Roman Women Hardcover – Import, 28 June 2001

'Roman Women' was originally published in Italian in 1993, as 'Roma al femminile', a collection prepared by Augusto Franschetti. Linda Lappin completed the work for the compilation's 2001 English translation. 'Roman Women' consists of nine essays which in all honesty, probably should be referred to as 'well-written, thoroughly-researched short biographies'. All are written by a different author, every essay moving forward a bit in history as it tells the story of a different Roman woman. The book is roughly 200 pages in length. And many of the women's stories, well let's just say that the way in which a woman was regarded in Roman society, what women endured (because they had no choice) is really just enough to tug at a person's heart strings.The second biography, 'Cornelia the Matron' focuses on a Roman noblewoman. Cornelia of the Gracchi was the mother of the infamous Tiberius & Gaius Gracchus. The Gracchus brothers were tribunes of the 'plebian' class, or, more simply, of the commoners.They were the kind of men who believed in what they were trying to accomplish so strongly, their conviction precluded them from any other course of action. When Tiberius was assassinated by the Roman senate his brother Gaius refused to back down. Cornelia played a very strong role in raising her boys, from an early age she exerted upon them her 'materna auctoritas' or 'maternal influence' as the author tells us. The concerned mother Cornelia personally chose the tutors who were to instruct her two young sons in rhetoric & literature, such was her love for them. Growing up, she constantly motivated them to develop a will, a desire to succeed in life.As men they became fiercely devoted to Roman politics, which led to challenging the power of the Roman senate, a course of action which, once begun, proved to be fatal for them. There's an excerpt from a letter Cornelia wrote to her son, imploring him to change his reckless course of action. The letter is very sad, because it's quite obvious Cornelia is more concerned about her son than she is about herself.Cornelia wasn't willing to just be average, or mediocre. She had been educated in subjects such as literature & philosophy from a young age, & it made her a very desirable prospect for many older men after her husband died, even attracting the affections of a king, Ptolemy VII, whom she refused. She preferred to honor her husband's memory, remaining a widow until her death & devoting herself to raising & protecting her children. It was a concept known to the Romans as 'univra'.When the senate began to enact laws restricting women's rights (which were already at a level of immorality so unbelievably removed from being acceptable that I can't wrap my head around it, not really) Cornelia helped organize female opposition to the subversive legislations. There were Roman laws in place specifically targeting women's privileges & rights, such as the 'lex Oppia' which placed a limit on a woman's amount of goods considered "extravagant" such as jewelry or expensive clothing (If a woman had in her possession gold in excess of 1/2 of an ounce, that woman instantly became a criminal). Eventually vehement female opposition succeeded in neutralizing the 'lex Oppia' yet there were plenty of others enacted later in history, covered in-depth for the reader.'Roman Women' is written with a stunning amount of research in regard to the source material. Titus Livy's 'History of Rome' is utilized, as is the work of Pliny the Elder for 'Natural History', not to mention Suetonius' 'The Twelve Caesars' & Cornelius Tacitus' 'The Annals'. Again, I am just speaking from a layman's perspective; I'm what you would call an 'Armchair Historian', at best. But for such a relatively unknown book this one has considerable research supporting the subject matter, which made reading through these women's life stories more impactful for me.The 'lex Voconia' was essentially an inheritance 'cap' of sorts for Roman noblewomen, a monetary value which was assigned to property & assets. If someone created a legal will & the total value of the inheritance exceeded a certain amount, any woman was instantly rendered ineligible regardless of rank. 'lex Papia Poppaea' forced a woman to have children in a legal marriage if they were to have any inheritance whatsoever, if they were married & their husband died they only had a set amount of time to find another.The women whom these biographies are focused on, aren't just the important women of rank, the aristocratic noblewomen. One, 'Lycoris the Mime' is about a woman who was born a slave & eventually after years of training and hard work, she became a courtesan possessing such prestige & distinction she had sufficient wealth to actually live in Rome. As much as a woman in her line of work was able to, she rose above the limits that Roman society imposed upon her social status as a 'freedwoman' (a 'freedwoman' or 'freedman' was a slave who'd earned their freedom. It still was inferior to a freeborn Roman citizen however). But Cytheris (or Lycoris, she had two names) was so well-thought-of that she eventually attracted the attentions of important men, among them Marc Antony. He couldn't marry her due to political reasons, but he was completely unashamed of her courtesan social status & would flagrantly appear publicly with her, infuriating his political rivals.He would take her to dinners with prestigious senators such as Cicero in attendance, who became insulted by her presence & were forced to afford her the same amount of courtesy expected to a Roman matron (a matron was a Roman noblewoman of rank & status). The author of the biography, Giusto Traina describes an incident originally found in the work of Cicero, where Antony & Cytheris were traveling in a procession through the streets that is described to sound more a spectacle : 'Lycoris was at the fore, escorted by lictors, followed by Antony's chariot, & then another vehicle'. He later describes Antony's reluctance in leaving his lover, 'Antony enjoyed taking Lycoris with him everywhere'. This essay is probably not the 'archetypical' love story, but I nonetheless enjoyed reading it.Marc Antony eventually was put into a position where he could live neither in Rome, nor anywhere else in Italy. He & Cytheris parted ways. When you think about how Antony's story ended, you have to ask yourself if he maybe would have been happier in the long run had he stayed with his courtesan lover Cytheris, of whom he was completely unashamed.After the fourth or fifth essay, as history moves forward in chronological fashion the biographies begin to take on a more religious undertone which I didn't quite enjoy as much as the first handful of them. Maybe I'm just more of a pagan than I care to admit, I don't know. They're still very well-written nonetheless. 'Perpetua the Martyr' is about a woman enduring unspeakable amounts of pain, which despite some themes I was not especially enamored with, still manages to be touching. 'Helena Augusta : Innkeeper to Empress' uses source material such as the Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea for historical reference & also was worth reading. My favorite story in the collection was the third, 'Fulvia the Woman of Passion'. I've never read a story about a woman as ruthlessly dedicated to ruling, to that kind of life, to making sure Antony's position was as secure as she possibly could make it. Fulvia was an extraordinary woman.Unrelenting, hard-hearted & without pity, yet she loved Antony with a passion akin to madness, the mere sight of him was sufficient to reduce Fulvia to tears.Overall, I can't recommend this enough if the reader at all possesses interest to learn more about the wonderful, courageous women of Rome, what they endured, the enormous handicap society inflicted upon them simply for being women, yet also if the reader wishes to be inspired by real stories of women of our own antiquity, rising above their disadvantages & many of them succeeding as far as they possibly could go. These women all had courage of such magnitude that it's impossible not to be inspired reading about them. If someone's invested in wanting to learn about history & how women from our own past lived, how they loved, honestly I don't think it matters if you're male or female in regards to whether or not you will enjoy these essays. 'Roman Women' is very much a book I think you'll enjoy if you're at all interested in the subject.