The age of Augustus has long been recognised as a time when the Roman state put a new emphasis on ‘traditional’ feminine domestic ideals, yet at the same time gave real public prominence to certain women in their roles as wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters. This book takes up a series of texts and their contexts in order to explore this paradox. Through an examination of authors such as Vitruvius, Livy, Valerius Maximus, Seneca the Elder, and L. Junius Moderatus Columella, the book argues that female domesticity was both a principle and a problem for early imperial writers, as they sought ... More
Keywords: Roman empire, Augustus, public life, women, domesticity, Vitruvius, Livy, Valerius Maximus, Seneca the Elder
Print publication date: 2008 | Print ISBN-13: 9780199235728 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2010 | DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199235728.001.0001 |