Roman Women's Role In Politics

Rome was structured as a patriarchal society which naturally resulted in a diminished role for women. Furthermore, it is especially difficult to accurately describe the lives and roles of women considering all historical written evidence from the period was completed solely by aristocratic men. As a result all historians know about women come from a male perspective and is as a result mired in bias. All power within the family lay with the patriarchal figure, women served subservient roles and were at every social level considered inferior to men. As in most societies, until very recently, women’s primary purpose was seen to be that of child baring and rearing, and the management of the domestic chores and household (Renshaw page 159). At no time in Roman
history did a women ever have even the appearance of political rights and were constantly under the yoke of the paterfamilias. Males on the other hand were the embodiment of power within the society. How much power a male possessed depended on his position within the social hierarchy; more power obviously resided with the elite aristocratic men, well less was given to the poor. Under the paterfamilias a male who was the head of the family had complete control of the lives of those who lived under his roof. A fathers power over his children was absolute. Beginning with birth a father would lift the child into the air symbolizing the acceptance of the child into the family however, if the father declined to carry out this tradition the slaves would take the child away from the house for exposure (Renshaw pg. 137). The fathers legal rights extended to the point that if he so wished he could whip them, imprison them, sell them into slavery, or even kill them. This power was absolute and was not questioned until later in Roman history where some of the more extreme legal rights were eventually frowned upon. Names themselves reflect the power of the “pater” over the rest of the family especially females.
Females instead of being given their own unique name such as in our day, were instead given the feminine version of the family name. For example, in the case of Gaius Julius Caesar his daughter would have the name Julia, and if he had a second daughter she too would be named Julia. Gender as in most societies in this time period carried over to politics. Only men were allowed to hold political office and vote and suffice it to say a women’s power depended on the position of her husband. However, there were circumstances in which women were able to play a backstage role in politics as shown by Livy in the stories of the Tarquin kings and Tanaquil who had a profound influence on the reign of her husband and was even able to determine his successor Servius after Tarquin’s murder. This is reiterated with the story of Tullia and the murder of her husband, sister, and king in order to promote her former brother in law now husband to the position of king (Livy 1, 47). However, this type of influence on political events by women was not typical, in fact rape in this society was even seen as eventually leading to good things as evident by the stories of Rhea Sylvia, Lucretia, and Virginia in Livy’s
history of Rome.