Women in Criminal Trials in the Julio-Claudian Era
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Women in Criminal Trials in the Julio-Claudian Era by Tracy Lynn Deline B.A., University of Saskatchewan, 1994 M.A., University of Saskatchewan, 2001 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Classics) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) September 2009 © Tracy Lynn Deline, 2009 Abstract This study focuses on the intersection of three general areas: elite Roman women, criminal law, and Julio-Claudian politics. Chapter one provides background material on the literary and legal source material used in this study and considers the cases of Augustus’ daughter and granddaughter as a backdrop to the legal and political thinking that follows. The remainder of the dissertation is divided according to women’s roles in criminal trials. Chapter two, encompassing the largest body of evidence, addresses the role of women as defendants, and this chapter is split into three thematic parts that concentrate on charges of adultery, treason, and other crimes. A recurring question is whether the defendants were indicted for reasons specific to them or the indictments were meant to injure their male family members politically. Analysis of these cases reveals that most of the accused women suffered harm without the damage being shared by their male family members. Chapter three considers that a handful of powerful women also filled the role of prosecutor, a role technically denied to them under the law. Resourceful and powerful imperial women like Messalina and Agrippina found ways to use criminal accusations to remove political enemies. Chapter four investigates women in the role of witnesses in criminal trials. The final part of the thesis is a prosopographical survey, presenting a case by case analysis of all the trials considered in this study. The conclusion emphasizes that the changing role of women in Roman politics is striking. The emergence of the senate as the court that heard trials like these is an important development. Women are now seen entering the senate and speaking at trials as witnesses and defendants, participating (intermittently, to be sure) in senatorial proceedings, from which they had been completely banned in the Republic. Women were perceived as more than capable of being agents in political intrigue, a perception confirmed and reinforced by the high-profile legal and political maneuvres of the younger Agrippina. This was a new level of public attention, and at a high cost for those who were convicted, whether they were actually guilty of a criminal offense or merely political targets. 11 Table of.Contents Abstract ii Table of Contents iii List of Abbreviations iv Acknowledgements v Dedication vi Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Part 1: Sources for women on trial 5 Standard procedure of a criminal trial 14 Emperors in court 16 Part 2: Precedents without trials: the two Julias 19 Chapter 2 Women as Defendants 29 Part 1: On charges of adultery 32 Adultery legislation — old and new law 35 Cases of adultery 40 Adultery as a political charge 65 Part 2: On charges of maiestas 90 Defendants charged with maiestas alone 94 Defendants charged with maiestas as one of multiple charges 109 Defendants on probable charges of maiestas 117 Politically motivated charges 124 Part 3: On charges of veneficia et devotiones and others 132 Defendants on a single charge 134 Defendants on multiple charges 141 Defendants on unrecorded charges 149 Politically motivated charges 154 Chapter 3 Women pro accusatoribus 161 Antonia Tryphaena 167 Messalina 173 Agrippina the Younger 187 Junia Silana 199 The End: Messalina and Agrippina 204 Chapter 4 Women as Witnesses 209 Conclusion 225 Prosopographical Survey of Women in Criminal Trials 240 Bibliography 346 Appendix 1: Chronological Listing of Women in Criminal Trials 361 Appendix 2: Stemmata 363 111 List of Abbreviations: Abbreviations of classics journals follow the standards laid out in L ‘Année Philoiogique; abbreviations of classical authors and their works follow the standards laid out in the Oxford Classical Dictionary. CIL Corpus Inscr4’tionum Latinarum Dig. Digest ofJusitinian (1985) 4 vols., Latin text of Th. Mommsen and P. Krueger, trans. A. Watson, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. EJ Documents Illustrating the Reigns ofAugustus and Tiberius (1955) V. Ehrenberg and A.H.M. Jones (eds), Clarendon Press, Oxford. FIRA Fontes luris Romani Antejustiniani (1941-) 3 vols., S. Riccobono, J. Baviera, C. Ferrini, J. Furlani, V. Arangio-Ruiz, S.A.G. Barbera (eds), Florence. IGRR Inscriptiones Graecae adRes Romanas Pertinentes (1909-1927) vols 1, 3, 4, ed. R. Cagnat, Paris. ILS Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae, vols 1-4 (1892-1916), Weidman’s, Berlin. Inst. Justinian ‘s Institutes (1987) Latin text of P. Kruger, trans. P. Birks and G. McLeod, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, N.Y. ORF3 Oratorum Romanorum Fragmenta, 31(1 ed. (1953) ed. H. Malcovati, G.B. Paravia, Torino. P]R’2 Prosopographia Imperii Romani (1897-1898) H. Dessau et al. (eds), Berlin. pjp Prosopographia Imperii Romani (1933-), second edition, F. Groag, A. Stein, L. Petersen (eds), Berlin. RC Raepsaet-Charlier, M.-Th. (1987) Prosopographie desfemmes de l’ordre qer senatorial — Jf siècles,), 2 vols, Peeters. RE Pauly ‘s Realencyclopadie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, neue Bearbeitung, begonnen v.G. Wissowa, (1893-) Stuttgart. SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum Smaliwood Documents illustrating the Principates ofGaius, Claudius, and Nero (1967) ed. M. Smaliwood, Clarendon Press, Oxford. iv Acknowledgements I am grateful to the faculty, staff, and fellow graduate students in the Department of Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies at UBC for inspiration and support through this doctoral journey. Particular thanks go to Dr. Anthony Barrett, whose erudition and expertise in Roman history are impressive and inspirational. I am grateful for a generous doctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and for University Graduate Fellowships and other funding provided by the University of British Columbia. Special thanks to Drs. Leanne Bablitz, Charmaine Gome and Lyn Rae for asking tough questions and engaging in stimulating conversations in the reading room, hallways, stairwells, pubs, and various other dark corners. Very special thanks to Dr. Shelley “Are you done yet?” Reid whose unstinting support was critical in the writing process. Gratitude beyond words is owed to my family, especially my children: Kieran, Kaylee, and Kendra. Your love and support mean everything. My children and I also thank Mom, Jen, Melanie, and Shelley for preserving my sanity by providing me with conversation, crying towels, chocolate, and/or wine at the appropriate moments. v For my cliifcfren: 7(ieran 7(ay(ee 7(encfra vi CHAPTER 1 Introduction to Women in Criminal Trials Even a quick perusal of Tacitus’ Annales and Suetonius’ Vitae Caesarum gives the reader the sense of a huge number of trials1involving various members of the elite orders of Roman society (both senatorial and equestrian). A significant number of these cases involved women as defendants, co-defendants, and even as prosecutors. This study focuses on the intersection of three general areas: elite Roman women, criminal law, and Julio Claudian politics. Many historians have studied Tacitus, Suetonius, and other early imperial historians, and there are many scholarly publications on those topics. Similarly, many historians have studied Roman women, and others have studied Roman law. There are very few, however, who have paid close attention to the intersection of these three areas; in fact, no full length treatment of this subject has been published. A.J. Marshall’s 1990 article “Women on Trial in the Roman Senate” did indeed compile and briefly analyze information about trials held in the senate, but the subject warrants a more thorough treatment. The parameters of this dissertation fall into three categories. Temporally, it limits itself to the Julio-Claudian era (31 BC to AD 68). Socially, the focus is on elite women in Rome; the vast multitude of non-elite women who must have appeared in court have left virtually no trace in extant records. In the legal sphere, this study focuses on criminal trials only, and explores the historical, political, and legal contexts and consequences of these trials. Note that the term ‘trial’ refers to criminal proceedings rather than civil litigation. There are many examples of elite women’s involvement in private law, all of which are outside the scope of the present study. The Julio-Claudian period provides an opportune window in which to study women in a political and legal context because of the relatively plentiful narrative sources. We should not assume, however, that the political and legal activities of women disappeared at other times merely because the window was obscured. In Dio’s later books and in imperial rescripts preserved in Justinian’s Digest, ample evidence is available about politically and legally powerful women. They were full-contact players in the political game and were not scorned in the law either. We must recognize, however, that the Julio-Claudian era is unique because it marks the beginning of the Empire and therefore new definitions had to be created and clarified, particularly in the context of treason. It is no surprise to find a generation filled with treason trials as the boundaries of treason under the new order were explored and defined. The Julio-Claudian era is, therefore, unique and worthy of study, as are the politically-inclined women of the time. The Roman definition of crime is distinct from our own. Many actions that modern citizens might call crimes — theft, fraud and so on — were civil actions under the Roman legal code. Only actions that harmed the collective or the state were considered crimes by Roman definition; no crime, therefore, fails to be political. The frequency of women’s involvement in criminal trials during the Julio-Claudian period is thus a reflection of the heightened political involvement of women.