'Letters From The Frontier: How can the contemporary interpretation of written sources explore the concealed lives of women in the Roman Empire?'

Letters from the Empire: How can the contemporary interpretation of written sources explore the concealed lives of women in the Roman Empire?

Written sources, whether they be literary works, private correspondence, epigraphic evidence or the work of ancient historians, are key to the identification of socio-political bias evident in the work of historians of the past. Reinterpretation of these sources enables historians to gain deeper insight into the roles of those whose voices were often suppressed. Throughout Western history, women have been viewed almost always through their relationships to men, rather than through their own lives, being classified into dichotomous categories: the role of the promiscuous woman or the role of the innocent virgin and the domestic role of the wife. These roles, a constant in western society, have perpetuated the ideologies of gender inequity since ancient times and facilitated patriarchal interpretations of history. The question remains: how reflective are these roles of the reality of life for women in the Roman Empire between 40 BC and 200 AD?

Through a separate but interrelated examination of two unique case studies, Sulpicia’s poetry and the Vindolanda tablets, this investigation explores how reinterpretation of written sources reveals that women from disparate parts of the empire were subscribing to dichotomous roles, as well as forging new ones. Sulpicia’s poetry, which has been suppressed and concealed by scholars for centuries, provides an insight into the aristocratic female psyche during this era. In contrast, the archaeological evidence of the Vindolanda Tablets has challenged traditional theories concerning the roles of women in the masculine dominated military environment of the Roman frontier. This argument is corroborated by current reinterpretation of archaeological and written sources, and an evaluation of more contemporary sources. Past historians have often misused or even directly ignored sources which did not support their gender theories, brushing under the proverbial carpet vitally important evidence which illustrates the diversity of women’s lives in the Roman Empire during this era.

An event which established the patriarchal ideals for the dichotomous roles of women as either obedient wives and mothers, or harlots, was the rape of the Sabine women, described by Beard, a contemporary female historian, as the “first marriage of the city”. The myth of the founding women of Rome has been further romanticised and reaffirmed in Western Judeo-Christian patriarchal society, through texts such as Cortona’s 1627 painting, influencing the historical narrative and entrenching these roles as the basis for the representation of women in Western society.  Additionally, Beard goes on to point out the tomb epitaphs of women which praise their roles as mothers and wives, in comparison to epitaphs of men which proclaim “military action... and prominence in public life”  emphasising the importance of these roles for their legacies, and the patriarchal dichotomies evident in the Empire. Furthermore, historian Brennan notes Roman law enshrined patriarchal power to the extent a husband could put his wife to death for violating the laws of sobriety, without trial, “Egnatius Metellus...beat his wife to death because she had drunk some wine.” Roman women in positions of authority have been belittled by ancient, and even by some contemporary historians over the course of the centuries. Messalina, seen by some as the ideal domina, was also “vilified by Roman historians” even the relatively impartial Tacitus, as having an "almost insane passion...frantically enamoured" and showing immense “cruelty”. This view is perpetuated in contemporary historiography; Wasson describes Messalina as “insatiable” rather than capable of forging her own path outside of Roman patriarchal parameters. As a comparison, Ancient Egyptian women of the period were able to own property on their own volition and fulfilled important political and military roles for which they were celebrated. This role of the domineering, promiscuous woman, rather than the obedient wife in Roman society, can be further illustrated by the infamous Clodia, whose “decadent immorality” led ancient scholar Cicero to characterise her as “Medea of the Palatine”. This role was also assigned to the prostitutes of Rome, depicted in Pompeii through pornographic murals. These lower-class women were discarded by society, yet it was one of the only ways to support themselves in a patriarchal society, despite the dire circumstances of the work, as illustrated by the small brothel cells in Pompeii. The third role assigned to women, that of the virgin, is best exemplified by the priestesses of Vesta, where chastity was crucial; they were buried alive if they broke this vow. While the rituals of state and domestic religion were controlled by men, women as priestesses could play important religious roles; Priestesses of the Cult of Isis in Pompeii and participation in the Mysteries illustrate how women could gain prestige through leadership in foreign cults.

Thus reinterpretation of the evidence suggests some Roman women were attempting to step beyond the parameters set by the dominant patria potestas, forging new political, social and religious pathways, while subscribing to the dichotomous roles.

An exploration of the Vindolanda tablets also provides evidence which corroborates this argument, revealing a female social milieu on the masculine-dominated frontier of the empire. While in the male-dominated society women were restricted to the traditional roles, the tablets suggest that by stepping outside of the social norm, women forged their own connections, relied less on the men around them, but still fitted into the parameters of the dichotomous roles. Historians of even the recent past, such as Sara Bisel, have attempted to create a romanticised narrative from such evidence, examining history through their own socio-political prism. Greene suggests Victorian historians, due to their own prism, refused to acknowledge the presence of women in Roman military communities. She acknowledges “historical circumstances” were a major factor in the “early denial of the significant presence of women in the military sphere”, because Rome was seen as a model for the British Empire during this era. The historians anachronistically placed their own social values over the evidence, supporting the view “the empire was supported by a disciplined, moral, and masculine army without the weak, feminizing presence of women”. A view endorsed by the classical authors who affirmed “a female presence would be an anathema to proper military function”. It was believed women belonged in the heartland, not the frontier, yet these views are shown to be inaccurate as a close examination of the relatively recently discovered written sources from Vindolanda attests.

The Roman castrum, Vindolanda, which guarded the border between Roman Britain and the wild Picts of Scotland, was the masculine-dominated frontier, or so it seemed until evidence started to appear in the latter half of the 20th century suggesting women and children also lived at these forts. The discovery of a cache of writing tablets known as the Vindolanda tablets, anaerobically-preserved sectiles of wafer-thin wood, has revealed historical bias. As Bowman suggests, the collection of over 1300 tablets “afford a uniquely detailed view of aspects of the Roman occupation of Britain for which there has hitherto been scarcely any evidence at all”, all previous historical understanding of this era of British history based on Tacitus's Agricola. Birley, director of excavations at Vindolanda, described the tablets found in 2017 as “personal messages” from a wide spectrum of society emphasising that “texts like these reveal [an individual's] hopes and dreams”.

A series of tablets from around 100 AD, reveals the lives of women on the frontier, three of which addressed to Lepidina, give us insight into the role of religion at Vindolanda, the definite female social milieu, and the roles of wives and mothers these women (to a certain extent) filled. Tablet 291, a brief invitation from Claudia Severa to Sulpicia Lepidina, inviting the latter to a party on the “third day before the Ides of September”, is written in two hands, the second thought to be a brief message from Severa herself, making this the oldest example of Latin in a woman’s hand. The Latin word used, sollemnis, suggests Severa was inviting Lepidina to an annual religious celebration to mark her birthday, which gives the historian insight into the religious practises of the Romans on this Northernmost frontier of the empire during this period. There had been religious upheaval for centuries in Britain, but by the early 2nd century AD the Celtic ‘heathen’ religions had been overtaken by those of Rome. This echoes the role of women in Britain: now limited to the dichotomies of Roman patriarchal society rather than the role of leaders, like Boudicca of the Iceni Tribe. Evidence suggests the role of women at Vindolanda was closely tied with important religious events. To corroborate this argument Tablet 581, an otherwise “innocuous list of supplies” shows possible records of a female-centric festival being celebrated at Vindolanda, matronalia on the calends of March, a celebration of Juno Lucina. This differs from the other goddesses worshipped at Vindolanda, such as Minerva, which would make sense at a military base. This could be evidence of permanent female life at this fort, previously the religious evidence in a temple dedicated to Jupiter Dolichenus, suggested a male-dominated environment. A statuette of Juno standing on a heifer from the 3rd century found at nearby Chesters Roman Fort in 1801, could also illustrate the argument of the castrum not being male-dominated as previously suggested, but rather a mixed community where women fitted into the traditional roles of the empire, but also forged their own, which has been concealed by historians until now.

Additionally these tablets illustrate the lives and relationships of these individuals and roles they fulfill. Potter asserts Lepidina was the wife of Batavian Prefect, Flavius Cerialis, who was stationed at Vindolanda, showing the lives of women only based on their relation to men. However this is vital information in understanding the source as it confirms Lepidina’s aristocratic status within the fort; the tablet was found in the praetorium, likewise, Severa was the wife of a commander, Aelius Brocchus. The letters mention children, supported by the archeological evidence of small shoes indicating two small children lived in the praetorium during this period. Despite giving us this unique insight into the role of wives on the frontier, these sources are limited mainly showing the perspectives of elite women. It could be surmised that this is due to wealthier women being more literate, however Tablet 294, a fragment of writing, reveals the concealed lives of the lower class women at Vindolanda. The use of the word domina connotes Paterna was of a lower social rank than Lepidina, yet Paterna appears to be bringing drugs to Lepidina to help her overcome a fever, which, argues Greene, indicates a “solidarity among women” of different social ranks on the frontier, which would have been less common in civilian life, but perhaps reflects the matriarchal structure of the home. Greene suggests the Vindolanda tablets support the notion “there was distinct female milieu in this military community, which lay parallel to the otherwise dominant masculine structure inherent to the Roman army” by showing clear evidence of the lives and relationships of the women on the border of the empire.

But these divergent and classist roles are never as simple as they seem, as the tablets illustrate the connections and literacy and complex lives of the female life on the frontier. Tablet 292, from Severa to Lepidina, illustrates this complexity through showing the close relationship between these two women. Severa addresses her friend in a brief note at the end of the letter “farewell my sister, my dearest and most longed-for soul,” from which we can infer their close relationship, for they were not blood-related. This reflects the note on Tablet 291, in which scholars have drawn links to Virgil’s Aeneid. In the Aeneid, Virgil characterises Anna as Dido’s unanimam sororem, meaning ‘sister sharing a soul’ which could have been drawn on in the stylistic features of Severa’s use of language in “sister, dearest soul”. A direct quote from the Aeneid was found in another letter from the site, Tablet 118, suggesting a purposeful allusion, confirming the level of literacy and culture at Vindolanda, illustrating the roles of women on the frontier were not wholly different to those in Rome.

As previously established, many of the women at Vindolanda were wives of the soldiers stationed there. Prior to Septimius Severus lifting the ban in 197 AD, only centurions could ‘officially’ marry, this means the ‘family life’ and therefore the recorded lives of women at Vindolanda only showed the experience of the elite. However there is evidence that suggests it wasn’t just wives who accompanied soldiers stationed along Hadrian’s wall, such as 20-year-old Aurelia, a commander's daughter, whose tombstone is on display at Clayton Museum at Chester Roman Fort. At 20, this woman may have held a significant position in the social milieu of the castrum, rather than just being an ‘addition’ to the commander’s entourage. Reinterpretation of sources reveals that Vindolanda wasn’t a purely masculine dominated world, but rather a microcosm of Roman society where women could step outside of the dichotomous roles to forge new pathways in socio-religious milieus.

Similarly reinterpretation of the one surviving female voice from Roman literature reveals that women were able to step outside of the parameters of the dichotomies. One such, Sulpicia I, wrote love elegies, just six of which survived published in Corpus Tibullianum. These poems have been the focus of debate as to their origin for centuries. Sulpicia’s peers were men from the ‘Golden Age of Roman literature’, Virgil, Seneca, Ovid, Lucan and Pliny, and initially due to the erotic nature of her work, contrary to the ideal role of aristocratic domina, it was assumed that Sulpicia was a pseudonym for a male poet of the era. Even the contemporary historian, Hubbard supports this view suggesting the poems were too ‘risque’ for an aristocratic woman of this era. Academics throughout history have continually suppressed and silenced the only surviving female voice from Roman literature. When recognised as a female hand, the elegies have been described as “lacking any display of erudition”, which has been used as a shorthand to explain away any “stylistic oddities” in the poems, dismissing her work as “feminine fiddling”.

Aside from the historiography of Sulpicia’s idiosyncratic work, it also illustrates the concealed lives and psyche of the educated elite women, who broke the dichotomous roles built by the patriarchy. Born around 40 BC, the daughter of Roman orator Servius Sulpicius Rufus and Valeria, with links to the Emperor, her aristocratic background gives us insight into the roles that women of her status explored. Sulpicia’s skilled understanding of the Latin elegiac form, mastered by her contemporaries, taking subjective first-person voice to describe the pseudonymous lover in mostly erotic poetry, shows her elite level of education. Unlike her male counterparts, Sulpicia’s work does not contain any “mythological allusions”, nor uses military or legal terminology to describe her lover. Merriam suggests this shows the unique female perspective, being explained by the “exclusion of women from these fields”, giving us insight into the concealed roles of women in Roman society and how that impacted all aspects of their lives, including poetry. The intended audience of the masculine Latin love elegies, Pearcy argues, was the puella, before the wider audience “the community of lovers and readers”. Pearcy suggests Sulpicia “writes poetry for the Roman woman” instead of inverting the roles of masculine poetry. Yet, as Meriam argues, acknowledging only Sappho, who is indirectly alluded to in Sulpicia’s prayers to goddesses of love, as Sulpicia’s literary ancestor, only reinforces the patriarchal gender theories which kept Sulpicia’s work concealed. As this focus shifts to the female perspective in Sulpicia’s writing, the masculine narrative is rejected and the conventions which come with it, showing the female experience in a unique light.

The attempt to identify Sulpicia’s muse Cerinthus subscribes to the romantic attribution that her muse was a real historical figure, perpetuating the issue of concealing the lives of these women behind the dominant male narrative of Rome. Rather, an analysis of the portrayal of an erotic love-affair; illustrated by the line “cuius me fatear paenituisse magis/ hesterna quam te solum quod nocte reliqui ”, gives contemporary historians a much clearer insight into the hidden roles of aristocratic Roman women, and the paths they created for themselves. Others may have forged their own paths of creativity but been discarded, purposefully or not, through the interpretation of historians throughout time, yet Sulpicia’s voice comes down to us through the centuries to languish in her erudite understanding of elegies, not to be perpetually degraded and concealed by historians.

Thus the lives of women in the Roman Empire between 40 BC and 200 AD have been concealed; split into divergent and exaggerated ideals set out by patriarchal society. Interpreting written sources without the bias of past historiography can ensure a contemporary understanding of the significance of these sources, in order to reveal truths about the lives of women in the Roman empire. Unfortunately, due to the limited nature of the evidence, the surviving written sources mostly presenting an elite perspective, it can only confirm to an extent, the argument presented that historians have hereto concealed the lives of Roman women. The Vindolanda tablets studied illustrate there was a distinct female social structure within the military communities of the Roman empire, despite the Victorian analysis of the era which suggested otherwise, showing women forging their own path beyond the parameters set by the dominant patria potestas. However evidence also highlights the roles of the domestic wives on the frontier and of the chaste daughters, who were controlled by the men in their lives. The Sulpician Elegies suggests the possibility of there being many aristocratic educated women who forged idiosyncratic roles for themselves as she did, but have been concealed by historians of the past, their origin being the subject of debate since the 17th century. This investigation has explored how the women created roles for themselves, out of the dichotomous parameters defined by both ancient and contemporary historians, and yet this evidence has been systematically concealed throughout the past.

Bibliography and Endnotes

Figure A: The Rape of the Sabines, Pietro de Cortona, 1627/29

Figure B: A brothel room in Pompeii, photograph by Chris Williamson

Endnotes:
1. Early New Kingdom Queens fulfilled important administrative, military and religious roles. Tetisheri who played a vital role in the establishment of the dynasty was honoured by her grandson, King Ahmose with a pyramid at Abydos which records that “his majesty did this because he so greatly loved her beyond anything”. The Karnak stele of King Ahmose also records that Queen Ahhotep, wife of Seqenenre Tao II acted as a regent for him when " she assembled notables ... assured cohesion ... pacified Upper Egypt ...put down rebels " showing the important roles of authority Egyptian women held in comparison to Romans.
2. Messalina is the third wife of Claudius
3. Medea is a mythological sorceror appearing in Hesiod’s Theogony
4. Religious worship included domestic religion in the form of household shrines, the lares, state religion as illustrated by the Capitoline triad, and the freedmen who took the official role of monitoring deified emperor cults, the augustales.
5. The male head of the family, the dominant male in a household, patriarchal society is the patria potestas
6. Sara Bisel was a controversial American physical anthropologist and classical archaeologist, whose work at Herculaneum has been the topic of debate as it illustrates a degree of socio-political bias
7. Vindolanda predates the 120 AD construction of Hadrian’s Wall along the border
8. Pliny the Elder referred to such writing tablets as sectiles
9. The 11th of September is the “third day before the Ides of September”
10. All translations of the Vindolanda tablets sourced from the inventory ‘Vindolanda Tablets Online’ http://vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk/ developed by Oxford University
11. Boudicca was an infamous Celtic queen, who led the Iceni tribe in an uprising against the Roman invaders in 60 AD and is considered a British folklore hero.
12. Minerva, the Roman adoption of Athene, is considered the goddess of strategic wisdom among other things.
13. the pseudo-oriental mystery cult incarnation of the traditional Roman god Jupiter is Jupiter Dolichenus
14. The Clayton Collection at Chesters Roman Fort features archaeological finds from along the Hadrian’s Wall including this statuette
15. The Latin term praetorium originally signified a general's tent within a Roman castrum, castellum, or encampment. It is derived from the name of one of the chief Roman magistrates, the praetor
16. Paterna addresses Lepidina as domina, a term that roughly translates to the mistress of the house
17. puella - the female muse
18. translation Pearcy: “that I might admit to regretting more than leaving you alone last night” “cuius me fatear paenituisse magis/ hesterna quam te solum quod nocte reliqui ”

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