The role of women in the ancient societies has been obscured by biases of ancient male writers and scholars. Most of the information about ancient Roman women in literary texts is filtered through the lens of how men viewed and treated them in society with the few texts on the lives of ancient women focusing mostly on their role and place in society. These writings can help in understanding slavery, marriage and legal rights of women during the Roman Empire and use it in explaining the expectations of a noble woman. This paper analyzes the role of ancient Roman women in society, whether they were considered citizens with personal freedoms and whether the patriarchal society overshadowed them during the ancient time. This analysis will help in understating the ideal of aristocratic female behavior during the Roman Empire.
Xenophon of Ephesus was an ancient author who was involved in writing some of the early Greek literature. The Ephesian Tale is one of the earliest Greek Novels by Xenophon that describes the lives of Anthia and Habrocomes and their love story. The novel describes an absorbing tale of love and improbable adventure. The young protagonists fell in love at the beginning of the text and achieved perpetual union as adults, in the end, having been faithful in their promises. This novel is considered one of the first surviving novels in the world of literature presenting fictional characters and the adventures they go through, and can be used to describe the ideal of aristocratic female behavior.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
In the novel, Anthia was an attractive and chaste young woman of 14 who fell helplessly in love with Habrocomes after briefly meeting. However, their relationship ended up suffering miserably since each one was afraid to reveal their affections. In the hopes of curing, their families arranged for their marriage and sent them to Egypt for safety. The two young couples promised eternal promise of love and faithfulness if they ever become separated, but went through a lot of challenges and life-threatening situations in trying to keep the promise. For example, they were taken captive after their ship stopped at Rhodes from where their masters eventually made sure the two lovers are separated. In the event, they passed through life-threatening situations in their adventures including temptations, threats, and separation until their final liberating union.
Anthia’s commitment to remain faithful throughout these attritions was an epitome of expectations for aristocratic behavior. Her conduct paid off throughout their adventures when she was separated from Habrocomes by avoiding consummating any forced relationship by her masters. Despite a lot of men falling for her beauty, Anthia remained faithful to the promise made to her husband. In some instances, she used tricks and deceptions in keeping away from her masters demanding sexual favors. For example, after relenting to marry Tarsus for fearing a worse fate if she rejects him, Anthia made him promise to wait for 30 days before committing to a wedding, buying time for rescue and ensuring she does not get married to another man. She found marriage to another man intolerable and could do anything to escape the temptation, including committing suicide. This conduct represented an ideal woman who respects her marriage and keeps her promises.
Societal expectations
Many aspects of the lives of women in the Roman Empire were dictated by Roman law including entering in arranged marriages at a very young age as well as expectations to live highly moral lives. Potter stated that during this period, girls were married by the time they reached puberty, with Anthia getting married when she was just 14 years ( Potter, 2011, The Victors Crown) . Early marriages were dictated for the highest duty of bearing a son to follow in the father’s estate. Societies expected women to bear male children to carry on the family name and lineage. At the same time, girls were married early to ensure they do not have a sexual history that might embarrass the future husband. The Romans controlled female sexuality in protecting the society and social order and required noble women to lead pure life away from fornication and adultery.
Romans in ancient times had a more neutral approach to humanity and placed several expectations for women behavior. Aristocratic women were supposed to be modest and chaste, showing genuine love and affection to their husbands and not attempting infidelity ( Potter, 2011, The Victors Crown) . It was considered wrong for noble women to be ambitious, greedy or self-promoting. During this time, women were expected to only have sexual relations with their husbands and Anthia was an example of their roles in society. Women were also supposed to uphold a complex virtue of restraint and Chastity. They were expected to appear modest and limit their social interactions with other men who were not her husband.
Prostitution
At the same time women could turn to prostitution in the Roman Empire to support themselves, and most did not have the freedom to decide. The women experienced twofold gender bias where they were considered lesser beings in society, and this was a basis for cultural discrimination. They were deemed to be weak in body and mind, an assumption that ensured they were not allowed to make personal decisions over issues involving them. A dichotomy existed within the lives of Roman women who were citizens who had limited freedom to decide for their lives. Anthia in the novel was sold to work in a brothel as a prostitute since prostitution was legal and common in Ancient Roman Empire. She was forced into prostitution since she did not have a right over her life, and forcing women into prostitution was not considered a crime during this period. However, Anthia showed an ideal noble woman by standing against turning into a prostitute despite being forced to work in a brothel.
Lack of Freedom for women
Most of the sources for ancient Roman women dealt with aristocracy where men from the upper class received all privileges including best positions in the society while women were subjected to being subordinates. As such, women did not have equal legal status with men, always under their jurisdiction passing from one man to another. In most cases, they were under constant supervision of men who can be their fathers or husbands. Being female in Roman Empire affected women differently depending on their class, with upper and lower levels in the society. Anthia represented women of the lower class in Roman Empire who variously free-born and emancipated slaves. During this period, freedwomen have still manumitted slaves as they owe a period of service to the masters.
A slave woman was considered property under Roman law in the ancient Roman Empire explaining the many times that Anthia was sold during her life journey. Potter stated that women slaves had to do all kinds of work after capture and enslavement for example when they had to work at their master’s farms and submit to their sexual advances ( Potter, 2011, The Victors Crown) . However, Anthia presented several aristocratic female behaviors in the novel through her conduct and restraint to commit any sexual sin. She represents the case of a faithful woman who could not be lured into breaking the promise he had made to her husband regardless of the temptations and separation.
Extramarital issues
During this time, it was entirely acceptable for men to have extramarital sex in contrast to their women. Men could be allowed to have extramarital sex provided the confine them to slaves, prostitutes and a concubine or kept a woman, which is why most men advanced their sexual desires to Anthia whenever they came in contact with her beauty. On the contract, women lacked sexual freedom granted to men, and married or marriageable women were strictly off limits. This is why Anthia had to tell Hippothous the full story about her wedding, wanderings and the vows she made to Habrocomes as another technique to avoid his sexual advances. This society represented a system of double standards that granted men more sexual freedom to control and dominate women.
The most extramarital activity took place with slaves who were regarded as property and lacked legal standing protecting the body of a citizen. This means men who could force a slave into having sex did not stand any trial for rape. Under Roman law, slaves were property, utterly subject body and soul to the will of their masters. While it was common for masters to mate with their slaves or permit sexual unions among them for breeding children, Anthia stood by her morals and could not allow the masters to use her body for any pleasures. For example, she committed several murders to whoever would move towards infringing her privacy and right to autonomy.
In conclusion, the ancient Rome family was mostly patriarchal where women were subordinate and could only attend to homes and its slave workforce. The family was more fundamental to an aristocratic sense of identity where women were supposed to display the merits of their virtues and honor. They were closely identified with their perceived role in the society including taking care of their families and bear legitimate children. At the same time, the Ancient Roman law sought to protect female sexuality by denying them sexual freedom as one way of protecting families, social order and the state. However, this resulted in giving men all the sexual freedom to objectify women without any legal restrictions. Anthia in the novel was presented as someone who is easily sexually objectified by men wherever she goes. Throughout the wandering experience, she had to object several sexual advances from essentially everyone since the society only saw women for sex and could even attempt rape without any dire consequences.
References
Potter, D. (2011). The Victors Crown: A History of Ancient Sport from Homer to Byzantium . New York: Oxford University Press.
