[Illustration: Decorative image]
· Wickedness of Imperial Days ·
· The Reverse of the Picture ·
· Parallel between the Romans and Ourselves ·
· Their “New Woman” ·
· Her Political Wisdom · Her Relative Independence ·
· Literature in the Golden Age ·
· Horace · Ovid ·
· Tributes to Cultivated Women in Letters of Cicero ·
· Literary Circles · Opinions of Satirists ·
· Reaction on Manners ·
· Tributes in Letters of Pliny and Seneca ·
· Glimpses of Family Life in Correspondence of Marcus Aurelius
and Fronto ·
· Public Honors to Women ·
[Illustration: Decorative image]
I
A great deal has been said of the Roman women of imperial days. Much
of it is not to their credit, but the bad are apt to be more striking
figures than the good, and to overshadow them in a long perspective.
The world likes to put its saints in a special category, and worship
them from afar. It seems fitting that they should sing hymns and pray
for suffering humanity in a cloistral seclusion, but they are rarely
quoted as representative of their age. On the other hand, it holds
up its brilliant or high-placed sinners as examples to be shunned;
but it talks about them and lifts them on a pedestal to show us how
wicked they are, until in the course of centuries they come to be
looked upon as representing the women of their time, when in fact they
represent only its worst type. Two thousand years hence, no doubt a
few conspicuous women noted to-day for brilliancy, beauty, or special
gifts, rather than for flawless character, will stand out in more
luminous colors than the great mass of refined and cultivated ones
who have dazzled their generation less and graced it more. Possibly
they may even furnish a text on which some strenuous moralist of
the fortieth century will expatiate, with illustrations from our
big-lettered journals, to show the corruption of our manners and the
dangers that lie in the cultivation of feminine intellect! And yet we
know that the moral standards of the world were never so high as in
these days when the influence of women in the mass is greater than ever
before.
Of the colossal wickedness of imperial Rome there is no question, and
sinners were not rare among women. But the Julias and Messalinas did
not represent the average tone of Roman society, any more than the too
numerous examples of vice in high places reflect the average morality
of the great cities of to-day. A careful study of those times reveals,
beneath the surface of the life most conspicuous for its brilliancy
and its vices, a type of womanhood as strong and heroic as we find in
primitive days, with the added wisdom, culture, and helpfulness which
had grown out of the freer development of the intellect.
The Romans of the last century of the Republic had, like ourselves,
their corrupt politicians, their struggles for office, their
demagogues, and their wars for liberty--meaning their own. They had
also their plutocrats, their parvenus, their love of glittering
splendor, their rage for culture, their patrons of art, who brought the
masterpieces over the seas, and, not least, their “new woman.” I use
the phrase in its best, not in its extreme, sense; the exaggeration
of a good type is always a bad one. This last product of a growing
civilization did not claim political rights or industrial privileges,
as we understand them; she did not write books of any note, or seek
university honors in cap and gown; nor did she combine in world-wide
organizations to better herself and other people: but she did a great
many things in similar directions, that were quite as new and vital
to the world in which she lived. If she did not say much about the
higher education, she was beginning to have a good deal of the best
that was known. The example of the learned as well as virtuous and
womanly Cornelia had not been lost. It was no longer sufficient to
say, in the language of an old epitaph, that a woman was “good and
beautiful, an indefatigable spinner, pious, reserved, chaste, and a
good housekeeper.” The conservative matron still prided herself on
these qualities which had so long constituted the glory of her sex, but
it was decreed that she must have something more. In the new order of
things, she shared in the cultivation of the intellect, and ignorance
had lost its place among the virtues. Girls were educated with boys,
read the same books, and studied the same subjects. To keep pace with
the age, a woman must be familiar with Greek as well as Roman letters.
She must also know how to sing and dance. “This helps them to find
husbands,” says Statius, who had little money to give his daughter, but
felt sure she could marry well because she was a “cultivated woman.”
The line of co-education, however, was drawn at singing and dancing,
where it began with us. In earlier times these accomplishments and
the knowledge of various languages were among the attractions of the
courtezan.
The new Roman woman did not live her life apart from men, any more
than did the women of the old régime. Probably it never occurred to
her that it would be either pleasant or desirable to do so. She simply
wished to be considered as a peer and companion. Nor does she seem to
have been aggressive in public affairs. If she busied herself with
them, it was in counsels with men, and her influence was mainly an
indirect one. She had freed herself from some of the worst features of
an irresponsible masculine rule, but she was still in leading-strings,
though the strings were longer and gave her a little more freedom of
movement. There were many women of the newer generation who added to
the simple virtues of the home the larger interests of the citizen,
and conspicuous political wisdom as well as great intelligence. We
first hear of them in councils of State through the letters of Cicero,
who gossiped so agreeably, and at times so critically, of passing
events. He speaks of the companions and advisers he found with Brutus
at Antium, among whom were the heroic Portia, wife of the misguided
leader, his sister Tertulla, and his mother Servilia, a woman of high
attainments and masterful character, who had been the lifelong friend
of Cæsar. The influence of this able and accomplished matron over the
great statesman did not wane with her beauty, as it lasted to the
end, though she could not save him from the fatal blow dealt by her
son. The tongue of scandal did not spare her, but at this time she
was old and past the suspicion of seeking to gain her purposes by the
arts of coquetry. Cicero feared her power, as her force of intellect
and masculine judgment had great weight in the discussions of these
self-styled patriots. She even went so far as to engage to have
certain important changes made in a decree of the Senate, which, for
a woman, was going very far indeed. One is often struck with the fact
that so many great Romans chose their women friends for qualities of
intellect and character rather than for youth or beauty. When ambition
is uppermost it has a keen eye for those who can minister to it, and a
woman’s talents, so lightly considered before, begin to have their due
appreciation. To a friend who said to Cæsar that certain things were
not very easy for a woman to do, he simply replied: “Semiramis ruled
Assyria, and the Amazons conquered Asia.” It is known that he paid
great deference to his mother, the wise and stately Aurelia, to whose
careful training he owed so much. Later, women publicly recommended
candidates for important offices. Seneca acknowledged that he owed the
questorship to his aunt, who was one of the most modest and reserved as
well as intelligent of matrons. “They govern our houses, the tribunals,
the armies,” said a censor to the Senate. If their counsels were not
always for the best,--and even men are not infallible,--they were
usually in the interest of good morals and good government.
Nor was it uncommon for the Roman woman to plead her own cause in the
forum. There was a senator’s wife who appeared often in the courts,
and her name, Afrania, was applied to those who followed her example.
The only speech that has come down to us was the celebrated plea of
Hortensia for her own sex. This was much praised, not only by great
men of that day but in after times. It showed breadth of intellect
and a firm grasp of affairs. The privilege of speaking in the forum
was withdrawn on account of the violence of a certain Calphurnia--an
incident that might suggest a little wholesome moderation to some
of our own councils and too zealous reformers. There were also
sacerdotal honors open to aspiring women. The Flaminica Augustalis
offered sacrifices for the people on city altars, and the services of
various divinities were always in the charge of women. There was no
systematized philanthropy such as we have to-day, but we hear of much
private beneficence. Women founded schools for girls and institutions
for orphans. They built porticos and temples, erected monuments and
established libraries; indeed, their gifts were often recognized by
statues in their honor. We hear of societies of women who discuss
city affairs and consider rewards to be conferred on magistrates of
conspicuous merit. The names of others appear in inscriptions on tombs;
but their mission is not clear. There were also women who practised
medicine; this, however, may not have implied great knowledge in an age
when science, as we understand it, was unknown.