ABSTRACT
The topic of this chapter is the women who appear in Pliny's letters in roles other than those of family members. Almost all of Pliny's references to women place them in the context of family matters. Rarely do we see women engaged in non-family activities. In Letter 7.11, there is a brief glimpse of Corellia's shrewdness in negotiating the purchase of real estate (although Pliny uses “family friendships” as a justification for agreeing to a deal favorable to Corellia; see Chapter 4). And, in Letter 7.24, there is a hint perhaps that Ummidia Quadratilla's interest in pantomime (of which Pliny disapproved) was not a decadent pastime, but rather a lucrative business venture. (See Chapter 5.) Nonetheless, Pliny's emphasis in these letters remains on family ties. In a few letters, however, we find women whose lives and experiences were quite different from those of the Roman matrons (and matrons-in-training) who were more often the subject of his attention.
