Ancient Rome: Roman Women

Walking the streets of Rome, riding the metro and the buses brings me in contact with large numbers of ordinary Roman women, professionals, vendors, tour guides, sales girls, waitresses, bar tenders, construction workers, soldiers, mothers, grandmothers, daughters etc. My general impression has been of women comfortable in their sexuality, educated, confident and assertive, women who will certainly leave written and other more graphic, more tangible accounts of their lives.



Julia Domina, wife of Septimus Severus (Severan Dynasty)
was knownto be the power behind her husband's rule.

 Unfortunately, for us, ancient Roman women left hardly a trace of what their lives were like. Accounts of women’s daily life, and in some rare instances a particular woman’s contribution to society, are limited to written accounts authored by men and mostly about the women of the upper or elite class. So it is within this context that we see what life was like for the women of ancient Rome. I have been taking pictures of pictures of these Roman women, and it is intriguing and fascinating to see how much one can deduce (or imagine) from these.



Faustina, Marcus Aurelius' wife



Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi
picture by mharrsch

Ancient Rome was a patriarchal society and as such, its women were defined by the men in their lives and primarily valued as wives and mothers.






Baby Girl



 From the moment of birth, girls were subject to the rule of their fathers, the pater familias. A symbolic but highly significant ceremony emphasizing this absolute control was carried out at the moment of birth where the infant was placed at it’s father’s foot and left entirely to his discretion, he could accept the child as his by picking it up, or reject it by leaving it where it was. In the latter case, the infant was left at the side of the Tiber or left to starve to death. Accounts of these types of exposures put the majority of infants exposed as being female or very sickly male infants.





Antonia



Claudia, daughter of Claudius
and Messalina



Another proof of this absolute control fathers had over their daughters lay in their names. Daughters did not really have their own names; they were given a feminized version of their father’s surname. So Mark Anthony’s daughter was called Antonia, Julius Caesar’s daughter was called Julia (she became the wife of Pompey).



Agrippina the Younger

 A daughter of Marcus Agrippa was called Agrippina, (the younger, the mother of Nero). If he had more than one daughter the elder daughter would be called the elder, the next daughter would be called the younger, the third daughter would be the third etc.



Little girl dressed for the day



Girls went to public primary school and were educated with or in the same manner as the boys. Children of the elite learned Greek and Latin and many women were well educated and some highly so. However, when they came of age, because women did not take part in public life, formal education ceased and they were passed over to their mother’s care who taught them the skills needed to become good mothers and also how to run a household efficiently.



of marriageable age



It was the duty of the pater familias to find a husband for his daughters. First marriages were usually arranged but the couple needed to be old enough to consent to the marriage. The age of consent for boys was 14 and 12 for women. It was the practice to choose an older man for one’s daughter and most women would move into their husband’s home.



a young girl of marriageable age



During the early Republic, once the daughter married, control over her was passed from her father to her husband but by the time of the Empire, the father’s control of his daughter remained unchanged even when she moved into her husband’s home. This gave the woman some autonomy in that control of her assets, in the form of her dowry, reverted to her upon her father’s death (in the absence of a male sibling).

The primary duty of women was to bear children, being infertile was grounds for divorce. However, they were also expected to be the first teachers of their children. The responsibility of imparting Roman culture and preparing their children for citizenship was theirs. They did participate in politics but only in the influence they could exert on their husbands. There was however in 195 BC, the first recorded protest by women, where the women of Rome came together to support the repeal of the Oppian Law (prohibiting women from buying jewelry, passed during the wars against Hannibal with the support of the women at the time). They gathered en mass in the Forum when the repeal was being debated and were able to have the law abolished.



Bath slippers very similar to our flip flops

 A Roman matron's day started with a trip to the public baths. Yes they were allowed to use the public baths. Some of them had separate areas for men and women, while others  had women using the baths in the morning, while the afternoon was reserved for the men. There were of course private baths as well.

Roman women also took great pains with their appearance, putting on a foundation (which contained high levels of lead), lining their eyebrows with kohl and using eyeshadow made from safron among other things.

They also took a lot of time having their hair done, with the empress and other prominent women setting the trend.

Roman women's basic item of clothing was the tunic, similar to those worn by men but were fuller and longer. There were two types of tunic, the chiton, which was two pieces of cloth sewed together, leaving holes for the arms and then belted on the waist or under the breasts. The stola on the other hand was fastened at the shoulders leaving a sleeveless tunic. Married women would wear this on top of another tunic, to emphasize their respectability. They also donned the palla, a kind of cloak which could be pulled up to cover the head, when leaving their homes.

Roman women had some freedom. They could leave their houses, go to the market, visit with friends and other similar pursuits. They were also allowed to attend the games in the colloseum and attended banquets with their husband.

If little is known about Roman women's lives even less is known about the elderly women in ancient Roman society. Historical sources have put women's life expectancy (in ancient Rome) at birth at 20 to 30 years. If they lived to the age of 15, this went up to about 40 to 50 years. As I went around taking pictures, I came  across these busts of  two elderly women. I would put their ages at around 50 or so, but I could be wrong. This two look decidedly grumpy, I wonder why? 

Ancient Rome: Roman Sexuality

Ancient Romans have a reputation, somewhat exaggerated by Hollywood, of being, shall we say, sexually unrestrained. Made for television series like Rome and Spartacus paint a picture of the upper class of Romans living lives characterized by excess and engaging in perverse unrestrained sexuality. In terms of sex, though shocking to many in this day and age, the ancient Romans were simply following the rules, norms and mores prevalent at the time.

JR Clarke, a professor of Art History and an expert on Roman sexual iconography, opens for us a view of pre-Christian Rome, where sex was more than just an act of procreation, was never a sin but more a sport, an art, a source of pleasure, and a blessing from the gods, and as such was engaged in with variety as well as humor. In his books Roman Sex and Looking at Lovemaking, he puts forward what sex meant to the ancient Romans as depicted by their erotic art, something he has studied for over 30 years.

Ancient Roman erotic art is explicit but more humorous than pornographic. (This may be because when these were first discovered in Pompeii, a lot of the more “risqué” were destroyed. Reminiscent of the Vatican’s attempt to “castrate” the nude male statues in and around Rome at one time) My very correct and dignified mother recounted her seeing, on a visit to Pompeii, many years ago, a mosaic of a man with an enormous erection, requiring the use of a wheelbarrow to carry it. Art of this nature, exaggerating the girth and length of the penis may be attributed to the ancient Roman’s belief that the erect penis or the fascinum was the symbol of Priapus, the Roman fertility god, dispenser of fertility and prosperity. In addition, it was also believed to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck. It’s no wonder then, that to this day you will see wooden, marble or stone, painted or unpainted fascinum in souvenir shops.

If the fascinum was the symbol of fertility and thus venerated, sex for the ancient Romans was a gift from the gods, specifically the goddess, Venus and as such enjoying it was one of life’s pleasures. So correct was this that they believed both partners should be good at and derive pleasure from the act in order to have healthy children.




Man encouraging new wife fresco found in Agrippa's Villa 



Notwithstanding sex being a gift from the gods, there were, however, rules as to how one was to indulge in this. From the beginnings of Roman society, the father, pater familias, was the center of everything. He was the absolute head and literally had the power of life and death over his entire household. From this stems the first rule: the free Roman man must always be the dominant partner in the act of intercourse. He is free to have sex with whomsoever he wishes as long as they were his social inferiors i.e. any woman, any man, a female slave, a male slave, (young or old). Adultery was committed only if he had sex with someone of the same status. As for the slaves, they had no rights under Roman law and were considered property of their masters and as such were all potential sexual “toys” according to the will of their domus or domina. (Note the fresco above where the slave is witness to the encounter between the master and mistress of the house).

The second rule flows from this first rule: The Roman man must “take pleasure” and not “give pleasure”. In terms of oral sex then, it was ok for the Romans to have it performed on them, but for them to perform it on another was considered so vile, the act of which dirtied his most important social instrument (the mouth). So abhorrent was this, that to be accused of performing oral sex was equivalent to being accused of treason.

The ancient Romans perception of beauty and pleasure was not limited to the opposite sex. There must have been homosexuals, bisexuals and gays in ancient Rome, but they were not singled out or noticed since all forms of sexual activity was “normal”. They did not even have a term for these categories.  A Roman citizen was free to find beauty and pleasure in a man’s body as well as in a woman’s, as long as the rules are followed. These are: first, the Roman citizen must have the “active” rather than the “passive” role, and second, the object of his desire must be of an inferior social rank. Those who are known to have had the “passive” role in these relationships were called pathicus and had the same status as the prostitutes, gladiators and actors.

                                          Perception of Beauty

                        

The dominance of the male, the worship of the fascinum also led the Romans to treat some traditionally marginalised segments of society (the third sex) in different ways. I speak of the hermaphrodites and the eunuchs. By virtue of the presence of the male genitalia in the hermaphrodites, they were granted “male status” and allowed some participation in society. On the other hand, by virtue of the absence of the male genitalia, the eunuchs were treated uneasily by Roman society. Castration was outlawed and anyone guilty of this could be prosecuted for assault including men who castrated themselves. Penalties attached to this offense were severe.



Statue of a Hermaphrodite in the Terme Museum



 Because Romans considered sex as something that happens between two people of unequal rank or between the master and an object of his desire, pedophilia was something that was not frowned on or condemned. On the contrary, it was accepted that a wealthy man will have a young boy or young girl (usually a slave) in his household with whom he will have sex with.

The women of Imperial Rome were beneficiaries of what can be called a feminist revolution. Because of the many wars during the republican era, many men were killed and the women inherited the family’s wealth and began to run things on their own. This autonomy bred confidence which led women to take control of all aspects of their lives, including their sexual lives. They expressed their sexual preferences and took their pleasures where and with whom they wanted, provided that the partner was of an inferior social standing.




Woman as initiator fresco in Agrippa's Villa



In the middle of the third century, when barbarian invasions ushered in an era of uncertainty, instability and economic crisis, changes in all areas of Roman life including the sexual sphere began to take effect. A new conjugal code is forged. Fidelity is imposed, homosexuality was condemned, and the main reason for sexual intercourse was to have children. Women were recognized as having important roles in the family and society but were expected to remain virgins until marriage, and to remain faithful to her husband till death. This new morality paved the way for the coming of Christianity.  

But before then, the fascinum accompanied the Roman even to the grave.

a tombstone