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Bur they were reac 12 pr. 9), and was se A bride ca is one mari was an enjc much one h

Bur they were reac 12 pr. 9), and was se A bride ca is one mari was an enjc much one h

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mav be exceptions. Ovid (Ars Am. 2.281-2) reckoned - who coulá appreciate poetry, very ROMAN WOMEN arir recitations 199 ROMAN WOMEN troy to be an ancilla, which may mean anything from a maid-of-all- Work to a lady's maid - obviousiv the second was a better chance, since mincould collect tips and win her mistress' (or master's) favour. She dght have special skills: some slave-giris were dressers, hairdressers, Tarsmakers, woolworkers, and some perhaps worked in small factories rather than for the household stores." Some were childminders (Tacitus, Dialogus 29.1), which was a job not regarded as needing skill, ROMAN WOMEN Sitting up with her maids doing wool-work by lamplight, needs to be supplemented by Tibuilus' (1.3.83 f., 1.6.77) of the weary siave faliing asleep over her work, and the neglected old woman who has no other resource. Too much wooiwork, despite the lanolin in the wool, hard- ened the hands - a point to bear in mind when choosing a midwife (Soranus 1.2.4). But the custom was kept up by ladies of oid-fashioned virtue. There were looms in the arium of M. Aemilius Lepidus when thugs broke in on his admirabie wife; Augustus' womenfolk kept him in homespun, though Livia had a large staff of skilled workers." Lanificium, for ladies, perhaps took the place of the 'accomplishments' music, drawing, fine sewing - which young ladies of the nineteenth century learnt before marriage and used to fill idie hours after. There were refinements of skill. Cynthia, waiting up for Propertius (1.3.41-2), tried first her 'purple thread' and then her music; Varro (ap. Nonius 239L) said that girls should learn embroidery so as to be better judges of home furnishings. Not everyone had these resources. Ummidia Quadratilla, a formidable old lady, told the younger Pliny (Letters, 7.24.5) that, ut femina in illo otio sexus, she passed the time playing draughts or watching her mime-troupe. Little is heard of more intellectual pursuits. There was a chance of picking up some education from parents, brothers, even a sympathetic husband. The younger Piiny and his friend Pompeius Saturninus, who were civilized people, both continued the literary education of their wives (Pliny, Letters 1.6, 4.19). Pompeius' wife wrote letters which sounded like prose Plautus or Terence, so pure was their Latin (Pliny was inclined to give Pompeius the credit). Pliny's wife set his verses to music with no tutor but Love, which sounds less promising. Atticus' daughter was still being tutored, by his freedman Caecilius Epirota, when she was a married woman (Suet. de gramm. 16). An unsympathetic husband, on the other hand, could make difficuities. Seneca's father (ad Helviam 17.3) refused to allow his intelligent wife any more than a superficial study of philosophy – but this, Seneca says, was antiquus rigor. Some girls may have gone to school, at least for primary schooling, and some had private tutors. Pompeius' wife Cornelia had been taught iiterature, music, and geometry, and had 'listened with profit' to lectures on philosophy – which may mean ethics or physics. She was, Plutarch (Pompeius 55.1) reassures the reader, 'free from the distasteful pedantry which such studies confer on young women'. Pompeius' daughter had a tutor for Greek (Plutarch, Moralia 737b). Pliny's friend Fundanius had praeceptores for his daughter, but he was a progressive: a phiiosopher, a friend of Plutarch who wrote on the education of women, a pupi of Musonius who argued for equai education for girls.²4 or, if they were lactating, wet-nurses. Some households were brothels, and so in effect were some eating- and drinking-places (Digest 23.2.43), A few slave-giris, who had other ollities for entertaining, were trained to dance, sing, and act: there Is an epitaph of one, Eucharis, 'docta erodita omnes artes virgo' (CIL 1.1214). The most famous was Cytheris, who rose to be Antonius mistress and to dine with Cicero (ad fam. 9.26; Phil. 2.69), who was pleasantly shocked. If a slave-giri were freed, it did not much enlarge the possibilities: She might be a prostitute, a mima, or, if she were lucky, a housewife, doing much the same work as an anciiia did bur in her own home." If she had caught the fancy of someone of high social status, she would be his concubina not his wife: it was not respectable to marry a libertina, though it had been known to happen even before Augustus allowed it for non-senators.20 Housework was hard: there was spinning and weaving and sewing and mending, cooking and cleaning, and water- carrying and baby-minding. Doubtiess one reason for child mortality was the impossibility of keeping a swaddled baby clean on the fourth floor of a tenement with the water-suppiy at the end of the street. Soranus (2.9.14) said babies should be bathed and massaged once a day; the undersheets shouid often be aired and changed and one shouid watch for insect bites and ulceration. It sounds optimistic. If the house- wife had learnt a trade before she married- baking, brickmaking, selling vegetables - she would probably go on with it, often working with her husband. The nearest approach to a professionai woman would be a woman doctor, or the midwife who was called in for female compiaints, though their sociai status was not high.2" Rich girls had to learn to run a household rather than doing its work, but they too had spinning and weaving. By the first century B.C. there were ready-made fabrics for those who could afford them (Columella of 12 pr. 9), but lanificium was part traditional devotion to the home and was still, for most women, an essential part of household economy. A bride carried a spindie and distaff (Piutarch, Moralia 271f): this is one marriage custom with an obvious relevance. Whether lanificium was an enjoyable craft skili or an exhausting chore depended on how much one had to do. Livy's picture (1.57.9) of the virtuous Lucretia,
Transcribed Image Text:mav be exceptions. Ovid (Ars Am. 2.281-2) reckoned - who coulá appreciate poetry, very ROMAN WOMEN arir recitations 199 ROMAN WOMEN troy to be an ancilla, which may mean anything from a maid-of-all- Work to a lady's maid - obviousiv the second was a better chance, since mincould collect tips and win her mistress' (or master's) favour. She dght have special skills: some slave-giris were dressers, hairdressers, Tarsmakers, woolworkers, and some perhaps worked in small factories rather than for the household stores." Some were childminders (Tacitus, Dialogus 29.1), which was a job not regarded as needing skill, ROMAN WOMEN Sitting up with her maids doing wool-work by lamplight, needs to be supplemented by Tibuilus' (1.3.83 f., 1.6.77) of the weary siave faliing asleep over her work, and the neglected old woman who has no other resource. Too much wooiwork, despite the lanolin in the wool, hard- ened the hands - a point to bear in mind when choosing a midwife (Soranus 1.2.4). But the custom was kept up by ladies of oid-fashioned virtue. There were looms in the arium of M. Aemilius Lepidus when thugs broke in on his admirabie wife; Augustus' womenfolk kept him in homespun, though Livia had a large staff of skilled workers." Lanificium, for ladies, perhaps took the place of the 'accomplishments' music, drawing, fine sewing - which young ladies of the nineteenth century learnt before marriage and used to fill idie hours after. There were refinements of skill. Cynthia, waiting up for Propertius (1.3.41-2), tried first her 'purple thread' and then her music; Varro (ap. Nonius 239L) said that girls should learn embroidery so as to be better judges of home furnishings. Not everyone had these resources. Ummidia Quadratilla, a formidable old lady, told the younger Pliny (Letters, 7.24.5) that, ut femina in illo otio sexus, she passed the time playing draughts or watching her mime-troupe. Little is heard of more intellectual pursuits. There was a chance of picking up some education from parents, brothers, even a sympathetic husband. The younger Piiny and his friend Pompeius Saturninus, who were civilized people, both continued the literary education of their wives (Pliny, Letters 1.6, 4.19). Pompeius' wife wrote letters which sounded like prose Plautus or Terence, so pure was their Latin (Pliny was inclined to give Pompeius the credit). Pliny's wife set his verses to music with no tutor but Love, which sounds less promising. Atticus' daughter was still being tutored, by his freedman Caecilius Epirota, when she was a married woman (Suet. de gramm. 16). An unsympathetic husband, on the other hand, could make difficuities. Seneca's father (ad Helviam 17.3) refused to allow his intelligent wife any more than a superficial study of philosophy – but this, Seneca says, was antiquus rigor. Some girls may have gone to school, at least for primary schooling, and some had private tutors. Pompeius' wife Cornelia had been taught iiterature, music, and geometry, and had 'listened with profit' to lectures on philosophy – which may mean ethics or physics. She was, Plutarch (Pompeius 55.1) reassures the reader, 'free from the distasteful pedantry which such studies confer on young women'. Pompeius' daughter had a tutor for Greek (Plutarch, Moralia 737b). Pliny's friend Fundanius had praeceptores for his daughter, but he was a progressive: a phiiosopher, a friend of Plutarch who wrote on the education of women, a pupi of Musonius who argued for equai education for girls.²4 or, if they were lactating, wet-nurses. Some households were brothels, and so in effect were some eating- and drinking-places (Digest 23.2.43), A few slave-giris, who had other ollities for entertaining, were trained to dance, sing, and act: there Is an epitaph of one, Eucharis, 'docta erodita omnes artes virgo' (CIL 1.1214). The most famous was Cytheris, who rose to be Antonius mistress and to dine with Cicero (ad fam. 9.26; Phil. 2.69), who was pleasantly shocked. If a slave-giri were freed, it did not much enlarge the possibilities: She might be a prostitute, a mima, or, if she were lucky, a housewife, doing much the same work as an anciiia did bur in her own home." If she had caught the fancy of someone of high social status, she would be his concubina not his wife: it was not respectable to marry a libertina, though it had been known to happen even before Augustus allowed it for non-senators.20 Housework was hard: there was spinning and weaving and sewing and mending, cooking and cleaning, and water- carrying and baby-minding. Doubtiess one reason for child mortality was the impossibility of keeping a swaddled baby clean on the fourth floor of a tenement with the water-suppiy at the end of the street. Soranus (2.9.14) said babies should be bathed and massaged once a day; the undersheets shouid often be aired and changed and one shouid watch for insect bites and ulceration. It sounds optimistic. If the house- wife had learnt a trade before she married- baking, brickmaking, selling vegetables - she would probably go on with it, often working with her husband. The nearest approach to a professionai woman would be a woman doctor, or the midwife who was called in for female compiaints, though their sociai status was not high.2" Rich girls had to learn to run a household rather than doing its work, but they too had spinning and weaving. By the first century B.C. there were ready-made fabrics for those who could afford them (Columella of 12 pr. 9), but lanificium was part traditional devotion to the home and was still, for most women, an essential part of household economy. A bride carried a spindie and distaff (Piutarch, Moralia 271f): this is one marriage custom with an obvious relevance. Whether lanificium was an enjoyable craft skili or an exhausting chore depended on how much one had to do. Livy's picture (1.57.9) of the virtuous Lucretia,
200 These people may be exceptions. Ovid (Ars Am. 2.281-2) reckoned ROMAN WOMEN ROMAN WOMEN thất there were some women who couid appreciate poetry, but very few (far fewer than would like to). thought they had to catch the girls young to be sure. Doctors supposed thát sexual desires began at puberty, especially in giris who ate a lot nd did not have to work;0 society made provision for such desires Instead of trying to subiimate them. Epictetus (Enchiridion 40) remarks sadly that when girls are fourteen they begin to be called kuria, the address of a grown woman: then they see that there is nothing for it out to go to bed with men, and begin to make themselves pretty in foes. (Fis soiution is for them to learn that men really admire them for modesty and chastity - and then, one supposes, they may go to bed with phiiosophers.) So marriage at fourteen was, in one sense, practical. But were girls in any sense ready for it? Physically, no: teenage pregnancies were known to be dangerous, and Soranus (1.7, 1.9.42) stoutly disagrees with the school of thought which held that conception is good for you. Emotionally, Roman giris were better pre- pared than the innocent bride envisaged by Xenophon in the Oeconomi- cus (3.11 ff., 4.7 ff.) who had spent fifteen years seeing, hearing, and saying as little as possible, and whose mother's advice on marriage was simply sophronein, 'be good'. Nepos (pr. 6) remarks on one striking contrast between Roman and Greek mores: the materfamilias was at the centre of the household's social life. Visitors found her in the atrium (maybe even doing her woolwork) and conversed with her; she went out shopping, to visit friends, to temples, theatres, and games. Decorum might require her to be suitably dressed and chaperoned, and restrained to the point of discourtesy in returning a greeting, but decorum is not always observed. Probably she had her daughters with her on some of these occasions; she may even have taken them to dinner-parties, though some people thought that girls learnt rather too much when out to dinner." A society which did not segregate women, and which praised wives for being pleasant company, gave married life a far better chance than did the conventions of ciassical Athens." A fourteen-year- old who had grown up in it, expecting to be grown up at fourteen, might weii be reasonabiy mature. And where the expectation of life was nearer 30 + than 70 +, there was no use in delaying recognized adulthood to 16 or 18. The pressure of mortality was the underlying reason for early marriage. Tuiiia, Cicero's cherished daughter, was engaged at 12, and married at 16, to an excellent young man. She was widowed at 22, remarried at 23, divorced at 28; married again at 29, divorced at 33 and dead, soon after childbirth, at 34. The evidence of inscriptions shows that she was not untypicai." So the fathers who arranged the Some giris iearnt music and singing, and the dramatic recitations which rose to a form of ballet and could be very strenuous, but it was not proper for them to aim at a professionai standard. Scipio Aemilianus had been shocked, as early as 129 B.C., to find well-born boys and giris at a dancing ciass: Sailust's Sempronia was far better than she should be; and Horace thought it was part of the rot that grown girls should learn Ionicos motus Some women, then, were reasonably well-educated: Quintilian (1.1.6) cites as shining exampies Corneija (mother of the Gracchi), and Hortensia and Laclia who were daughters of orators. Much of the evidence, unfortunateiv, comes in the compiaints of Juvenai (6.434 ÎI.) and the admiration of Catullus (35) and Propertius (2.13.11), none of Whom was chiefiy concerned with accurate reporting. But at the age when a boy was going on to the secondary education which trained nim in the use of ianguage and prepared him for public life, a giri was entering her first marriage. Fundanius' daughter, so carefully taught, died when she was not ver fourteen: the wedding invitations had aiready been sent out.2 IV Fourteen was evidently a proper age for marriage. It was assumed to be the age of menarche, though if a giri had not reached puberty the marriage might well be arranged anyway, and menstruation encouraged by massage, gentie exercise, good food, and diversion." The iegai minimum age of marriage, as fixed by Augustan legislation which foiiowed Republican precedent, was 12: eariier marriage was penalized, but was not valid until the girl reached 12. (It followed that she couid not be prosecuted for aduitery.)2 Some marriages were certainly pre-pubertal. Augustus' own first wife was vixdum nubilis, and Suetonius (Divus Aug, 62.1) found it worth recording that he sent her back intacta. One girl (ILLRP 793) was 'taken to her husband's bosom' at Petronius (Sat, 25-6) relates (in order to shock?) the defloration of a seven-year-old. By contrast, the daughters of Germanicus were almost on the shelf - instabat virginum aetas - when they married. They were 15 and 17 (Tacitus, Ann, 6.15).29 Plutarch, not surprisingly, thought that Roman girls married too young, and that Lycurgus was right in ensuring that brides shouid be ready for childbearing. Romans, he says, were more concerned to ensure an undefiled body and mind (Moralia 138e). Evidently they perhaps the marriage was not consummated, though marriages had good reason to start making alliances, and getting grand- children, fast. Fathers arranged marriages: but that was not all there was to it. A
Transcribed Image Text:200 These people may be exceptions. Ovid (Ars Am. 2.281-2) reckoned ROMAN WOMEN ROMAN WOMEN thất there were some women who couid appreciate poetry, but very few (far fewer than would like to). thought they had to catch the girls young to be sure. Doctors supposed thát sexual desires began at puberty, especially in giris who ate a lot nd did not have to work;0 society made provision for such desires Instead of trying to subiimate them. Epictetus (Enchiridion 40) remarks sadly that when girls are fourteen they begin to be called kuria, the address of a grown woman: then they see that there is nothing for it out to go to bed with men, and begin to make themselves pretty in foes. (Fis soiution is for them to learn that men really admire them for modesty and chastity - and then, one supposes, they may go to bed with phiiosophers.) So marriage at fourteen was, in one sense, practical. But were girls in any sense ready for it? Physically, no: teenage pregnancies were known to be dangerous, and Soranus (1.7, 1.9.42) stoutly disagrees with the school of thought which held that conception is good for you. Emotionally, Roman giris were better pre- pared than the innocent bride envisaged by Xenophon in the Oeconomi- cus (3.11 ff., 4.7 ff.) who had spent fifteen years seeing, hearing, and saying as little as possible, and whose mother's advice on marriage was simply sophronein, 'be good'. Nepos (pr. 6) remarks on one striking contrast between Roman and Greek mores: the materfamilias was at the centre of the household's social life. Visitors found her in the atrium (maybe even doing her woolwork) and conversed with her; she went out shopping, to visit friends, to temples, theatres, and games. Decorum might require her to be suitably dressed and chaperoned, and restrained to the point of discourtesy in returning a greeting, but decorum is not always observed. Probably she had her daughters with her on some of these occasions; she may even have taken them to dinner-parties, though some people thought that girls learnt rather too much when out to dinner." A society which did not segregate women, and which praised wives for being pleasant company, gave married life a far better chance than did the conventions of ciassical Athens." A fourteen-year- old who had grown up in it, expecting to be grown up at fourteen, might weii be reasonabiy mature. And where the expectation of life was nearer 30 + than 70 +, there was no use in delaying recognized adulthood to 16 or 18. The pressure of mortality was the underlying reason for early marriage. Tuiiia, Cicero's cherished daughter, was engaged at 12, and married at 16, to an excellent young man. She was widowed at 22, remarried at 23, divorced at 28; married again at 29, divorced at 33 and dead, soon after childbirth, at 34. The evidence of inscriptions shows that she was not untypicai." So the fathers who arranged the Some giris iearnt music and singing, and the dramatic recitations which rose to a form of ballet and could be very strenuous, but it was not proper for them to aim at a professionai standard. Scipio Aemilianus had been shocked, as early as 129 B.C., to find well-born boys and giris at a dancing ciass: Sailust's Sempronia was far better than she should be; and Horace thought it was part of the rot that grown girls should learn Ionicos motus Some women, then, were reasonably well-educated: Quintilian (1.1.6) cites as shining exampies Corneija (mother of the Gracchi), and Hortensia and Laclia who were daughters of orators. Much of the evidence, unfortunateiv, comes in the compiaints of Juvenai (6.434 ÎI.) and the admiration of Catullus (35) and Propertius (2.13.11), none of Whom was chiefiy concerned with accurate reporting. But at the age when a boy was going on to the secondary education which trained nim in the use of ianguage and prepared him for public life, a giri was entering her first marriage. Fundanius' daughter, so carefully taught, died when she was not ver fourteen: the wedding invitations had aiready been sent out.2 IV Fourteen was evidently a proper age for marriage. It was assumed to be the age of menarche, though if a giri had not reached puberty the marriage might well be arranged anyway, and menstruation encouraged by massage, gentie exercise, good food, and diversion." The iegai minimum age of marriage, as fixed by Augustan legislation which foiiowed Republican precedent, was 12: eariier marriage was penalized, but was not valid until the girl reached 12. (It followed that she couid not be prosecuted for aduitery.)2 Some marriages were certainly pre-pubertal. Augustus' own first wife was vixdum nubilis, and Suetonius (Divus Aug, 62.1) found it worth recording that he sent her back intacta. One girl (ILLRP 793) was 'taken to her husband's bosom' at Petronius (Sat, 25-6) relates (in order to shock?) the defloration of a seven-year-old. By contrast, the daughters of Germanicus were almost on the shelf - instabat virginum aetas - when they married. They were 15 and 17 (Tacitus, Ann, 6.15).29 Plutarch, not surprisingly, thought that Roman girls married too young, and that Lycurgus was right in ensuring that brides shouid be ready for childbearing. Romans, he says, were more concerned to ensure an undefiled body and mind (Moralia 138e). Evidently they perhaps the marriage was not consummated, though marriages had good reason to start making alliances, and getting grand- children, fast. Fathers arranged marriages: but that was not all there was to it. A
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ROMAN WOMEN - Women In Ancient Rome were considered secondary to Roman men like in any other time. The rich description of women during this time showed rich details of her beauty and elegance. The rights of women compared to men were very little. They didn't have any public roles or positions. Even though there were prominent women in the society, they wielded their power being associated with many famous males.  They had the right to property and hold wealth., despite the fact that roman society was highly misogynistic and sexist. The life of women in Rome was challenging and had to go through the ideals created by roman men.

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