Beauty, family, intrigue: 7 little-known facts about the women of ancient Rome

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

People who are interested in history know a lot about the Roman Empire - and about its rulers, and about laws, and about wars, and about intrigues. But much less is known about Roman women, and in fact, at all times, not only the family, but also the foundations of society rested on a woman. And Ancient Rome is no exception.

1. Roman women and breastfeeding

Wealthy Roman women did not usually breastfeed their children. Instead, they passed them on to wet nurses (usually slaves or hired women), with whom they entered into a feeding contract. Soranus, the author of a famous 2nd century work on gynecology, wrote that nursing milk may be preferable in the first days after birth. He justified this by the fact that the mother may be too emaciated to fully breastfeed. He also discouraged feeding too often due to the fact that the baby was hungry, and recommended at the age of six months already transfer the baby to "solid" food, such as bread dipped in wine.

But this was not supported by most of the Roman physicians and philosophers. They suggested that breast milk is better for the health of the child, on the grounds that "a nurse can pass on slavish defects in her character to a child." These same people have expressed the opinion that women who do not breastfeed their baby are lazy, vain and unnatural mothers who only care about their figures.

2. Barbie doll for girls of Ancient Rome

Childhood ended very quickly for Roman girls. According to the law, they could get married at the age of 12. The reason for this was that girls were expected to start giving birth as early as possible (after all, at that time the infant mortality rate was very high). On the eve of the wedding, the girl threw away her children's things, including her toys.

The same toys could be buried with her if she died before marriageable age. At the end of the 19th century, a sarcophagus was discovered belonging to a girl named Creperei Tryphena, who lived in Rome in the 2nd century. Buried with her was an ivory doll with hinged arms and legs. There was even a small box of clothes and jewelry made especially for her next to the doll. But unlike the modern Barbie, the Kreperei doll had wide "childbearing" hips and a rounded belly. Obviously, the girl was trained from early childhood for the role of the future mother - for the "achievement" that was most valuable for Roman women.

Wooden doll from the sarcophagus of Krepereya Tryphena

3. After the divorce, the child was left with the father

Divorce was a quick, easy, and common process in ancient Rome. Marriage was commonly used to facilitate political and personal ties between families. However, marital ties could be severed at short notice when they were no longer useful to one side or the other.

Unlike today, there was no legal procedure for obtaining a divorce. A marriage was actually considered to be over when the husband (or, which was much less common, the wife) announced it. Fathers were also able to initiate divorce on behalf of their daughters, thanks to the fact that the father retained legal custody of his daughter even after her marriage. This allowed the bride's family to return the dowry in the event of a divorce. However, some husbands have tried to exploit a legal loophole, claiming that they could keep the dowry if their wives were convicted of infidelity.

Women were reluctant to divorce because the Roman legal system favored the father, not the mother, in the event of divorce. In fact, Roman women had no legal rights over her own children. However, if it was more convenient for the father, then the children remained to live with their mother after the divorce.

A well-known example of this is the case of the daughter of the emperor Octavian Augustus, Julia and her mother Scribonia, whom the emperor refused after meeting his third wife Livia.

4. Strange cosmetics

Roman women were eager to look good. It was believed that the appearance of a woman testifies to the capabilities of her husband. But on the other hand, women of fashion trying to live up to the ideal of beauty were often ridiculed for it. The Roman poet Ovid (43-17 BC) gleefully sneered at a woman for trying to make her a homemade hair dye: “I told you that you just need to not wash off the paint, and now look at yourself. There is nothing to paint anymore. In another satirical pamphlet, the writer Juvenal (55-127 AD) tells how a woman tried to make her hair lush until it began to resemble a shock of hay.

Ancient Rome had a thriving cosmetics industry. While some recipes were quite “sensible”, such as masks made with crushed rose petals and honey, others can be quite surprising. For example, it was recommended to treat spots on the skin with chicken fat and onions. Oyster shells were used as an exfoliant, and a mixture of crushed earthworms and oil was used to mask gray hair. Other authors have mentioned crocodile droppings used as blush. An archaeological dig in London in 2003 found a small box containing the remains of a 2,000-year-old Roman face cream. Upon analysis, it was found that it was made from a mixture of animal fat, starch and tin.

5. Women's education

The education of women was a controversial issue during the Roman period. Basic reading and writing skills were taught to most girls in Roman schools, and some families used home teachers to teach their daughters more advanced grammar or Greek.

All of this was intended to facilitate the girl's future role in managing the household, and also served to make her a more literate and therefore more interesting companion to her husband. Although there are very few examples of women's writing from ancient times, this does not mean that women did not write. For example, during the excavation of the Roman fort of Vindoland, letters from soldiers' wives were found.

However, many Romans believed that over-education could turn a woman into a pretentious creature. To make matters worse, intellectual independence could be considered synonymous with sexual promiscuity. However, some elite families encouraged their daughters to study as much as possible.

6. "First Ladies"

Roman women could not hold any political office, but they could influence, for example, the results of elections. The frescoes preserved on the walls of Pompeii indicate that women provided support for certain candidates.

The wives of politicians, meanwhile, played a role that practically did not differ from the role of the spouses of modern presidents and prime ministers, building for them the image of a “family man”. Most Roman emperors built idealized images of themselves with their wives, sisters, daughters, and mothers. Even coins and sculptural portraits were developed to represent the "first family of Rome" as a harmonious and cohesive unit, regardless of what was in reality.

When Augustus became the first emperor of Rome, he tried to maintain the illusion that he was "a native of the people." Instead of expensive clothes, he preferred to wear simple handmade woolen clothes that were knitted for him by his relatives. Since mating was considered an ideal pastime for the obedient Roman matron, it contributed to the image of the imperial house as a model of moral decency.

7. Roman empresses - poisoners and schemers?

The Empresses of Rome are portrayed in literature and cinema as poisoners and nymphomaniacs who stopped at nothing in their path. It was alleged that Augustus' wife Livia killed him after 52 years of marriage by smearing poison on the green figs that the emperor liked to pluck from the trees around their house. Agrippina is also said to have poisoned her elderly husband, Claudius, by adding a deadly toxin to his mushroom dinner. The predecessor of Agrippina Messalina - the third wife of Claudius - was remembered primarily for the fact that she systematically killed her enemies, and also had a reputation for insatiable in bed.

It is possible that all these stories were conjectures that were spread by people who were worried about the proximity of women to power.

It's very interesting to see today from what dishes did they eat and drink in Rome BC … Silver treasures of that era were found not so long ago.