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
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