Women Sources Flashcards
Examples of sources
Columella: extracts from on Agriculture 1.8.1-2, 5-6 The foreman
Columella: extracts from on Agriculture 1.8.9-11, 16, 18-19 Care and supervision of slaves
Columella: extracts from on Agriculture 12.3.5-6, 8-9 The housekeeper
Juvenial Satires
Ovid Amores 3.2 Ovid at the races
Ovid Fasti Remembering the dead
Ovid Fasti The feast of Anna Perenna
Diocletians Edict
The Parentalia
Columella: extracts from On Agriculture, the foreman
“But whatever the foreman is like, a woman should be given to him to live with, both to keep him settled and in certain things to help him…”
Women were given to foremen
Women had a lower status and less opportunities
Columella: extracts from On agriculture, care and supervision of slaves
“To women who are more fertile, who should be reward for producing a specific number of children, I have given exemption from work and even freedom sometimes, when they have brought up several children. A woman who had three sons got exemption from work, one who had more than that got her freedom”
Women could be slaves
Women who were more fertile were rewarded for having children
Children were born into slavery
Boys were seen as more useful/important than girls
Columella: extracts from On Agriculture, the housekeeper
Housekeepers were women, and they did house work and farm work, including wool work, teaching/learning skills, observing stewards/shepherds/slaves and cleaning furniture and sick bays
Columella: extracts from On Agriculture, the housekeeper
“The housekeeper should stay in one place as little as possible”
Housekeepers were very busy and could not be lazy
Juvenial satires
Women were mistresses to gladiators
Being a gladiator made someone unattractive seem appealing
In Juvenial satires, what would the woman be willing to leave behind to be with a gladiator
Eppia was willing to leave her children, her country, her sister and her husband behind for Sergius
In Juvenal satires, what was ugly about sergius?
A place rubbed sore by his helmet
A huge growth on the right of his nose
A nasty discharge from a constantly running eye
Ovid Amores, Ovid at the races
Men and women could sit anywhere at chariot races
Women were able to attend chariot races
Men were often taken with women in public places and were interested by their movements
Ovid Amores, Ovid at the races
“May Venus permit me to say it - you will be the greater goddess”
Women were compared to goddesses
Ovid Fasti, remembering the dead
“Hang back, you girls without a husband”
People wanted to keep women’s innocence for as long as possible
Ovid Fasti, the feast of Anna Perenna
The festival was named after a goddess which shows women were important in Roman society
Ovid Fasti, the feast of Anna Perenna
“A drunken old woman was dragging along a drunken old man”
Suggests it was women’s responsibility to look after men
The Parentalia (feralia closed it)
At the feralia, the ritual dedicated to tacita, goddess of the dead, was performed by an old woman and young gods which shows they were important
