Reading Roman Women

Roman women were either luxurious sluts or domestic paragons - at least according to the men who wrote Roman history and poetry. These authors introduced women into their works to make a moral point. We also have our own prejudices about ancient Rome and Roman women. Derived from film, television and sensational novels, these prejudices affect the way we 'read' the ancient material. Suzanne Dixon presents a range of examples to show that our ideas of what we 'know' about women's work, sexuality, commerce, or political activity in the Roman world have been shaped by the format, or genre, of each ancient source. She suggests ways in which we can read the evidence more critically and how Roman attitudes affected the crime of rape and women's chastity.

Suzanne Dixon is Reader in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Queensland.