THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN ANCIENT ROME |
Evidently the debate did not concern the political role of women but originated from two different evaluations of the power relationships between the sexes, both rooted in the common and unshakable belief that women should remain subordinate to men within the family because they were naturally inferior creatures. It is of secondary importance, though still signifcant,that the Lex Oppia was in the end repealed by the comitia, although it was theoretically possible to nullify it with legal objections (as Livy tells us, these objections were not made). This suggests that Cato'sobsession with yvvar_xoxpazia was not entirely without foundation and makes plausible Plutarch's attribution to Cato of the observation (Cat. Mai. 8. 3) "All men command women, we Romans command all men, but our women command us," an observation that acknowledges the decisive role played by women through men even within a patriarchal society.
Centuries before, Homer had arrived at the same conclusion inthe Odyssey (6. 303-15) and voiced it through Nausicaa ("Do not bemisled," she said to Odysseus, "my father is the lord, but it is my mother who decides"). The consul Caecina Severus from Volterra, in A.D. 21, was also to express his disgust and concern at the intrusions of Roman ladies into politics, their ambition to dominate tribunals, and even their management of the legions through their husbands; and he did this in terms rather similar to Cato 's.b There were, to be sure, divergent positions regarding women. Certain pagan philosophers (such as Musonius Rufus and, later, Plutarch) andcertain Christian theologians (such as Clement of Alexandria) even went so far as to admit the equality of virtue between men and women, theChristians calling on Scripture for support (Gal. 3:28 "in Christo non est ludaeus neque Graecus, non est servus neque liber, non est masculus).
The question of racial prejudice should be dealt with frst, because it precedes, both chronologically and conceptually, the other two. It is
well known that the term (dp(iapoS originally meant no more than "foreigner," a person speaking in an incomprehensible way .
But this concept refects a clear aware ness of diversity, at least at a linguistic level, that made natural a shift of meaning, from those without articulate speech ().oyoS) to those without reasoning power (a concept expressed by the same term, kdyoS)--those, that is, without the faculty that distinguishes man (who is able to speak and to reason) from other, inferior "animals." The awareness of otherness remained among the Greeks-or at least among Greek intellectuals- through the late Hellenistic period and beyond.
Italic-Roman culture adopted at an early stage the terminology and conceptions of the Greeks. An example may be found in Plautus, who
provides the earliest uses in Latin of the terms barbarus, barbaric, and barbaries. In his plays (derived from Greek models and spoken by Greekcharacters) these terms signify "Latin" or "Roman" and "Italy," according to a national and ethnological vision that is typically Greek." But theproblem is to discover when, how, and why there arose among the Romans a well-defined mental image of "the barbarian" associated with fear and a sense of constant jeopardy. I believe that this idea took shape from the fourth century B.C. on and was associated with the Gauls, that is, with those Celts who had settled in Italy. Although the Gauls had begun to pass through the Alps as early as the beginning of the sixth century B.C., this movement did not at frst arouse any notable reactions: there had been many movements of peoples since the remotest times.
The first great shock, which left a deep mark on both the Roman and the Greek historical tradition, was the expedition of the Galli Senones
against Rome in 387/86 B.C,12 A foreign people that repeatedly constitutes a threat arouses superstitious terror. And indeed, everything about the Gauls seemed diferent, and this difference was therefore the source of a dismay that became ever greater in the popular imagination and heightened Roman feelings of triumph after hard-won victories. Traces can be found both in literary works and in the monuments: for example, certain series of denarii of the third to frst centuries B.C. on the sites of the most spectacular victories over the Celts, such as those at Civitalba near Sentino (295 B.C.) and at Talamone in Etruria.
Bonvacances Ferienhäuser Frankreich
Ferienhauser und Ferienwohnungen in Frankreich. Miete ein Ferienhaus in Bretagne, Normandie, Cote d Azur, Süd Frankreich oder Atlankik.