Ancient Greek Women Vs Roman Women Essay
HIST 111
World Civilization Before 1650
Jodie Cummings
March 23, 2014
My paper will compare and contrast women in ancient Greece and ancient Rome. It will cover three areas to the woman’s life; marriage, inheritance and social life.
Marriage in ancient Greece was considered one of the most important aspects of a woman’s life, yet she had no control over it. When a woman was to be married she “given” in marriage by her father or other male authority figure. Women were seen as objects, thus they were “given”. They had no say in who they would marry. Marriage was not for love, it was more along the lines as a business relationship between two men, the father and the bridegroom. Men were free to establish …show more content…
“Men would usually marry in their mid-twenties, while women married while they were still in their early teens. As they reached these ages, their parents would consult with friends to find suitable partners that could improve the family’s wealth or class.” (PBS1) A Roman wedding could not take place unless both the bride and bride-groom were Roman citizens.
Inheritance for women in ancient Greece was pretty straight forward. Wives did not inherit from husbands, or daughters from fathers; but sisters could inherit from brothers. This made it very difficult at best for women to show any worth. So basically all property was handled by the father, husband or son. As you can tell this period in time was one of great discrimination and prejudice against women.
Inheritance of the wife from the deceased husband was almost nonexistent in ancient Rome. “The surviving spouse stood outside the four classes of relatives. He or she was to succeed only if there was no relative at all. As long as any relativecould be found, the family wealth was not to be diverted from the bloodline.” (Glendon, M.A., et. al.) The four classes are (1) the direct descendants of the man that had died, (2) his brothers and sisters of the full blood, and the children of brothers and sisters of the full blood, (3) the dead man’s brothers and sisters of the half blood and the children of these brothers and sisters, and (4) the other relatives of the dead
World Civilization Before 1650
Jodie Cummings
March 23, 2014
My paper will compare and contrast women in ancient Greece and ancient Rome. It will cover three areas to the woman’s life; marriage, inheritance and social life.
Marriage in ancient Greece was considered one of the most important aspects of a woman’s life, yet she had no control over it. When a woman was to be married she “given” in marriage by her father or other male authority figure. Women were seen as objects, thus they were “given”. They had no say in who they would marry. Marriage was not for love, it was more along the lines as a business relationship between two men, the father and the bridegroom. Men were free to establish …show more content…
“Men would usually marry in their mid-twenties, while women married while they were still in their early teens. As they reached these ages, their parents would consult with friends to find suitable partners that could improve the family’s wealth or class.” (PBS1) A Roman wedding could not take place unless both the bride and bride-groom were Roman citizens.
Inheritance for women in ancient Greece was pretty straight forward. Wives did not inherit from husbands, or daughters from fathers; but sisters could inherit from brothers. This made it very difficult at best for women to show any worth. So basically all property was handled by the father, husband or son. As you can tell this period in time was one of great discrimination and prejudice against women.
Inheritance of the wife from the deceased husband was almost nonexistent in ancient Rome. “The surviving spouse stood outside the four classes of relatives. He or she was to succeed only if there was no relative at all. As long as any relativecould be found, the family wealth was not to be diverted from the bloodline.” (Glendon, M.A., et. al.) The four classes are (1) the direct descendants of the man that had died, (2) his brothers and sisters of the full blood, and the children of brothers and sisters of the full blood, (3) the dead man’s brothers and sisters of the half blood and the children of these brothers and sisters, and (4) the other relatives of the dead