Two matrons of the late republic

In a Provocative Essay of some years ago, M.I. Finley spoke with conviction and disapproval of “the silence of the women of Rome.” ¹ In his view upper class Roman women, with a few scandalous exceptions, led passive, repressed lives in the shadow of their fathers, husbands, and sons to a degree unparalleled in subsequent periods of high culture in the West. This somber picture of the social reality of the life of women under the late Republic and early Empire has been questioned, more recently, by Sarah Pomeroy, who asserts rather: “The momentum of social change in the Hellenistic world combined with Roman elements to produce the emancipated, but respected, upper class woman.” ² She argues that Roman matrons had a range of choices in their roles and lifestyles as well as a demonstrable influence on the cultural and political life of their times. ³ While this view seems rather optimistic, a careful study of the lives of several aristocratic women, as revealed in Cicero’s correspondence, suggests that it may be closer to an objective picture.