Ancient and modern interpretation

Question 1

Tacitus?

Answer 1

• hostile towards ambitious members of royal family, who try to manipulate others to get their way and sought to participate in political process.
• believes ambitious women are run by jealousy to bring down female rivals
• thinks in stereotypes
• his sources parallel to other person’s story such as Livia and Agripp
• depicts lust as imp element in her strategy of securing the principate for her son
• torn between hostility and admiration of Agripp. Condemn her actions in gaining power but admire her ambition and ability.

Question 2

Suetonius?

Answer 2

• image of A inconsistent, reflecting his sources/ and use of anecdote to create affect. = influence over Claudius is malevolent, personality is ferox and impotens
• distorts facts with traditions, stories, myths and legends (gossip)
• one sided, doesnt accept other sources stating A was instigator of incest (nero and agrip)
• secondary source, after Agri
• not historian, a biographer

Question 3

Cassius Dio:

Answer 3

• later than Suetonius, large time gap
• a lot of info on A came fro gossip and speculation, but still uniformly hostile
• associate her with adultery and immorality, seducing Claudius and affair with Pallas
• doesnt understand her true nature as claim A as second Messalina

Question 4

Modern INterpreations?

Answer 4

Theodor Mommsen
E.T. Salmon
^^These two are hostile interpretations, accepting A guilty of crimes that ancient writers accused her of.

Guglielmo Ferrero

Question 5

Ancient?

Answer 5

Cassius Dio
Suetonius
Tacitus

Question 6

Theodor Mommsen

Answer 6

• madly ambitious
• had innate desire to bring son throne
• not satisfied with status in household, wanted share in gov
• given title ‘Augusta’ - associated with supreme authority
• probable behind death of Claudius- she was person one could ascribe such a deed

Question 7

E.T. Salmon?

Answer 7

• Ag destroyed rivals, enemies and those whose wealth she desired
• not difficult to credit belief that A poinsoned Claudius
• hoping to one day rule world through her son
• prepared to wade through slaughter to a throne
• hard to feel much compassion for fate that subsequently overtook this woman

Question 8

Guglielmo Ferrero?

Answer 8

• Guglielmo Ferrero’s women of the Caesars was radical and groundbreaking reassessment of role of Julio-Claudian women in wielding of supreme political power.
• stripped away heavy anti-imperial and anti-female bias of Tacitus and his sucessors to reveal portrait of noble Roman women who didn’t resemble the distorted images favoured in mainstream interpretations (challenged view).
• changed way we view these women