Classics 326: Women in Roman history STUDY GUIDE
1. Early Rome L&F 275 rape of the Sabine women establishes the first Roman wives and families and is reenacted in marriage rituals. Rape was staged at the Consualia, (Plutarch says it was the August 21 Consualia; there was also one celebrated on Dec. 15) the festival of Consus, the god of storing things in jars for the future.
Pandora and Sabine women are both the story of establishing marriage and establishing civilized life. What similarities and differences do you see between the two stories? What explanations might there be for these similarities and differences?
2. Foundation of the Republic 509/8 expulsion of kings in the aftermath of the Rape of Lucretia L&F189 The last king of Rome was Tarquinius Superbus. He was the last king because his son, Sextus Tarquinius, raped Lucretia, and her husband Collatinus and Brutus led a revolt against the king. A state problem (kings) is redefined as a wife problem (rape) and the solving of the wife problem (avenging Lucretia's rape and subsequent suicide) creates a solution to the state problem, a republic where the first two consuls are, precisely, Brutus and Collatinus (you can guess that the Brutus who later assassinated Caesar made a lot of his 'republic' establishing credentials in the aftermath of getting rid of Caesar on the grounds that he had been threatening the republic.
Why does Lucretia commit suicide?
2.1. Cloelia (L&F 188) After the king was expelled as a result of the rape of Lucretia, he took refuge with a neighboring Etruscan king (Lars Porsena) and incited him to attack Rome. In the aftermath of the conflict, hostages were exchanged. The Romans sent over Cloelia and some other girls, but Cloelia was strong enough to swim back. Porsena was moderate, respecting her courage and letting her choose half the hostages to reclaim for Rome. She chose the boys. The statue (on a horse, wearing a man's cloak) of her commemorates the solidification of peace between the Romans and the Etruscans (and perhaps also functioned to exorcise the demon of the powerful and dangerous Etruscan queens in Rome's past?). What does Cloelia's swim mean?
4. Oppian Law L&F196: An interesting case of women making a collective voice be heard 215BCE: During an extended and expensive war against Carthage, resources were tight at Rome. The Oppian law was passed to prevent women from engaging in sumptuous display and conspicuous consumption. 195BCE: women want law to be repealed, against the wishes of the conservative Cato. Being pro-repeal is more bound up with being anti-Cato than with being pro-women.
When Lucius Valerius speaks to repeal the law, what reasoning does he use, and what examples does he give to support this reasoning? What values and ideas about women are embodied in his reasoning?
5. Cornelia mother of the Gracchi (L&F 61, 62, 252, 265, 307-309): “these are my jewels”
What values are on display in these stories about Cornelia? Wat does she symbolize mothers being the source of for their children?
6. Late Republic Hortensia L&F 199, (42 BCE). After the co-rulers of Rome, the triumviri (Octavian, Antony and Lepidus) try to tax the 1400 wealthiest women, Hortensia speaks for the women who object and her views persuade them to go after wealthy men instead.
What kind of evidence does this episode offer for the access of Roman women to persnasive speech and public discourse in the normal course of events?
L&F63 Turia saved her husband from the triumviri by concealing him in the attic L&F191 'Turia' -- tried to preserve her husband's interests at Rome while he was exiled by triumviri. Proof of triumviri abuses = Lepidus' abusive treatment of her women who helped their husbands escape after the assassination of Julius Caesar (L&F190)
What is the significance of women's roles in these narrow escape narratives? (note that it is in the aftermath of this upheaval, during the period while Augustus establishes himself as emperor, that Livy writes down his version of the state-establishing death of Lucretia and the state preserving and asserting and stabilizing heroism of Cloelia).
7. Woman as enemy of Rome: the opposite of these chaste, family establishing, state- stabilizing women:
Sempronia L&F 197 involved with a planned revolt Clodia L&F 85: getting young men of good families into trouble
What values (or anxieties about values) are communicated by the stories of women who are the enemies of Rome?