Pompeii And Herculaneum Essay

Women in Pompeii and Herculaneum had a social position between slaves and freedmen. They often spent their time at home, learning and fulfilling the required domestic skills. Although they did not have as many rights as the men did, they were still able to gain power by operating businesses, owning land, becoming priestesses, and earn profits for themselves. Girls, usually from an upper-class, had an education either at home or school, giving them the knowledge to fulfill the rights they had. The restrictions held upon them involved not being able to vote, have any political authority, and were often ‘owned’ by men (usually their husbands or fathers). This was because Pompeii and Herculaneum were strictly patriarchal societies, governed and controlled by men. Archeological and modern sources reveal the contribution women had on society before the eruption as they moved freely within the city. Key
sources of evidence provided of women in Pompeii, include graffiti on walls, paintings, frescos, statues and building remains. This evidence enables historians to gather valuable insights into the lives of women of all social classes, for example the difference between freeborn women, freedwomen and women in slavery.
Freedwomen and women in slavery were the lowest of all social classes, oppressed under the authority of men and yet being able to roam freely within society trying to make a contribution. The women who were enslaved in Pompeii and Herculaneum were required to fulfill duties under the order of their masters who were of an upper-classed household. These women were destined for slavery at a young age, completing domestic house work such as cooking, cleaning, serving, entertaining, nursing and farming. There is a painting from Herculaneum which depicts a slave woman combing another woman’s hair revealing that slaves mainly worked in households. Although this was the case, they did work outside and were often asked to do tough jobs, similar to what the men would do. This is supported by the modern written source by Dr Sara Biesel who describes the conditions and the physical state of this young slave girl, as an effect of her harsh work,
mentioning observations like: ‘scars on the upper shafts of her humeri’ suggesting that ‘she used those bones for heavier work than she should have’. Moving up the social hierarchy, freedwomen were former slaves who had been freed by their masters usually as a result of a good deed or hard work. Freedwomen usually helped their husbands with their work, such as running industries and making money out of their own right. These businesses may have included: bakeries, fulleries, brothels, and inns, selling clothes and food and many more. Sarah B. Pomeroy describes some jobs that freedwomen would complete in their everyday life stating that: ‘At Pompeii, women worked at mills where grain was ground, and we find a landlady and a female moneylender…frequently sold luxury items…worked in butchers’. As well as this, an ancient source from a tomb monument on the Herculaneum Gate Road has an inscription saying: ‘Naevoleia Tyche, freedwomen of Lucius Naevoleius… This monument Naevoleia Tyche built in her lifetime also for the freedmen and freedwomen of herself and of Gaius Munatius Faustus…’ This shows that freedwomen did have the ability to make an impact on society, with tombs being built by them for freeborn women and vice versa.