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Roman Aristocratic Women from the Late Republic to the Early Imperial Period

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Roman Aristocratic Women from the Late Republic to the Early Imperial Period Revised limits of participation in public life: Roman aristocratic women from the late republic to the early imperial period Hugh Lindsay, BA Hons (Western Australia); MA (Western Australia); MA (Adelaide) A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Classics March 2019 This research was supported by an Australian Government research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship 1 Statement of Originality I hereby certify that the work .embodied in the thesis is my own work, conducted under normal supervision. The thesis contains no material which has been, accepted, or is being examined, for the award of any other degree: or diploma in any university or tertiary institution and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference has been made. I give consent to the final version ot1my thesis being made available worldwide when deposited in the University's Digital Repository, and subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968 and any approved embargo. Hugh Lindsay 2 Contents Abstract 4 Acknowledgments 5 List of illustrations 6 Abbreviations 7 1. Introduction The topic 8-9 Previous accounts of Roman women and their roles 9-23 The research method, aims, and limitations 23-34 2. Roman ideals and gender roles 35-78 3. Legal issues relating to the status of Roman women: 79-115 continuity and change between 200 BC and the age of Augustus Republican women from Cornelia to Terentia: evolving participation 4. Cornelia 116-137 5. Clodia 138-157 6. Servilia 158-176 7. Terentia and Tullia 177-207 Triumviral women: a world in transition 8. Fulvia: 208-239 9. Octavia 240-279 10. Conclusion 280-291 Bibliography 292-325 3 Abstract Revised limits of participation in public life: Roman aristocratic women from the late republic to the early imperial period This thesis charts the growth in the role of elite Roman women in public life from the period of the Gracchi to the early empire under Augustus. Roman patriarchy excluded women from direct participation in politics in the forum or the Senate, so much emphasis falls on indirect access to power. To review this, two introductory chapters discuss Roman male perceptions of ideal female behaviour, and legislative changes with a direct impact on female lives. This is followed by studies of significant individuals, divided into two groups. The first reviews Cornelia, Clodia, Servilia, and Terentia and Tullia. Cornelia’s life as the mother of revolutionary sons is the sole example from the second century BC, and is followed by key characters from the last generation of the Republic. The second consists of Fulvia and Octavia, women whose status was prominent during the triumvirate as successive wives of the triumvir Antony. Individual lives are tested to establish the extent to which they were pushing the boundaries of ideal behaviour, and to attempt to establish how and why this occurred. Each individual is tested against their adherence to traditional female roles, their advance into areas of controversy, and finally truly transgressive acts. The application of these tests shows that matters advanced over the selected period as areas considered controversial or transgressive modified under changed social and political conditions. Many of the changes occurred informally, as women became involved in political arrangements through the extended relevance of the domestic context. Women were initially used as proxies in the late Republic because of frequent male absences overseas, and later in unusual roles during the unstable conditions during the triumvirate. Finally, the advent of empire and the imperial court encouraged their acceptance in further novel roles. 4 Acknowledgements Many thanks to my supportive colleagues at UoN while I have been working on this thesis since 2015, especially to my supervisors Dr Jane Bellemore and Professor Marguerite Johnson. Particular thanks for help over various organisational matters to Dr Elizabeth Baynham, Dr Troy Duncan, Associate Professor Neil Morpeth, and Terry Ryan. 5 List of illustrations 1. R. Lanciani, Forma Urbis Romae, plates 21 & 28 combined 265 2. Reproduction of Plate XXIX from G. Carettoni, A. Colini, L. Cozza, 266 and G. Gatti (eds.) La pianta marmorea di Roma antica. Forma urbis Romae (Rome 1960). 3. Piranesi, Le Antichità romane, IV, 39 267 4. Statue base in Capitoline museum: Cornelia: CIL 6.10043=ILS 68, author’s 273 photo 5. Statue base in Capitoline museum: Cornelia, showing depth of the plinth, 274 author’s photo 6. Statue of Helen, mother of Constantine, Capitoline museum, author’s 274 photo 6 Abbreviations Standard abbreviations for ancient sources are utilised, following conventions in Oxford Classical Dictionary (ed. S Hornblower and A, Spawforth), 3rd revised edition 2003. The following other abbreviations are employed: AE L’Année épigraphiique, Paris 1888- CIL Corpus Inscriptionum Latinorum, Berlin 1863- D. Digesta Iustiniani, ed. T. Mommsen, Berlin 1877, translated in A. Watson (ed.) The Digest of Jusinian, 4 vols, Philadelphia 1985 EDCS Epigraphische Datenbank Clauss – Slaby. www.manfredclauss.de/ EJ2 V. Ehrenberg and A.H.M. Jones, Documents illustrating the Reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, 2nd edition, Oxford 1976 FGrHist F. Jacoby, Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, Berlin 1923- ILS H. Dessau, Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae, Berlin 1892-1916 LT Laudatio Turiae (= Wistrand [1976]) LTUR M. Steinby (ed.) Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae, Rome 1993- MRR T.R.S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic (1951-2; 1986) Milet. T. Wiegand (ed.) Milet: Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen und Untersuchungen seit dem Jahre 1899 (1966-) ORF4 H. Malcovati, Oratorum Romanorum Fragmenta, 4th edition 1967 PL J.-P. Migne, Patrologia Latina (1841-1865) PIR2 Prosopographia Imperii Romani Saeculorum I, II, II, 1933- RE Real-Encyclopaedie der classischen Altertumwissenschaft, 1893- RPC Roman Provincial Coinage, http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/ SIG3 W. Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Gaecarum, 3rd edition (1915- 1924) 7 Chapter 1: Introduction Revised limits of participation in public life: Roman aristocratic women from the late Republic to the early imperial period The topic In recent years there has been much interest in the growth in the public visibility of elite Roman women soon after the Second Punic War, which increases dramatically in the last generation of the Republic, and culminates during the triumviral period. By the age of Augustus, the imperial women have entrenched their presence and power at the imperial court, a pattern already evident in the Hellenistic monarchies.1 The underlying causes and stages of this social shift have been little explored. This thesis aims to outline Roman male attitudes to female behaviour, and the impact of legislation on female lives. Its scope is to identify key changes to the limits of participation of elite Roman women in social and political life in the late Republic and during the transition to the imperial system. The structure adopted here involves two introductory chapters dealing with the social and legal conditions relevant to female lives in the period after 200 BC. Attention then shifts to the evidence from a limited group of elite lives from the period which shed light on different types of changes, and factors enabling these women to gain greater visibility or actual power. The tendency in the scholarship has been not to treat elite women together, since their lives vary greatly, but to use them to illuminate the development of particular male careers. As a group, women reveal individual responses to political and social changes, and illustrate the 1 Spawforth (2007). 8 picture of emerging female roles. One such group of comprises Cornelia, daughter of Scipio Africanus, born just after the Second Punic war, Clodia, Servilia, and Terentia and Tullia, all born after 100 BC. The latest figures treated are Fulvia and Octavia, whose adult lives at the end of the Republic extend respectively to the triumviral period and the first part of the reign of Augustus. Livia, whose life further developed political roles, has been omitted, since most of her impact was confined to the Empire. The subjects will be tested to assess individual contributions, but the overriding concern is to outline changes in the role of elite women as a whole through close examination of social and legal conditions, to demonstrate developments in the face of changing circumstances. Previous accounts of Roman women and their roles There are challenges in understanding changes to female roles because of both ancient and modern perspectives on ‘female biography’.2 Female voices are hard to hear in the ancient evidence, and older scholarship tended to be too ready to accept the picture of conditions supplied by the Roman male elite. More critical approaches to the ancient sources have developed since the 1970s, especially in the growing body of feminist literature, but some modern studies are still insufficiently critical of Roman male portraits of major female characters.3 Writers about Roman women, whether ancient or modern, are trapped not simply by the cultural prejudices in ancient accounts of female lives, but also by unacknowledged attitudes from their own cultural backgrounds.4 2 Keegan (2017) 145. 3 E.g. Scullard (1970) 313-316: Joshel (1997) 221-254; Keegan (2017) 147-153. 4 A theme pursued by Bourdieu (1977) 72-95. 9 To explain the shortage of female voices we need to view it as a product
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