The Roman widow : a social studya social study
| dc.contributor.author | Venour, Kelly Charlene | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-08-15T20:11:53Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-08-15T20:11:53Z | |
| dc.date.copyright | 1992 | en_US |
| dc.date.issued | 1992 | |
| dc.degree.department | Department of Classics | en_US |
| dc.degree.level | Master of Arts M.A. | en |
| dc.description.abstract | The object of this thesis is to provide an analysis of Roman widowhood, to determine what the Roman widow did during her widowhood, and to place the widow within the broader social context of Roman society. To this end, legal, literary, and prosopographical evidence is used, and attention is given to determining the widow's legal, domestic, political , and social roles. The introductory chapter begins by outlining the interest in Roman society over the past two decades, and the particular attention given to the Roman family. It specifies the sources pertinent for the Roman social historian, emphasizes the importance of sub-disciplines (such as the study of Roman law), and comparative historical evidence, and indicates the dangers of imposing our own value system and modern viewpoint on Roman society. A discussion follows of the limitations placed on the study of Roman women by the male-centered and male-authored texts, and notes that the patriarchal and hierarchical norms of the society are reflected in the literature. As a point of departure the mechanics of Roman marriage are examined: how the institution was used to solidify social and political ties; the woman's passive position; and the high rate of widowhood and remarriage due to the age hiatus between husbands and wives. The second chapter interprets the Roman legal corpus pertaining to widows. A discussion of widows in regard to legacies, children's patrimony, posthumous heirs, the mourning period, charges of infamia. stuprum, and adultery follows. The widow obtained no special legal rights with her status of widowhood; she was a dependent, manipulated figure within the context of Roman law. In addition, the question of maintenance is not addressed in the legal corpus: no maintenance was provided for the widow until the Christian era, when under the Novellae of Justinian (c. AD 538), she was legally entitled to receive a fourth of her husband's estate. Conversely, the legal sources give much attention to the remarriage of a widow, and the Augustan marriage legislation, which enforced a mourning period of specified length and made remarriage at the end of it obligatory, theoretically compelled the widow to seek a new husband while simultaneously mourning her old one. The third chapter examines the portrait of the widow in Roman literature (from Plautus in the second century BC to Apuleius in the second century AD). The literary images seen fall into clear-cut stereotypes: the helpless or poor widow, the rich or powerful widow, the merry widow, and the tragic widow. As well, themes in the stories of the Widow of Ephesus and Apuleius' Charite are examined, and the image of the univira is also analyzed. The literary portraits of the widow, drawn by male writers, not only betray patriarchal norms of female conduct, but also reveal an image of the widow as sexual property. The widow was seen as threatening and open to censure if she was a lascivious "merry" widow; but if she was chaste, passive, and faithful to the memory of her husband she was lauded as a model of female behavior. As well as inviting hostility from Roman males, sexual activity on the widow's part may have damaged her chances of remarriage. The expectation that widows will remarry is inherent in the literary sources, even in cases of deep grief, indicating that remarriage of a widow was encouraged in Roman society. The fourth chapter examines prosopographical evidence. It works within the boundaries of a universe of seventy widows, most of whose lives are known in considerable detail. The legal and literary images are thus tested against the historical evidence. Some demographic conclusions are drawn from the collected material pertaining to age at widowhood, at what point in the marriage it occurred, duration of widowhood, percentage of widows who remarried, and women widowed more than once. The chapter also examines historical instances of widows and Roman law in the areas of the tutor, dowry, charges of stuprum or maiestas, residence and children, and the question of maintenance. Historical univirae and actual instances of the remarriage of widows are examined in detail: whether the widow remarried at all, and if she did, who arranged her marriage, when she remarried, and how effective Augustan marriage legislation was in compelling her to remarry. In the fifth chapter, the historical evidence culminates in the examination of the life of Aemilia Pudentilla, the provincial widow of Apuleius' Apology, Pudentilla's life and long widowhood are known in some detail, and specifics from the Apology may be used to illuminate aspects of widowhood seen imperfectly elsewhere, such as sexual comportment, legal status, maintenance, and choice of a husband. The course of her remarriage can also be successfully reconstructed, and the social forces that affected it may be equated with those which influenced the marriages of most Roman widows. Pudentilla's life therefore provides a unique opportunity to reconstruct the life of a Roman widow. The conclusion summarizes the images of the widow as she is presented in the body of Roman law, in the literature, and in the prosopographical evidence; outlines views on maintenance, sexual comportment, and the mechanics of remarriage; and links widowhood at Rome with other social factors such as heirship and dynamics of family structure. | en |
| dc.format.extent | 205 pages | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1828/19988 | |
| dc.rights | Available to the World Wide Web | en_US |
| dc.subject | UN SDG 5: Gender Equality | en |
| dc.title | The Roman widow : a social studya social study | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |
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