion” • pudicitia: “sexual continence” • stuprum: debauchery, lewdness, violation • pudicitia: modesty, chastity, virtue The Roman Family

• Gens: “clan” • Familia: “family” • Paterfamilias: “father of the family”; Male head of a family • materfamilias and matria auctoritas • Patria potestas: “fatherly power”; legal authority of the male head of a family over his family and descendants, including other adult males, women, freedmen, slaves, and children. • Words for women: puella, virgo, uxor, matrona Roman Marriage

• Why? • to produce legitimate children (liberorum procreandorum causa) • Requirements • Roman citizenship prerequisite for conubium (the right to marry) • consent of bride, groom, and paterfamilias of each • dowry (optional) • minimum age 12 years old (more usually 15-20) • Ceremony • bridal costume: saffron veil (flammeum), straight tunic (tunica recta), belt with knot of Hercules (nodus Herculis), special hairstyle (seni crines) • procession • ubi tu Gaius, ibi Gaia Roman Marriage

• Cum manu “with the hand” • Confarreatio • Coemptio • Usus • Sine manu “without the hand”

Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii, 1st c CE

Wedding Procession, Centuripe, 3rd – 2nd c BCE Roman Marriage

• Concordia vs Amor • e.g. Pompey and Julia; Brutus and Porcia • Pliny to Calpurnia WLGR #290 • Inscription of Furia Spes (1-2nd c. CE) • Inscription of Aurelia Philematium (1st c. BCE) • Univira • e.g. Cornelia (WLGR #62) • Modesty and fidelity and wool-working • Epitaph for Claudia (WLGR #48) • Domestic Violence • Egnatius Metellus cudgels his wife (WLGR #128) Roman Marriage

Restutus Piscinesis et Prima Restuta Primae Florentiae filiae carissimae fecerunt, qui ab Orfeu maritu in Tiberi decepta est. December cocnatu posuit. Q(uae) vix(it) ann(is) XVI s(emis?) Restulus Piscinesis and Prima Restuta made this for their dearest daughter Prima Florentia, who was deceived by her husband Orfeus in the Tiber. Her relative December erected this. She was 15 years old. 2nd c CE Portus, Italy Roman Marriage

To the Spirits of the Departed and the eternal rest of Julia Maiana, a most saintly woman, who was killed at the hand of her most cruel husband. She died before the time that fate had decreed. She lived with him for 28 years, and by him gave birth to two children, a boy aged 19 and a girl aged 18. What an expression of faithfulness, what an expression of dutifulness! Julius Maior, her brother, took care of the erection of this memorial for his sweetest sister, as did Ingenuinius Ianuarius, her son, and they dedicated it 326 CE, Lyon, France Athenian vs Roman

Athenian Women Roman Women • Elite • Elite • emphasis on marriage and • emphasis on marriage and procreation procreation • legal minors • legal minors (with certain • non-propertied freedoms) • non-educated (-ish) • propertied • non-political • educated • sexually & socially restricted • politically influential • • Non-elite less restricted • employed outside the home • Non-elite • employed outside the home For Friday: Rome’s Legendary Women & the Vestal Virgins • Required Reading • WLGR # 275 (Sabines: Livy 1.9), 189 (Lucretia: Livy 1.57), 188 (Cloelia: Livy 2.13); 511-512 (Vestal Virgins) • Tarpeia (Livy 1.11; link on website) • Consider • How does the legend of the Rape of the Sabines show them subscribing to Roman society and its goals? (trace the whole story) • What ideas about women are behind the legend of Tar?peia? What does Livy do for her story by adding a debate about her motives • What values and principles motivate Lucretia? • What feminine and Roman values does Cloelia uphold? • Recommended Viewing: Janet Stephens’ Roman Bridal Costume