CHAPTER I Sexualuirtue 0n d,isplaltI: thecults of pudicitia and honoursfor w0men pulcherrima. forma,maximum decus''' Pudicitia The loveliest form of beaury the greatestadornment pudicitia (Senecato hismother Helvia) celebrated and This book begins with a chapter about pudicitia as publicly its association rewarded in Roman sociery.A striking asp ectof pud'icitiawas community, both with public and visual displayby -"iried wornen to rhe their cultivation throrrgh their appear"rr.. and demeanour and through manifestationof of pudicitiaas a goddess.This first chapter exploresthe as playing pudicitia as p.ironified abstractvirtue, a goddessdescribed " own shrines,cult an active role in the lives of ancient Romans,with her association statuesan4 cult. It introduces k.y themes such as pudicitia's the boundaries with marriedwomen, public display,and the negotiationof that lend of social status.The chapte, exposessome of the tensions "lro its dangerous this ideal of displayingpudicitia Ltsfrisson: its elusiveness; in the face proximity to, arrd ,tr"i.r.d relationshipwith, beauty; its fragiliry of suspicionand gossiP. to pudicitia was a personal qualiry that needed to be displayed .and woman (and seen by others. Roman ,o.i.ry d..rrr"tded that a married must strive particularly one involved in celebrating the cult of pudicitia) in her to display the qualiry of pudicitia ro ih. resr of the communiry forth from a marriedwoman; it would person.Ideally fudici'tio*Luld shine Seneca turn headswhen she walked d.ownthe street.As the philosopher a woman is writes to his mother Helvia, the most befitting ornamenr for kind of pudicitia:'in you is seenthe unique ornament, the most lovely 'The man in the L.".r.yr, the gr.",.r, glory - pudiiirir' .' most fortunate , end of this chapter,belorn''.I here Sen. Dial. ru.t6.4.For further discussionof this passagesee.the igloryi; the head of the chapter and at,the end translate ,r'tAnTetxtumas'orn ment' and.decus at ", is an attemPt to caPturethe range of the chapter decusistranslated. as'adornmen,'. ihirvariation 17 lu SexualMorality in Ancient Rome (accordingto the writer Val€riusMaximus)' hasamongst his other world' 'a blessingsthe ideal wife, whose supremacyis summed up thus: she is wife who is conspicuous in her pudicitia and in her fecundity' (uxorem pudicitia et fecunr/itateclnspicuam).3 It is not enough that a wife merely regulateher sexualbehaviour in the acceptedways; it is required that her virtue in this area be conspicuous(conspicua) plain for all to see, so remarkableas to attract attention.aAncient sourcesalso tell us that women competedpublicly among themselvesrn pudicitia, and that official honours were bestowedon thosewho were judged outstanding.Valerius Maximus describesa crown of pudicitia (coronapudicitiae) that was awardedpublicly by the communiry to individuals pre-eminent in the qualiry, and several episodesin Roman history involve women honoured for their pudicitia.t Throughout the empire,people declared the pud.icitiaof themselvesand of their spouseson funeraryepitaPht.u These aspectsof Roman sexualvirtue - its need for publiciry, its loud, artenrion-seekingnature - presenta challenge.In this context, the (com- 'modesty' monly offered)term simply will not do asa translationof pudici- tia.7 It is alsoclear that pudicitia is somethingdifferent from the repressive 'chastity' 'continence' or which those from cultures under the influence of puritan Christian sexualethics might expect.s6 competition of sexual continence alone makes no sense,unless you expect almost every partic- ipant evenruallyto buckle under the strain and give in to the allure of adultery.One cannot competein not dotngsomething; there must be more to competitivepudicitia than this.e of meanings of the Latin term, which embracesa senseof visual appeal, of honour and virtue, and 'decoration', of honorific award; the English term with its rwo sensesof beautification and of (say) medals for military service, is erymologically related and has something of the same scope. The nuancesof the word, and its significancein the context of this passage,will be further explored below. t For more on whom seeChapter 3 below. I Val. Ma-x.7.r.t of Q. Metellus Macedonicus. For the closerelation berweenfecundiry (fecundita.iland pudicitia in Roman thought see also Liry 42.34.3;Sen. Dial. n.t6.1 (cited below); Tac. Ann. r.4r.z (seeChapw below). 7 'distinguished' a For the visual quality of pudicitia cf. Pompon. r.46 where pudicitia is (insignis);Thc. Ann. r.4r.z where Lt rspraeclara; for further referencesto the need for pudicitia to be visually evident seebelow, pp. 6g-ll 6 Val. Ma,x. t.t.3; other referencesdiscussed below S.. Forbis r99o, Lattimore ry62. It has been translated thus recently (and these examplesare taken more or lessat random) by Cape zooz: zo7 andRives 1999:zo5.Iam not suggesting,of course,that their usesof the term areludicrous, since their conrexts do not require them to put the pressureon the definition that mine does; the referencesmerely illustrate that this is one of the current standard translations of pudicitia tnto English. 'Chastiw' is the mosr common translation of pudicitia into English in curreRt scholarship: e.g. 'female CantarellaryST: ryr; Palmer's rg74 article describespudicitia as chastiry' throughout. A comparison might be madewith the contemporary phenomenon of evangelicalChristian abstinence 'The Silver Rirg Thing', which is all about display; photographs of large groups of teenagersholding out their rings for the camera adorn the official website at www.silverringthing.com. Sexualuirtue on d'isPlaYI 19 My first chapter,then, will focus on one aspectof a sexualvirtue in the Rom"n .trli,rre of d,isplay:the phenomenon of the ritual cultivation of pud;citid asdiviniry, witkrthe associatedthemes and narrativesthat emerge fro- the sourcesthat menrion such cultivation. \7e will explorethis k.y aspecrof pudicitia'srole in the public domain, its associationwith married women,and implicationsof the sources'insistence on the centralityofvisual display.\(/hereas Thucydides loudly proclaims the virtues of remaining silent on the subject of *o*err,'o Roman sourcesdeclare that pudicitia musr be publicised.However, they remain properly impreciseabout the detailsof i,, publiciqy, shying away from the actualitiesof cult practice or detailedphysical descriptionsof virtuous women; our sourcesare coy or marginal. PUDICIIIA AS GODDESS PudicitiA rs one of many abstract moral qualities *rat manifest as divine beingsin Roman culture." She appearsin the lists of divinities reeledoff by tJ.ptics such as Pliny rhe Elder. Referencesto such a deiry or personi- fication in extant literature are sparse,but they do span our whole period of concern,from Plautus'Amphlnj,o to Juvenal'ssixth satireand beyond." Identification of such referen.eris complicatedby the fact that Latin does not distinguish berweenlower- and upper-caselefters, and thus Pudicitia andpudicitia areone and the same,allowing a slippag: berweenthe active divine being, controlling the livesof mortals from without, and the virtue within.' j HJwever, fro*"the latefirst century cn,pudicitiais alsorepresented visuallyas a personifiedfigure on coins produced by men and women of the imperial family,'+ and possiblyon other, large-scalemonuments such asthe Forum Transitoriurn.t5 Pudicitiawasareal and powerful presencein the life of the ciqF,impinging on the ethical developmentof individuals, as an invocation to her in the work of the earlyimperial moralist Valerius Maximus attests.In a brief to Thuc. 2.45.2. tt Axtell See l.,troi.,..ion, pp. z5-7 aboveand Beard, North and Price 1998,vol. I: 62, Fearsr98r, r9o7, Mueller zoaz and Feeney t998: 87-92. Cic' Wrr' " Plaut.Atnph.9z9 (seeCh"pt.i 4-belornip. ziS), Li.y r.i8.t (seeChapter z belo\4',P. 9i; (see rcr 6 belou', z8l); Calp. Decl' 3 (see 3.6 (seeCh"pi.. 6 below, i. tgo)t Cic. Catil. z.z5 Chap P. Mart. 6-7'u 6'r Chapter 5 bio*,, p.tlt); Val.Max. 6.r.praef.(discussed below and Chapter 3); Juv' anci14 (discussedbelow p. l;); Piin. IYat. z-t4-t' I-r I shall usuallv use the 1o*., casero refer to all manifestations of pudicitia. rhroughout, so as to maintain this flexibiliq', but u,hereit is the personificationthat is specificallyinclicated I shall use the upper case. 'a For ,.pr"r.r-r,ationsof Pudicitia on imperial coinagesee Mueller loo?: z4-6. tt Suchis the arqumentof D'Ambrar99i. 10 SexualMorality in Ancient Rome prefacero a chapter of anecdotesillustrative of the virtue of puc/icitia.,he addressesthe personified quality as a deiqy,invoking her in the formal languageof prayer and suggestingthat she is responsiblefor inspiring the catalogueof deedsthat follow:'6 unde te virorum pariterac feminarumpraecipuum firmamentum, pudicitia, invocem? tu enim prisca religione consecratosVestae focos incolis, tu Capitoli- nae Iunonis pulvinaribus incubas, tu Palati columen augustos penates sanctissi- mumque Iuliae genialem torum adsidua statione celebras,tuo praesidio puerilis aetatisinsignia munita sunt, tui numinis respectusincerus iuventae flos permanet, te custode matronalis stola censetur:ades igitur et cognoscequae fieri ipsa voluisti. From where shall I invoke you, pudicitia, the principal foundation of men and women together? For you inhabit the hearths which according to ancient religion aresacred to Vesta,you lie on the sacredcouches of CapitolineJuno, on the summit of the Palatineyou celebratethe majestichousehold gods and the most sacredJulian marriage bed, standing by at all times; the glories of childhood are defended