Revised limits of participation in public life: Roman aristocratic women from the late republic to the early imperial period

This thesis charts the growth in the role of elite Roman women in public life from the period of the Gracchi to the early empire under Augustus. Roman patriarchy excluded women from direct participation in politics in the forum or the Senate, so much emphasis falls on indirect access to power. To review this, two introductory chapters discuss Roman male perceptions of ideal female behaviour, and legislative changes with a direct impact on female lives. This is followed by studies of significant individuals, divided into two groups. The first reviews Cornelia, Clodia, Servilia, and Terentia and Tullia. Cornelia’s life as the mother of revolutionary sons is the sole example from the second century BC, and is followed by key characters from the last generation of the Republic. The second consists of Fulvia and Octavia, women whose status was prominent during the triumvirate as successive wives of the triumvir Antony. Individual lives are tested to establish the extent to which they were pushing the boundaries of ideal behaviour, and to attempt to establish how and why this occurred. Each individual is tested against their adherence to tradition female roles, their advance into areas of controversy, and finally truly transgressive acts. The application of these tests shows that matters advanced over the selected period as areas considered controversial or transgressive modified under changed social and political conditions. Many of the changes occurred informally, as women became involved in political arrangements through extended relevance of the domestic context. Women were initially used as proxies in the late Republic because of frequent absences overseas, but the advent of empire and the imperial court encouraged their use in novel roles.