ABSTRACT
The chapter focuses on the role played by the imperial women in the definition of Flavian vs. Neronian Rome by comparing and contrasting the literary depictions of the mothers, wives, daughters, and mistresses of the three Flavian emperors with their Neronian counterparts. However, as these are mostly retrospective constructions by post-Flavian writers (Pliny the Younger, Tacitus, Suetonius), the opposition between Flavian and Neronian tends to collapse. While Vespasian and Titus are characterized as positive figures through their dealings with women, Domitian is construed as a ‘bad’ emperor like Nero. In depicting the Flavian emperors’ relations with women, the sources thus rewrite Neronian transgressions in both senses, by overwriting them with appropriate behaviour as well as by repeating and perpetuating them.
