From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins: Sex and Category in Roman Religion by Ariadne Staples
Authors: Ariadne Staples
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long years of peace and excessive wealth. Virtue was forced on women in those days, says Juvenal, because life was hard and they had neither time nor oppor- tunity for corruption. A sting in the tail perhaps, but none the less it was a hint of ambivalence, a respite from hatred however begrudg- ing, in a monument to misogyny. The virtuous wife was pushed so far back in time that she was inaccessible, but she existed as an ideal, if only that. Juvenal provided only a glimpse of such an ideological respite from the relentless attacks of misogyny. Elsewhere the ambivalence of the discourse about women is more clearly articulated.
Livy, writing much earlier of the repeal of the Oppian law in 195 BC, attributed to Cato and Valerius — consul and tribune respec- tively for that year — a debate on the dangers posed by married women — matronae — to the state. 6 The rhetoric of misogyny is very similar to that found in satire but the issues that are being dealt with are quite different. The Oppian law was a piece of sumptuary legisla- tion which had been passed almost a generation previously when Rome was reeling from the defeat at Cannae. The apparent purpose of the law was to curb female extravagance. Two tribunes, Valerius and Fundanius, were now proposing a repeal of the law, since the state was enjoying a period of prosperity and there was no longer any need for legislative control on consumption. But as there was opposition to this proposal, the matronae, who wanted the law repealed, had in a body lobbied the voters making their way to the forum to vote on the bill. It was the appalling and unprecedented sight of matronae in the public streets talking to men who were not their husbands, that prompted Cato ’ s attack on women.
Juvenal ’ s poem was concerned with women as individuals, who posed a threat to men only in their private capacity as husbands. Livy ’ s passage offers a different perspective. Cato ’ s resentment and anxiety were directed at a particular category of women, the matronae . 7 But it was not the matronae themselves that he feared; it was the fact that they had organized themselves into a lobby and were attempting to influence the legislative process. The matronae, by their capacity for collective action, posed a threat not merely to individual males but to the very foundation of the social and politi- cal structure. Legislative power belonged to a domain that was exclusively male. But Cato ’ s words suggest a fundamental insecurity about men ’ s dominance of that domain; women were capable of encroaching on it and men had to guard their territory vigilantly. Consider the following excerpts from the speech:
I thought it a fairy tale and a piece of fiction that on a certain island the men were destroyed root and branch by a conspir- acy of women; but from no class is there not the greatest dan- ger if you permit them meetings and gatherings and secret consultations.
(Livy, 34.2.3 – 4)
Our ancestors permitted no woman to conduct even personal business without a guardian to intervene in her behalf; they wished them to be under the control of fathers, brothers, hus- bands; we — Heaven help us! — allow them now even to inter- fere in public affairs, yes, and to visit the forum and our formal and informal sessions (iam etiam rem publicam capessere eas patimur et foro quoque et contionibus et comitiis immisceri). What else are they doing now on the streets and at the corners except urging the bill of the tribunes and the repeal of the law?
( ibid., 2.11)
If you suffer them to seize these bonds one by one and wrench themselves free and finally to be placed on a parity with their husbands do you think that you will be able to endure them? The moment they begin to be your equals they will be your superiors.
( ibid., 3.2) 8 Cato feared political domination by women. Such a threat could
come from one category of women only — the matronae . This notion that matronae were capable of
Livy, writing much earlier of the repeal of the Oppian law in 195 BC, attributed to Cato and Valerius — consul and tribune respec- tively for that year — a debate on the dangers posed by married women — matronae — to the state. 6 The rhetoric of misogyny is very similar to that found in satire but the issues that are being dealt with are quite different. The Oppian law was a piece of sumptuary legisla- tion which had been passed almost a generation previously when Rome was reeling from the defeat at Cannae. The apparent purpose of the law was to curb female extravagance. Two tribunes, Valerius and Fundanius, were now proposing a repeal of the law, since the state was enjoying a period of prosperity and there was no longer any need for legislative control on consumption. But as there was opposition to this proposal, the matronae, who wanted the law repealed, had in a body lobbied the voters making their way to the forum to vote on the bill. It was the appalling and unprecedented sight of matronae in the public streets talking to men who were not their husbands, that prompted Cato ’ s attack on women.
Juvenal ’ s poem was concerned with women as individuals, who posed a threat to men only in their private capacity as husbands. Livy ’ s passage offers a different perspective. Cato ’ s resentment and anxiety were directed at a particular category of women, the matronae . 7 But it was not the matronae themselves that he feared; it was the fact that they had organized themselves into a lobby and were attempting to influence the legislative process. The matronae, by their capacity for collective action, posed a threat not merely to individual males but to the very foundation of the social and politi- cal structure. Legislative power belonged to a domain that was exclusively male. But Cato ’ s words suggest a fundamental insecurity about men ’ s dominance of that domain; women were capable of encroaching on it and men had to guard their territory vigilantly. Consider the following excerpts from the speech:
I thought it a fairy tale and a piece of fiction that on a certain island the men were destroyed root and branch by a conspir- acy of women; but from no class is there not the greatest dan- ger if you permit them meetings and gatherings and secret consultations.
(Livy, 34.2.3 – 4)
Our ancestors permitted no woman to conduct even personal business without a guardian to intervene in her behalf; they wished them to be under the control of fathers, brothers, hus- bands; we — Heaven help us! — allow them now even to inter- fere in public affairs, yes, and to visit the forum and our formal and informal sessions (iam etiam rem publicam capessere eas patimur et foro quoque et contionibus et comitiis immisceri). What else are they doing now on the streets and at the corners except urging the bill of the tribunes and the repeal of the law?
( ibid., 2.11)
If you suffer them to seize these bonds one by one and wrench themselves free and finally to be placed on a parity with their husbands do you think that you will be able to endure them? The moment they begin to be your equals they will be your superiors.
( ibid., 3.2) 8 Cato feared political domination by women. Such a threat could
come from one category of women only — the matronae . This notion that matronae were capable of
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