The Deification of Imperial Women: Second-Century Contexts A Thesis Submitted to the College of Graduate Studies and Research in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Masters Degree in the Department of History University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon By Karin S. Tate © Copyright Karin S. Tate, August 2011. All rights reserved. PERMISSION TO USE In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Postgraduate degree from the University of Saskatchewan, I agree that the Libraries of this University may make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copying of this thesis in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor or professors who supervised my thesis work or, in their absence, by the Head of the Department or the Dean of the College in which my thesis work was done. 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Requests for permission to copy or to make other uses of materials in this thesis/dissertation in whole or part should be addressed to: Head of the Department of History 9 Campus Drive, 721 Arts Building University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A5 Canada OR Dean College of Graduate Studies and Research University of Saskatchewan 107 Administration Place Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A2 Canada i Karin S. Tate The Deification of Imperial Women: Second-Century Contexts ABSTRACT In the early second century AD four extraordinary imperial deifications are recorded. The first took place during the reign of the emperor Trajan (r. 98-117), who deified his sister, Ulpia Marciana, immediately following her death in 112. Next, in 119, Marciana’s daughter, Matidia, was deified by Hadrian (r. 117-138), who was married to Matidia’s daughter, Vibia Sabina. The usual interpretation of these two deifications is that the honours paid these women bolstered imperial prestige within a political atmosphere that later allowed Hadrian to use their deifications as a means of creating a fictive dynastic connection to legitimize his succession. Similar motivations are applied by scholars to the deifications of Pompeia Plotina, the dowager empress of the emperor Trajan, who died during the tenure of his successor, Hadrian, in 123, and of Hadrian’s own wife, Vibia Sabina, who died in 136 or 137, little more than a year before her husband. Intriguingly, none of these women is much remembered in extant historical records, though other evidence for their prominence — statues, coins, inscriptions, buildings in Rome’s centre — is striking in its abundance. The rationale for the deifications of these women therefore remains the subject of a debate that ultimately engages questions of female involvement and the meaning of that involvement within Rome’s traditional hierarchies of power and prominence. This paper seeks a culturally relevant context for the mystery of these deifications, proposing that the theoretical underpinnings for female deification lie as much in the implications of female involvement in the public sphere as they do in dynastic considerations. Using a social and ethnographic approach, it investigates evidence for the wealth, social standing, and public presence of these early second century women and connects these to the Romans’ need to uphold traditional mores and morals in the face of social change and shifting political realities. ii Karin S. Tate The Deification of Imperial Women: Second-Century Contexts ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank my supervisor, Dr. Angela Kalinowski, for her advice and encouragement, and for her untiring assistance with Latin. I also wish to acknowledge and thank Dr. Alan Reese, Emeritus Professor Michael Swan and Dr. Mary Ann Beavis for their generosity in participating as part of the examining committee and for their excellent comments and criticisms. I must also acknowledge and express my gratitude to the Department of History for the award of a travel scholarship in 2007, which enabled me to study in Rome with Dr. Kalinowski, and for the award of a Graduate Teaching Fellowship. iii Karin S. Tate The Deification of Imperial Women: Second-Century Contexts Dedicated to my father, Dr. Eugene Tate (1935-2011) My special thanks to Gabriele, Chiara, and Julian — and to my mom, Connie Abrook — for their support and encouragement iv Karin S. Tate The Deification of Imperial Women: Second-Century Contexts TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT........................................................................................................................................................... II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...................................................................................................................................III ABBREVIATIONS USED IN TEXT INTRODUCTION: LOCATING THE THEORETICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF FEMALE DEIFICATION ....1 CHAPTER 1 APPROACHES: STUDYING EMPEROR WORSHIP................................................................4 THE SCHOLARSHIP AND INFLUENCE OF GERMANY’S 19TH CENTURY HISTORICAL TRADITION...........................8 TWENTIETH-CENTURY VIEWS AND THE HISTORIOGRAPHIC TRADITION ...........................................................14 THEORETICAL SHIFTS: WOMEN WITHIN POWER & WOMEN AS SYMBOL...........................................................23 A LITTLE BACKGROUND: QUESTIONS OF CONSERVATISM VS. INNOVATION .....................................................28 CHAPTER 2 QUESTIONING THE DEPICTION OF IMPERIAL WOMEN IN ROMAN SOCIETY ..........................................................................................................................................................33 PLINY’S PANEGYRICUS: THE QUANDARY OF ROME’S MATRONS, SOCIAL STATUS & INFLUENCE .....................36 MARKS OF STATUS: OWNERSHIP AND INDEPENDENCE......................................................................................43 CHAPTER 3 WOMEN AS PUBLIC FIGURES...............................................................................................53 ROME’S MATRONS AND THE WEIGHT OF HISTORY ...........................................................................................54 PARSING THE LITERARY RECORD: MORAL EXEMPLUM OR MEDDLESOME WOMAN? ........................................58 WOMEN’S SOCIETY AND WOMEN’S STANDING: FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS ...................................................74 IMPERIAL WOMEN AND ROME’S WELL-BORN MATRONS: THE CONVENTUS MATRONARUM ..............................75 CHAPTER 4 IMMANENCE AND HONOUR: THE ICONOGRAPHY OF FOUR IMPERIAL WOMEN..............................................................86 THE COINS: SELECTION, APPROACH, AND INTERPRETATION.............................................................................87 REFLECTIONS OF COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT & FAMILY TIES: THE COINAGE OF MARCIANA & MATIDIA ....91 MIRROR OF TWO EMPRESSES: POMPEIA PLOTINA & VIBIA SABINA................................................................107 v Karin S. Tate The Deification of Imperial Women: Second-Century Contexts NAMING IMPERIAL VIRTUES: PERSONIFICATIONS AND THE EMPRESS .............................................................113 “FIGHTING MINERVA” & VENUS VICTRIX: TWO EMPRESSES AND IMPERIAL POWER .....................................117 CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................................................................................129 FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS ..............................................................................................................................134 APPENDIX A: MAP OF PROPERTIES IN ITALY..........................................................................................135 APPENDIX B: INSCRIPTIONS.........................................................................................................................136 BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................................................................................................................143 vi ABBREVIATIONS USED IN TEXT AJA = American Journal of Archaeology AJAH = American Journal of Ancient History AJPh = American Journal of Philology ANRW = Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt BMC = Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum CIL = Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum CJ = Classical Journal CPh = Classical Philology CQ = Classical Quarterly HA = Historia Augusta ILS = Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae G&R = Greece and Rome JRS = Journal of Roman Studies Loeb = Loeb Classical Library PCPS = Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society Rh.Mus. = Rheinisches Museum für Philologie RIC = Roman Imperial Coins in the