Roman women in public and private sectors

Justin Reyes
Roman sources such as Pliny, the funeral eulogy of Turia, and the article by
Judith Hallett illustrate the lives of Roman women in Imperial Rome. Although many
of these sources were written by men they are the only sources that provide us with
a glimpse of the Roman women during the imperial years of Rome. Since these
sources were written by men, we only get an idealized perspective of the Roman
women instead of real factual account. Yet scholars are very dependent on these
sources to provide an account of the role of Roman women in the public and private
sector. For example, Letters from Pliny the younger describe Roman women as
completely devoted to their husband and the funeral eulogy of Turia gives us the
glimpse of marriage and divorce. The role of Roman women in the public sector was
very limited, but through marriage Roman women were highly influential in this
sector. In private, Roman women were devoted wives, daughters, and to their
housework.

Marriage was an honored institution that brought a family economic, political,

and social benefits in the public sector. Since it was Roman law that no Roman
women could vote or run for public office, Roman sought to influence the public
sector through marriage. At the time marriage was highly regarded and started at
an early age. This is illustrated in Pliny letter to Aefulanus Marcellinus where Pliny
states “She was already engaged to marry a distinguished young man, the day for
the wedding was fixed, and we had received our invitations”. It may be noted that
the girl that Pliny writes about in his letter was only 13 years old. Even at an early
age, Roman mothers played matchmaker and were already planning for their
daughters to wed. Often Roman women disregarded the emotional or physical
appeal that you often find in modern marriages when arranging marriage. Instead
Roman women sought distinguished men with noble family ties that can bring their
family wealth and influence. Judith P. Hallett makes this evident in “Perspectives on
Roman women” when she states “While begetting legitimate offspring to
perpetuate the family was the most valued of these functions, it was far from the
only one. The creation of alliances between families, and the benefits that such
alliances brought to these families’ quest for public distinction and material gain,
loomed no less consequentially”(Hallett 6). Through these family ties Roman
women sought to counter their limited role in the public sector by heavily
influencing distinguished and often political men through the marriage of their
daughters. This in turn brought the economic, political, and social security.
Although Roman women were crafting in their role as matchmaker, Roman women
in private according to the sources were to be highly devoted to their husbands and
fathers.
 Roman women in private were to be completely devoted to their husbands
and fathers. A Roman women devotion to her husband can be found in Pliny letter
to Calpurnia Hispulla where he writes “she is highly intelligent and a careful
housewife and her devotion to me is a sure indication of her virtue” Pliny writes to
his young wife aunt about the complete devotion to himself and her interest in his
talents. Since Pliny wife was young and Pliny was of old age, which we can see
when he states “she does not love me for my present age nor my person, which will
gradually grow old and decay…” that women were groomed to be devoted to their
husbands due to Roman custom and tradition and the differences in age suggest
that Roman women were raised at an early age to be devoted to their husbands.
Aside from being devoted to their husbands Roman women were to be completely
devoted to their fathers. Pliny letter to Alefulanus Marcellinus demonstrated this
devotion in writing “He has cast off all his other virtues and is wholly absorbed by
his love for his child. You will forgive and even admire him if you think of what he
has lost- a daughter who resembled him in character no less than in face and
expression, and was her father’s living image in every way.” Pliny statement that
the girl was her father’s living image in everyway demonstrates that Roman women
were completely devoted to their fathers. Another aspect of the roles of Roman
women in their private lives was the ability and high regard for women to produce
children. Divorce and barren women were looked down upon in and used as a
mechanism to raise the birthrate in Roman society. As was the case in the “Funeral
Eulogy of Turia” Turia divorces his husband due to her inability to produce children
for him even though they were happily married for 41 years. Roman laws and as
well as customs and traditions shaped the role of Roman women in the private
sector, a role that they were not able to change unlike the public sector.

Although we are given a glimpse of the roles of Roman women in the public and
private sector through these sources, we don’t know entirely if they are accurate or
real depiction of their lives.