Women in Ancient Rome
What was the role -- or roles -- of women in ancient Rome? There are a number of sources in the literature that point to a wide variety of interesting and sometimes humiliating roles and positions that women were linked to in Ancient Rome, and this paper reviews several of those.
Women in Ancient Rome -- The Literature
has researched and reported on a number of interesting instances of women's positions and activities in ancient Rome. In his book, McKeown quotes from Cicero's work, In Defense of Murena 27): "Our ancestors wanted all women to be under the control of guardians because of their feeble powers of judgment" (McKeown, 2010, p. 8).
Certainly there was rampant chauvinism in ancient Rome, and any chance that male power figures had to continue on the path of bias against women, they seemed to be able to succeed. However, there are examples in ancient Rome of women having power over men. In McKeown's book he quotes from Plutarch's Life of Anthony 10 (that is Mark Anthony); Plutarch explained that Fulvia, Mark Anthony's wife, "totally ignored the traditional wifely activities of spinning and housekeeping" (McKeown, 9-10). Fulvia also believed it was "beneath her dignity to control an ordinary man," and instead she wanted to "rule a ruler and command a commander," Plutarch explains.
Hence, Plutarch continues in McKeown's book, Cleopatra actually ended up owing a "teacher's fee" to Fulvia for teaching Anthony how to be submissive to a woman. When Cleopatra took on Mark Anthony he...
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