With the spread of her foreign conquests, Rome herself was subjugated
by a rapid revolution in thought and habit. From the middle of the
second century before Christ, we look in vain for the old Republic.
Religion, manners, morals, occupations, amusements--all have changed.
The old-time Roman character is passing away, like a tide, through the
narrowing channel of the ever-decreasing number of those who cling to
the ancient ideals. Morality has started upon that ebb of which the days
of Caligula and Nero saw the lowest mark to which a civilized people
ever fell. The Romans could not withstand the temptations incidental to
conquest. Physically invincible, they were not armed against the onset
of foreign vices. The State grew inordinately wealthy by pillage and
exaction; a single campaign yielded booty to the value of nine million
six hundred thousand dollars. Scipio wept when he took Carthage; for
well he knew that his people were in no way prepared to assume such
extensive dominion, except at the cost of national character. Polybius
says that after the conquest of Macedon men believed themselves able to
enjoy in all security the conquest of the world and the spoils thereof.
But wealth was not the sole constituent of the harvest gathered in by
Roman swords. After the transmarine wars, new ideas and Greek learning
became common among a people who were not adapted, as the Greeks, to
mere theorizing, but carried out their thoughts, whether for good or
ill, to the full extent of their powers. The consequence was that Rome
plunged with deadly earnestness into newly acquired vices; and the novel
teachings of Hellenism, instead of elevating the minds of the people,
served only to create indifference to the ancient divinities. "You ask,"
says Juvenal, "whence arise our disorders? A humble life in other days
preserved the innocence of the Latin women. Protracted vigils, hands
hardened by toil, Hannibal at the gates of Rome, and Roman citizens in
arms upon her walls, guarded from vice the modest dwellings of our
fathers. Now we endure the evils of a long peace; luxury has fallen upon
us, more formidable than the sword, and the conquered world has avenged
itself upon us by the gift of its vices. Since Rome has lost her noble
poverty, Sybaris and Rhodes, Miletus and Tarentum, crowned with roses
and scented with perfumes, have entered our walls." All the ancient
writers agree upon the same verdict. The old austerity of life was more
the result of poverty than of conscience; the simple habits of the first
centuries of the Republic were cherished only so long as there were no
means to render them more luxurious. Had wealth come to Rome through
industry, the slower process, which alone develops the power of
appreciation, would have fitted the people to make good use of their
better fortune.
But riches surprised them; and we see ostentatious depravity quickly
taking the place of a pure, though meagre, life. To quote again from
Polybius, who himself was carried from Macedon to Rome as a prisoner of
war: "Most of the Romans live in strange dissipation. The young allow
themselves to be carried away by the most shameful excesses. They are
given to shows, to feasts, to luxury and disorder of every kind, which
it is too evident they have learned from the Greeks during the war with
Perseus." Cato calls attention to the new manners with that bitter scorn
which was so strong in the old Roman. "See this Roman," he says; "he
descends from his chariot, he pirouettes, he recites buffooneries and
jokes and vile stories, then sings or declaims Greek verses, and then
resumes his pirouettes." Imitation of the Greeks was zealously adopted
in the education of the young. Scipio Æmilianus says: "When I entered
one of the schools to which the nobles send their sons, great gods! I
found there more than five hundred young girls and lads who were
receiving among actors and infamous persons lessons on the lyre, in
singing, in posturing; and I saw a child of twelve, the son of a
candidate for office, executing a dance worthy of the most licentious
slave." The school here referred to must not be understood as the
regular institution for the imparting of knowledge to Roman children;
the purpose of that described seems to have been the cultivation of what
the Romans had come to regard as genteel accomplishments. There were
other schools for instruction in reading, writing, and the usual
branches of knowledge. These schools also were as free of access to
girls as to boys, and were always conducted as private enterprises
rather than by the State.
The remarkable revolution in thought and manners which Hellenism
introduced into Rome could not fail profoundly to affect the existence
of woman. That she was not far behind man in "running to every excess of
riot" is abundantly shown by the historians and other writers of the
time. In that city which was once remarkable for the purity of its
morals, houses of ill repute became plentiful. These were occupied
principally by women who had been slaves, but had gained their liberty
by the sacrifice of their honor. Houses of this character are the scenes
of nearly all the comedies of Plautus and Terence, who found all their
material in Rome, though they located the brothels of which they write
at Athens and used Greek names for their characters. Prostitution,
however, was not confined to the freedwomen; women of all classes were
necessarily drawn into the vortex of degeneracy. Notwithstanding the
fact that in B.C. 141 the Senate made a serious effort to resist the
increasing looseness of morals, going so far as to build a temple to
Venus Verticordia, the Venus who was supposed to convert women's hearts
to virtue, the character of the times devoted the whole sex too
zealously to Aphrodite for anything noteworthy to result from the appeal
to her nobler namesake.
Yet it must not be imagined that all the new impulses which came from
victorious contact with foreign lands had no other than a detrimental
effect upon the life of the women of Rome. The changes which were taking
place provided a door to liberty, though to very many it meant nothing
else but an egress to unrestrained license. In any case, the horizon of
the Roman woman's outlook became greatly extended; her mind expanded as
it busied itself about an increasing number of subjects, and the range
of her activities was materially widened. As her husband now had other
interests besides those of the warrior, the citizen, and the
agriculturist, in the last of which she had alone been allowed a
recognized part, a larger field was now provided in which she might be
his companion; henceforward she became less an appendage and more an
equal. Not, however, because new laws were passed in her favor; indeed,
the laws were framed rather with the purpose of overcoming the results
of those circumstances which were effecting her emancipation. But it is
impossible to overcome a development which is the natural result of
conditions that are welcomed by the people; so, in the new society by
which the old order was superseded in Italy, women soon learned how, by
means of legal fictions, they might accomplish ends which were still
illegal. It is altogether a new woman that we find in the last century
of the Republic, taking the place of the old-time matron. She drives
about the city in an equipage befitting her wealth and position; she
entertains in her sumptuous home learned men, with whom she studies the
Greek authors; she brings such influence to bear on the Senate as to
cause laws to be passed in her favor; she frequently intrigues in
matters political; she is not unaccustomed to divorce and remarriage;
and, thus engaged, she leaves the spinning of wool, the occupation from
time immemorial esteemed honorable by matrons, entirely to her domestics
and her slaves.
These great changes in the status of woman did not take place without a
protest. They were the occasion of serious contentions in the Senate and
of bitter reproaches on the part of the lovers of the old-fashioned
ways, Hellenism being blamed for the mischief, on one occasion all Greek
philosophers were driven from the city; but that was like removing the
old seed after the well-matured plant had grown to depend upon its own
roots. The people of Rome were in reality divided into three classes in
respect to the new order of things. There were the younger men and women
of the nobility, who welcomed the change, but who were intoxicated with
the novel pleasures to which wealth gave them access, and into which
they rushed with an utter disregard of propriety. Among them, however,
were some thoughtful souls,--a class of a better character,--who, while
they most cordially entertained that which Hellenism had to teach them
in regard to a broader style of life, knew how to winnow the chaff from
the grain and to feed their minds with the latter. These found their
best representatives in the Scipio family, all of whom were zealous
patrons of Greek learning. As we have noticed in a previous chapter,
Cornelia, the daughter of Scipio Africanus, maintained her house at
Misenum in a most liberal manner, making it a centre of erudition and
gathering around her many of the learned men of her time. In opposition
to both these classes were men whose type may be found in all ages, who
were uncompromising in their conservatism and who could see nothing but
a presage of national disaster in every change from the old methods of
life. Their complete idea of what a woman should be and do was expressed
in the formula: "She is virtuous; she stays at home; she spins wool."
This party was ably headed by Cato the Censor, who was entirely
incapable of understanding why the women of his day should desire
anything other than that which satisfied their feminine antecedents in
the poverty-pinched times of the early Republic.
The ultra-conservative ideal was, of course, incapable of realization,
though there was still in the minds of the people a large residuum of
sentiment which could be employed in its favor; but when the times are
ready to change, the most powerful appeal is futile. The wiser course
was taken by the Scipios and the Gracchi, who endeavored to steer the
new movement in the way of betterment and reform. This, if successful,
would have conserved the ancient principles by adapting them to the new
conditions, and Rome would have maintained her moral greatness while
still enhancing her material prestige; but the momentum given by the
haste of the people to acquire what as yet they knew not how to enjoy
carried Roman society past every turn in the right direction.
Consequently, the mother of the Gracchi was honored as a prodigy of
female excellence rather than, as she might have been, an example of
what Roman matrons might become in the new liberty. Then began the
loosening of moral restraint, by which Rome fell to a condition of
savagery which was rendered all the more horrible by the presence of the
material concomitants of civilization.
It must be remembered, however, that the common people of any age or
country change their customs more slowly than do the more favored
classes. Unfortunately, the historians have never regarded the lives of
people of the ordinary populace as being worthy of record; hence, we
have the names and the doings of only the women of the Roman nobility.
Were it otherwise, it is probable that we should discover that among the
matrons of the middle class in Italy there were in each generation many
who maintained, in their quiet lives, the virtue of the ancient ideals,
until the time came when their life principle was reinforced by new
teaching, not from Greece, but from Galilee. Doubtless also, such as
these were more greatly encouraged to perseverance by the stern
conservatives who upheld the past--a model which they at least could
comprehend--than they were by the high-minded progressivists, who led in
paths which were as yet untried. For this reason, it may be well for us
to take a glance at the home of Cato, who sturdily antagonized the new
movement and was the uncompromising opposer of every effort to alter the
fashion of female life. He was the valedictorian of ancient Roman
simplicity. That the common people were in sympathy with him is shown by
the fact that they erected his statue in the Temple of Health, and,
instead of recounting his exploits in battle, simply placed upon the
pedestal an inscription saying that he was Cato the Censor, who
vigilantly watched over the moral health of the State.
If the house of Cato is to be regarded as an example of the ancient
manner of life, the suspicion is forced upon us that the young Roman
women of the time must have been thankful that in the great statesman's
home they saw the last of the old régime. It was a small house, situated
on the censor's lands in the Sabine country, where the luxuriousness of
the city was unknown. Here his wife dwelt, superintending the
agricultural and domestic activities, while her husband was absent at
Rome or in the wars. We may be sure that Cato's wife remained at home;
this her husband's antipathy to expense sufficiently guarantees. The man
who sold his horse, which had carried him through a severe campaign,
because he would not charge the State with the cost of conveying it from
Spain, would doubtless, by reason of the extra expense, refrain from
giving his wife an invitation to join him in his official residence at
the metropolis. Moreover, detesting the growing profligacy of the times,
he had no mind to bring her into contact with that luxury which, as
censor, he strove so mightily to eradicate. For amusement, she was
obliged to content herself with the rustic festivals, which were more
cheerful than exciting, and knew nothing of the terrible scenes of the
circus and the amphitheatre, which the fashionable ladies of the city
were accustoming themselves to witness with a calmness unbecoming to
their sex. Her religious devotions were performed before the household
gods and in the simple country shrines, if not with as great
satisfaction, certainly with as good effect as they might have been in
the splendid temples at Rome. In the conduct of her house were observed
the strictest rules of frugality. There was no waste; everything which
the family could not use was sold, if only for a farthing.
Rectitude, justice, and thrift were the only ideals followed in this
home. If Cato's wife possessed anything of the artistic in her
temperament, she enjoyed little opportunity for its indulgence. Her
husband was very far from the opinion that the gods and goddesses were
more easily propitiated by devotions paid before beautiful Grecian
statuary than when represented by the ill-shaped images of Roman
creation. In the otherwise undecorated atrium were the Penates and the
Lares--small and homely figures indeed, but endowed with all the
accumulated glory of the family; for to them was attributed all the
success of the past, and, if faithfully reverenced, as they were likely
to be in such a household, they were pledges for the prosperity of the
future. Religion must have been of especial value in Cato's family, for
its offices were the only form of sentiment that was given any freedom
of expression; all else was under the ban of the most arid practicality.
There were no old retainers who, by many years of devoted service, had
gained an established place in the affections of those upon whom they
waited; and if the mistress had been inclined to cherish such natural
regard, it was ruthlessly ignored, it being a rule with her husband to
sell his slaves for anything they would bring, as soon as they became
old and infirm. Even the bondwomen at whose breasts his children had
been nursed had for him, no other than a monetary value. The signs of
affection were, in his judgment, the marks of weakness. What a
barren-hearted puritan he must have been who could expel an honored
citizen from the Senate for no other reason than that he had kissed his
own wife in the presence of their daughter! And what a husband, who
could make his boast that he had never caressed his wife--presumably,
he meant under circumstances where others might witness such flagitious
conduct--except on the occasion of a severe thunderstorm, when he was
obliged to resort to that means of soothing her! This was evidently,
however, an affectation; for Cato admitted that it was a pleasure to him
when Jove thundered. It is apparent that his idea of the good old Roman
manner of treating a wife did not recognize the need of indulgence; and
it is not likely that one who himself took great pride in wearing the
most inexpensive quality of clothing, and was, as we shall see, the
inveterate enemy of costliness and changing fashion in woman's attire,
ever gratified his wife with a present of wearing apparel from the
city--unless she, like himself, could rate the worth of an article by
the cheapness of the bargain. Yet it is on record that he was an
excellent husband, and that he greatly appreciated his wife, whom he
married for her noble nature, despite the fact that she brought him but
a small dowry and was not of a family high in position. Doubtless his
good qualities were appreciated by his wife, especially if she was meek
enough in disposition to submit willingly to an unceasing surveillance
and interference in the minutest household matters, even, as Plutarch
informs us, to the bathing and dressing of the infants.
Such was the family of Cato. It was modelled after what he conceived to
be the best traditions of Roman society before it became corrupted by
the pernicious foreign influence. He governed his own household by those
same stern principles which he sought by precept, example, and authority
to enforce upon the Roman people of his time. But his home was the last
survival of the old simplicity. An age had dawned when Roman matrons
were to become more of a factor in public life and would no longer be
satisfied to abide in the shadow of domestic routine. In their newly
gained liberty they ran to the furthest extreme of unreasonableness; but
Cato's ideas were too illiberal for nature.
During the early part of the second century before Christ, there was
enacted around the Forum a scene such as never before had been witnessed
or dreamed of in Rome. Crowds of matrons were there assembled to
implore, and to gain by their importunity, the repeal of a law which
curtailed their expenditure on dress. This was the Oppian law, which had
been passed a few years previously, during the Second Punic War, when
money was needed for the public service, and the people, not excluding
the women, had responded with unbounded enthusiasm. The law in question
decreed that "No woman should possess more than half an ounce of gold,
or wear a garment of various colors, or ride in a carriage drawn by
horses, in a city or any town or any place nearer thereto than one mile,
except on occasion of some public religious solemnity." It is assumed by
all writers that the half-ounce of gold to which the women were
restricted put a restraint, beyond that limit, on the ornamentation of
their dress; this is based on the very natural supposition that whatever
of the precious metal they possessed would surely be displayed upon
their persons. It is a little doubtful whether the decree concerning
vehicles was inserted into the measure in order that the horses might be
placed at the disposal of the army, or whether this was a crafty
interpolation for the purpose of restricting the growing ostentation of
the ladies. However, the law had been passed without any objection, so
far as is known, from the women. But patient, uncomplaining submission
on the part of the Roman women to their male guardians, whether
collective or individual, was now becoming a thing of the past. They
could neither make nor repeal laws; but they were no longer afraid to
bring their influence to bear on those in whom lay that power. Champions
of their cause were found in the two plebeian tribunes, and these moved
in the Senate for the repeal of the Oppian law. Then ensued such a
turmoil as if Hannibal were again menacing the gates of Rome, except
that there was no unanimity of mind as to what should be done. This,
however, only describes the attitude of the men; the women were united
and, what is more, they were determined. They adopted what has become a
common method in modern times; not that of forwarding to the legislators
a numerously signed petition,--which is always a stronger protest than
an effective influence,--but the more powerful one of pertinacious
"lobbying." Crowds of women, reinforced by many who came in from the
country towns and villages, thronged the streets leading to the Forum
and importuned the men who were to decide the matter in which they were
concerned. But they found an inexorable opponent in the redoubtable
Cato. Livy gives us what he conceives the forceful orator to have said
on the occasion:
[Illustration 3:
_THE "NEW" WOMAN IN ROME
After the painting by G. R. C. Boulanger
In the new society by which the old order was superseded in Italy,
women soon learned how, by means of legal fictions, they might
accomplish ends which were still illegal. It is altogether a new woman
that we find in the last century of the Republic, taking the place of
the old-time matron. She drives on the Appian Way and about the
city in an equipage befitting her wealth and position; her naked
African slaves wear silver collars and beat off the beggar boys, if
she halts to purchase flowers; she entertains in her sumptuous home
learned men, with whom she studies the Greek authors; she brings
such influence to bear on the Senate as to cause laws to be passed in her
favor; she frequently intrigues in matters political; she is not
unaccustomed to divorce and remarriage; and, thus engaged, she leaves
the spinning of wool, the occupation from time immemorial esteemed
honorable by matrons, entirely to her domestics and her slaves._]
"If, Romans, every individual among us had made it a rule to maintain
the prerogative and authority of a husband with respect to his own wife,
we should have less trouble with the whole sex. But now, our privileges,
overpowered at home by female contumacy, are, even here in the Forum,
spurned and trodden under foot; and because we are not able to withstand
each separately, we now dread their collective body.... It was not
without painful emotions of shame that I, just now, made my way to the
Forum through the midst of a band of women. Had I not been restrained by
respect for the modesty and dignity of some individuals among them,
rather than of the whole number, and been unwilling that they should be
seen rebuked by a consul, I should have said to them: 'What sort of
practice is this, of running into public, besetting the streets, and
addressing other women's husbands? Could not each have made the same
request to her husband at home?. Are your blandishments more seducing in
public than in private, and with other women's husbands than your own?
Although, if the modesty of matrons confined them within the limits of
their own rights, it did not become you, even at home, to concern
yourselves about what laws might be passed or repealed here.' Our
ancestors thought it not proper that women should perform any, even
private, business, without a director; but that they should ever be
under the control of parents, brothers, or husbands. We, it seems,
suffer them now to interfere in the management of State affairs, and to
introduce themselves into the Forum, into general assemblies, and into
assemblies of election. For, what are they doing at this moment in your
streets and lanes? What but arguing, some in support of the motion of
the plebeian tribunes, others for the repeal of the law? Will you give
the reins to their intractable nature, and their uncontrolled passions,
and then expect that they themselves should set bounds to their
lawlessness, when you have failed to do so? This is the smallest of the
injunctions laid on them by usage or the laws, all of which women bear
with impatience. They long for liberty, or rather, to speak the truth,
for unbounded freedom in every particular. For what will they not
attempt, if they now come off victorious?
"Recollect all the institutions respecting the sex, by which our
forefathers restrained their undue freedom, and by which they subjected
them to their husbands; and yet, even with the help of all these
restrictions, you can hardly keep them within bounds. If, then, you
suffer them to throw these off one by one, to tear them all asunder,
and, at last, to set themselves on an equal footing with yourselves, can
you imagine that they will be any longer tolerable by you? The moment
that they have arrived at an equality with you, they will have become
your superiors. But, forsooth, they only object to any new law being
made against them; they mean not to deprecate justice, but severity.
Nay, their wish is that a law which you have admitted, established by
your suffrages, and confirmed by the practice and experience of so many
years to be beneficial, should now be repealed; that is, by abolishing
one law you should weaken all the rest. No law perfectly suits the
convenience of every member of the community; the only consideration is,
whether, upon the whole, it be profitable for the greater part.... I
should like, however, to know what this important affair is which has
induced the matrons thus to run out into public in this excited manner,
scarcely restraining from pushing into the Forum and the assembly of the
people.... What motive, that even common decency will allow to be
mentioned, is pretended for this female insurrection? Why, say they,
that we may shine in gold and purple; that, both on festal and common
days, we may ride through the city in our chariots, triumphing over
vanquished and abrogated law, after having captured and wrested from you
your suffrages; and that there may be no bounds to our expenses and our
luxury.
"Often have you heard me complain of the profuse expenses of the
women--often of those of the men; and that not only of men in private
stations, but of the magistrates; and that the State was endangered by
two opposite vices--luxury and avarice, those pests which have been the
ruin of all great empires. These I dread the more, as the circumstances
of the commonwealth grow daily more prosperous and happy. As the Empire
increases, as we have now passed over into Greece and Asia, places
abounding with every kind of temptation that can inflame the passions,
so much the more do I fear that these matters will bring us into
captivity, rather than we them. Believe me, those statues from Syracuse
were brought into this city with harmful effect. I already hear too many
commending and admiring the decorations of Athens and Corinth, and
ridiculing the earthen images of our Roman gods that stand on the fronts
of their temples. For my part, I prefer these gods--propitious as they
are, and I hope will continue to be, if we allow them to remain in their
own mansions.... When the dress of all is alike, why should any one of
you fear lest she should not be an object of observation? Of all kinds
of shame, the worst, surely, is the being ashamed of frugality or of
poverty; but this law relieves you with regard to both; since that which
you have not it is unlawful for you to possess. This equalization, says
the rich matron, is the very thing that I cannot endure. Why do I not
make a figure, distinguished with gold and purple? Why is the poverty of
others concealed under this cover of a law, so that it should be thought
that, if the law permitted, they would have such things as they are not
now able to procure? Romans, do you wish to excite among your wives an
emulation of this sort, that the rich should wish to have what none
other can have; and the poor, lest they be despised as such, should
extend their expenses beyond their means? Be assured that when a woman
once begins to be ashamed of what she ought not to be ashamed of, she
will not be ashamed of what she ought. She who can will purchase out of
her own purse; she who cannot will ask her husband. Unhappy is the
husband, both he who complies with the request, and he who does not;
for what he will not give himself he will see given by another.... So
soon as the law shall cease to limit the expenses of your wife, you
yourself will never be able to do so. Do not suppose that the matter
will hereafter be in the same state in which it was before the law was
made on the subject. It is safer that a wicked man should never be
accused than that he should be acquitted; and luxury, if it had never
been meddled with, would be more tolerable than it would be when, like a
wild beast, irritated by being chained, it is let loose. My opinion is
that the Oppian law ought, on no account, to be repealed."
The women, however, were not without their champion. In a debate on some
ordinary affair of State, Lucius Valerius the Tribune would have been an
inconsiderable antagonist for Cato; but, on this occasion, what he
lacked in oratorical prestige was atoned for in that he had by far the
more reasonable side of the argument. The fact that it was the custom of
the Roman historians to compose, rather than report, the addresses of
their orators renders any comparison of these two Senatorial speeches on
woman's rights entirely uninteresting. Valerius is made to say: "Shall
our wives alone reap none of the fruits of the public peace and
tranquillity? Shall we men have the use of the purple? Shall our
children wear gowns bordered with the same color, and shall we interdict
the use of it to women alone? Shall your horse, even, be more splendidly
caparisoned than your wife is clothed?" An appeal to the sympathy of the
voters is made, as the matrons of Rome are represented as "seeing those
ornaments allowed to the wives of the Latin confederates, of which they
themselves have been deprived. They will behold those riding through the
city in their carriages, and decorated with gold and purple, while they
are obliged to follow on foot.... This would hurt the feelings even of
men, and what do you think must be its effect on weak women, whom even
trifles can disturb? Neither offices of State nor of the priesthood, nor
triumphs, nor badges of distinction, nor military presents, nor spoils,
may fall to their share. Elegance of appearance, and ornaments, and
dress--these are the women's badges of distinction; in these they
delight and glory; these our ancestors called the women's world."
The Oppian law was repealed, and Cato, as if he wished to escape the
sight of the resulting disasters which he anticipated, took the command
of a fleet of war vessels and sailed away to Spain. How the new liberty
affected his own wife we are left to surmise; which is not difficult, in
view of the opening sentences of his address.
While we are on the subject of the extraordinary fight of the women for
the repeal of this sumptuary law, it will not be inappropriate to take a
glance at the female dress of the time. There is ample evidence to show
that the women of ancient Rome were as prone to changing fashions as are
the ladies of our own day; but for several centuries the various parts
of their attire remained very much the same, the varying style affecting
chiefly the material and the quality. The costume of a Roman lady
consisted of three principal garment?,--the under tunic, the stola, and
the _palla_.
The under tunic was simply a sleeveless chemise, which was worn next to
the body. Stays, of course, were utterly unknown to the ancients, as is
shown by their statuary, which in these times affords us our only
opportunity of knowing what a naturally developed female figure is like.
A bosom band, or, as it was called, a strophium, made of leather, was
frequently worn above the tunic.
The stola was a white garment with sleeves, which covered only the upper
part of the arm; it was fastened above the shoulder with a clasp. The
_stola_ hung in large folds reaching to and covering the feet; around
the bottom was sewn a broad flounce, called the _instita_. Above this
_instita_ was a purple band, which was the only color, other than white,
ever used for the _stola_, except a colored stripe or sometimes gold
around the neck. Among the Romans, the _stola_ had a serious
significance, beyond its use as an article of attire. Only matrons of
unsullied reputation were permitted to wear it. Women of tarnished
character were obliged to wear a dark-colored _toga_, somewhat similar
to that of the men; we find Horace speaking of the _togata_,--in
contradistinction to the matrons, and Tibullus writes of the prostitute
with her _toga_.
The _palla_, the out-of-doors garment, was to the women what the _toga_
was to the men. This was a large, white, and probably square, robe, or
mantle,--later on, colors became fashionable,--and the complex manner of
wearing it may best be understood by an examination of Roman statuary.
The feet were protected by sandals in the house, and shoes for street or
public wear; these were greatly ornamented. The shoes were of various
colors, generally white, but frequently green or yellow, and fastened
with red strings.
The Roman ladies, like those of modern times, exercised great care in
the dressing and arranging of their hair; and it is not to be denied
that they frequently sought, by artificial means, to rectify mistakes
which they deemed nature had made in the selection of color. In the time
of Juvenal, blonde seems to have had the preference. The ordinary style
was to carry the hair in smooth braids to the back of the head and there
fasten it in a knot, as usually seen in the statues. In ancient Rome the
curling iron was no less an intimate and indispensable friend of the
lady of fashion than it is at present; by this and other means, too
intricate for explanation by the uninitiated, marvellous creations were
produced. The satirist says: "Into so many tiers she forms her curls, so
many stories high she builds her head; in front you will look upon an
Andromache, behind she is a dwarf,--you would imagine her another
person." History reveals no age in which attention to personal adornment
was not such an intimate characteristic of female nature that women,
when unendowed with remarkable beauty, have been able to refrain from
unwisely seeking to attract notice by disfiguring themselves.
The Roman women wore ornaments in considerable profusion. These
consisted principally of necklaces, arm bands, finger rings, and ear
rings. Generally they were of gold, set with precious stones, and the
workmanship was often of a most exquisite character. A necklace was
found at Pompeii which was made of a band of plaited gold; on each half
of the clasp there is a well-executed frog, and on the edges where the
clasp joined were rubies, one of which still remains in its setting;
suspended to the necklace are seventy-one small, artistically shaped
pendants. Very many specimens of the jewelry worn by the women of
ancient Rome are still in existence, and they indicate fine artistic
taste on the part of the wearers, as well as great ability in design and
execution on that of the makers.
On the dressing table of the fashionable Roman lady there appeared a
wealth and a variety of cosmetics and costly essences in boxes and
receptacles delicately formed of ivory and precious metals, as well as
many other appliances for the toilet; so that her advantages in these
respects were probably in no way inferior to those of her fair
successors in modern times. An age was drawing near which, among many
other examples of its monstrous luxuriousness, gave birth to efforts to
enhance feminine attractiveness--efforts which doubtless were as futile
as they were foolish.
The time, however, had already come when, notwithstanding that their
manners were under the eye of such a censor as Cato, the women of Rome
had entirely and forever abandoned their old simplicity of life. In the
_Epidicus_ of Plautus, written at about the time of the disturbance over
the Oppian law, the matrons were represented on the stage as though
decked out with valuable estates; the cost of a cloak was the price of a
farm.
The new woman had begun to make her appearance in Rome. This proverbial
phenomenon, so greatly talked of in our own time, is by no means a
modern discovery. She is a principal and an inevitable accompaniment of
progress in every age and race. She is either a natural evolution or a
monstrosity, according to the social conditions of her time. When
progress is normal and national development healthy, a more enlightened
and more sanely independent type of woman is continually appearing; but
so naturally and so quietly does she step into the higher position for
which she has been enabled to prepare herself that her coming is without
observation. On the other hand, where society is decadent, where
abnormal growths are favored by the heat of unrestrained passions, and
where volcanic revolutions in a nation may exalt characters which belong
to the shades of inferiority to positions of high conspicuity, there
appear feminine wonders upon earth; and men's hearts fail them for fear,
as they await with consternation the things which are shortly to come to
pass. Rome, during the latter years of the republican period, was in a
condition favorable to the production of anything bizarre and
phenomenal. The new wealth, the new learning, the new idleness, and the
new vices were fit soil for the production of a new woman who would
astonish the world for all time with her capacity for every excess of
moral insanity.
We do not, however, mean to allege that with the greater privileges and
increased freedom which entered into woman's life the old virtues and
time-honored excellences entirely disappeared. As Cornelia graced with
her learning and dignity the Rome of Cato's day, so did Cæcilia with her
charity and her goodness the Rome of Cicero. That orator was undoubtedly
prejudiced in her favor on account of the great kindness she showed to
Roscius, his client; but he could not have eulogized this matron as he
did, had not public opinion concurred with him in setting her up as a
model for all other women. "An incomparable woman," her accomplished
relations had no less honor conferred on them by her character than she
received by their dignity. Thus an unbroken chain of noble-minded
matrons may be traced through the darkest days of Rome's decadent
morality. Nevertheless, though virtue did not cease to be exemplified by
the few, or to be extolled by the writers, the growing depravity of the
times made it constantly easier for unprincipled and impudent women to
find their conduct accepted as the ordinary rule of life.
One chief cause--perhaps it is more correct to call it an
accompaniment--of the breaking-down of the ancient ideals is found in
the increasing tendency to deprecate the indissolubleness of marital
bonds. Divorce became common and easy, so that the student of Roman
biography finds it increasingly difficult to trace his characters
through the many involutions of their various matrimonial alliances.
Pompey married five times. Concerning his first two wives, Plutarch
makes the following comment: "Sylla, admiring the valor and conduct of
Pompey, ... sought means to attach him to himself by some personal
alliance, and his wife Metella joining in his wishes, they persuaded
Pompey to put away Antistia, and marry Æmilia, the stepdaughter of
Sylla, she being at that very time the wife of another man, living with
him, and with child by him. These were the very tyrannies of marriage,
and much more agreeable to the times under Sylla than to the nature and
habits of Pompey, that Æmilia, great with child, should be, as it were,
ravished from the embraces of another for him, and that Antistia should
be divorced with dishonor and misery by him for whose sake she had just
before been bereft of her father--for Antistius was murdered in the
Senate because he was suspected to be a favorer of Sylla for Pompey's
sake. Antistia's mother, likewise, after she had seen all these
indignities, made away with herself, a new calamity to be added to the
tragic accompaniments of this marriage; and that there might be nothing
wanting to complete them, Æmilia herself died, almost immediately after
entering Pompey's house, in childbed."
Down to a very late date, a divorce is not met with in the annals of
Rome; but with what unconcern the undoing of the marriage knot came to
be regarded is well illustrated in the life of Cato the Younger.
Attilia, his first wife, was put away for misconduct. Then he married
Marcia, against whose reputation no blighting wind of scandal ever
raged. Among the dearest friends of her husband was Hortensius, known as
a man of good position and excellent character. Evidently, as the sequel
shows, in all seriousness he sought to persuade Cato that the latter's
daughter Portia, who was married to a man to whom she had borne two
children, might be given to him. His argument was that she, as a fair
plot of land, ought to bear fruit; but that it was not right that one
man should be provided with a larger family than he could support,
while another had none. Cato answered that he loved Hortensius very
well, and much approved of uniting their houses; but he could not
approve of forcibly taking away his daughter from her husband. Then
Hortensius was bold enough to request that Cato, who, he thought, had
enough children, should relinquish to him his own wife. Cato, seeing
that he was in earnest, consented to do this, stipulating first that his
wife's father should be consulted. No objection being raised in that
quarter, a marriage was performed between Marcia and Hortensius, Cato
assisting at the ceremony. In all this there is no mention made of
Marcia's consent being given or even asked. Some years afterward, Cato,
wanting someone to keep his house and take care of his daughters, took
Marcia again, Hortensius being now dead and having left her all his
estate. Cæsar, upon this, reproached Cato with covetousness; "for," he
said, "if he had need of a wife, why did he part with her? And if he had
not, why did he take her again? unless he gave her only as a bait to
Hortensius, and lent her when she was young, to have her again when she
was rich." The historian answers this by quoting the verse of Euripides:
"'To speak of mysteries-the chief of these
Surely were cowardice in Hercules.'
"For," he says, "it were much the same thing to reproach Hercules for
cowardice and to accuse Cato of covetousness." The explanation of this
singular action, the cold nature which Cato inherited from his
grandfather the Censor being taken into consideration, seems to lie in
the fact that the Roman idea of the necessary guardianship over women
precluded any just conception of their rights in the disposal of their
own persons. The giving and the taking of a woman in marriage was
wholly the business of her father and her suitor; nothing was required
of her in the transaction save thankful obedience. Cato was perfectly at
liberty to give away his wife, if he so desired; this right was
guaranteed to him by the simple fact that she was his property.
For the same reason, while chastity on the part of the wife was regarded
as an absolute essential, the same virtue was by no means considered as
necessary to the good character of the man. The demand for purity in the
wife was largely based on the idea of proprietary rights which the
husband had in her person; hence the man could divorce the woman for
infidelity, but the reverse was not conceded. Plautus introduces upon
the stage two matrons, one of whom complains of her husband, and the
other consoles and exhorts her thus: "Listen to me. Do not quarrel with
your husband; let him love whom, and let him do what, he pleases, since
you have everything you want at home; keep in mind the fearful sentence:
'Begone, woman!'"
The new era which had dawned in Rome brought a certain freedom of
circumstances and activity within the reach of women; but it did not
give them in the marriage contract any more liberty than they had of
old. The only women who were allowed the disposal of their own persons
were the courtesans. There are many evidences that these were not
regarded with the disrespect in which their class is held in modern
times. For an example, Flora, who was famous in the last days of the
Republic, received on account of her exquisite beauty the high honor of
having her statue dedicated to the temple of Castor and Pollux; which
may be regarded as a kind of precedent for artists who in an Italy of a
much later date employed their mistresses as models for their Madonnas.
That this class of women did not hesitate to place a high value upon
themselves is proved by the instance of Tertia, to whom Verres presented
a Sicilian city. Lucretius speaks of the cost of their favors, giving us
also an interesting picture of the gayly dressed wanton:
"Amply though endowed.
His wealth decays, his debts with speed augment,
The post of duty never fills he more,
And all his sick'ning reputation dies.
Meanwhile rich unguents from his mistress laugh,
Laugh from her feet sott Sicyon's shoes superb;
The green-rayed emerald o'er her, dropt in gold,
Gleams large and numerous; and the sea-blue silk;
Deep-worn, enclasps her.
What his sires amassed
Now flaunts in ribbands, in tiaras flames
Full o'er her front, and now to robes converts
Of Chian loose, or Alidonian mould;
While feasts and festivals of boundless pomp,
And costliest viands, garlands, odors, wines,
And scattered roses ceaseless are renewed."
The Voconian law, which had been enacted in the days of the elder Cato,
the purpose of which was the prevention of large accumulations of
property in female hands, did not prevent women from becoming rich in
the manner suggested above. A man might give away all his property while
alive; the law only vetoed excessive legacies. By its provisions, no
woman was allowed to receive by inheritance property exceeding the value
of one hundred thousand sesterces. "Since with the growing power of the
Empire the riches of private persons were increasing, fear was felt lest
the minds of women, being rather inclined by nature to luxury and the
pursuit of a more elegant routine of life, and deriving from unbounded
wealth incentives to desire, should fall into immoderate expenses and
luxury, and should subsequently chance to depart from the ancient
sanctity of manners, so that there would be a change of morals no less
than of the manner of living." These were the reasons for the enactment
of this measure. It was the kind of law which was dear to the heart of
the Censor, and it was with great delight that he lent his aid to its
passage. The people were a little doubtful as to its justice; but Cato
put an end to all hesitation by inveighing, with his usual asperity,
against the tyranny of women and their insufferable insolence when
opulent. He complained that oftentimes, when they brought a rich dowry
to their husbands, they kept back a large part of the money, and then
made loans to their husbands as though these were mere debtors. The
historian says that this assertion, enforced with a loud voice and good
lungs, moved the people to indignation, and they voted to pass the law.
It was exceedingly characteristic of the sentiments of the ancient
Romans to be convinced by Cato as he strenuously objected to that in
women which he strongly advocated as a rule for men.
There are two feminine names which, though belonging to women who were
contemporaries, well represent different aspects of the transition from
the old Rome of uncultured simplicity to the new Rome of immoral
refinement. One is Cornelia, who was the fifth wife of Pompey the Great;
the other is Clodia, the sister of Clodius the Turbulent. One conjoined
the new learning with the ancient purity of life, the other united
luxurious living with an abandoned career; one was a worthy successor of
her worthy namesake of a former generation, the other was a forerunner
of the amazing female characters of the most depraved days of the
Empire.
Cornelia, like the mother of the Gracchi, belonged to the renowned
family of the Scipios. Though but a very young woman when she was
married to Pompey, she had already been the wife of that son of Crassus
who was slain in Parthia. That her first marriage was a happy one may be
argued from the fact that when Pompey fell into misfortune, and she, for
some sentimental reason, imagined herself as uniting him to woes which
rightly belonged to her own fate, she reproached herself for not having
followed the husband of her youth in his death, as she had designed.
Plutarch informs us that the young lady possessed other attractions
besides those of youth and beauty. She was highly educated, as might be
expected in a daughter of Metellus Scipio; she was an accomplished
performer upon the lute; she understood geometry, and was accustomed to
listen with profit and appreciation to lectures on philosophy. The
historian takes great satisfaction in informing us also that, with all
this, she had escaped that pretentiousness and unamiability which too
frequently spoiled the effect of learning in women of unusual
acquirements.
Owing to the terrible civil strife which afflicted Rome in the last days
of the Republic, and to Pompey's leading share in it, Cornelia's home
was frequently the martial camp of her husband. The Empire of Rome had
grown to be the whole extent of civilization, and Cornelia's learning
found ample opportunity, through her travels, to become reinforced by
that liberality of mind which is the result of wide observation. She
appears to have gained the high regard of her husband's army; for once,
after a struggle with Cæsar, in which Pompey was for the moment
victorious, some of the soldiers, of their own accord, sailed to Lesbos
to carry to her the joyful tidings that the war was ended. Her pleasure
in this news was of short duration; for it was soon to be her unhappy
lot to accompany her husband to Egypt, in his flight from the
all-subduing Cæsar. There she witnessed his assassination by the
perfidious hands from which he sought protection.
It is unfortunate that the after career of Cornelia is lost sight of by
history; but even this silence in a manner speaks in her favor; for,
while the natural nobility of her character could not suffer by the
quenching of the strong light which shone around Pompey, there is some
warrant for assurance, in the very fact that her doings were not the
subject of comment, that her life continued honorable.
Clodia was a woman of altogether different character. She was of the
great Claudian _gens_; and no member of that powerful family ever lived
so quietly as not to be the subject of discourse in Rome. To be one of
the Claudii meant to be impetuous and dominant, either in good or in
evil. It was a Vestal of this family who, when her father was refused a
triumph by the Roman people, placed herself in his chariot so as to
prevent his being interrupted in his progress through the city. Clodia,
studied from the point of heredity, might have been either good or bad;
but she would have contravened all precedents in her family had she not
been extreme in one or the other. As it was, she made a fitting sister
for that Clodius who stormed in Rome during the days of Cicero and kept
the city by the ears, both on account of his ambitions and his
ill-considered exploits.
Clodia was married to Quintus Metellus, to whom Cicero affords a most
honorable tribute; but she did not allow the fact of her marriage to
place any restraint upon the licentiousness of her conduct. Her
luxurious house by the Tiber was a meeting place, not for men of
learning, but for all the idle, fashionable, and dissolute young men of
the city. Her reputation has been pilloried forever by the eloquent
advocate in his defence of Marcus Coelius. This young man was accused of
having attempted to poison Clodia, in order to rid himself of the
necessity of paying back some gold he was said to have borrowed from
her. The real truth appears to be that this prosecution was mainly
instituted by Clodia, who considered herself slighted by Coelius, who
had been her lover, but whose ardor was waning. The character and manner
of life of this irrepressible young Roman matron may be gathered from
the following arraignment of her in Cicero's oration. "If I am to
proceed in the old-fashioned way and manner of pleading, then I must
summon up from the Shades below one of those bearded old men,--not men
with those little bits of imperials which she takes such a fancy to, but
a man with that long, shaggy beard which we see on the ancient statues
and images,--to reproach the woman, and to speak in my stead, lest she
by any chance get angry with me. Let, then, some one of her own family
rise up, and above all others that great blind Claudius of old time. For
he will feel the least grief, inasmuch as he will not see her. And, in
truth, if he can come forth from the dead, he will deal with her thus;
he will say: 'Woman, what have you to do with Coelius? Why have you been
so intimate with him as to lend him gold, or so much an enemy as to fear
his poison? Was he a relation? A connection? Was he a friend of your
husband? Nothing of the sort. What was the reason, then, except some
folly? Even if the images of us, the men of your family, had no
influence over you, did not even my own daughter, that celebrated
Claudia Quinta, admonish you to emulate the praise belonging to our
house from the glory of its women? Did not that Vestal Claudia recur to
your mind, who embraced her father while celebrating his triumph, and
prevented his being dragged from his chariot by a hostile tribune of the
people? Why had the vices of your brother more weight with you than the
virtues of your father, of your grandfather, and others In regular
descent ever since my own time--virtues exemplified not only in the men,
but also in the women? Was it for this that I broke the treaty which was
concluded with Pyrrhus, that you should every day make new treaties of
most disgraceful love? Was it for this I made the Appian Way, that you
should travel along it escorted by other men besides your husband?'"
This reincarnation of the severe old ancestor ought to have been
sufficient to strike terror and repentance into any woman's heart. But
Cicero was more concerned with exonerating Coelius than he was about
reforming Clodia, and doubtless he had more hope of convicting her of
being a follower of undue courses than he had of converting her from her
ways. So he goes on: "But if you wish me to deal more courteously with
you, I will put away that harsh and almost boorish old man; and out of
these kinsmen of yours here present I will take some one, and, before
all, I will select your youngest brother, who is one of the best-bred
men of his class, who is exceedingly fond of you, and who, on account of
some childish timidity, I suppose, and some groundless fears of what may
happen by night, always, when he was but a little boy, slept with you,
his eldest sister. Suppose, then, that he speaks to you in this way:
'What are you making this disturbance about, my sister? Why are you so
mad? You saw a young man become your neighbor; his fair complexion, his
height, his countenance, and his eyes made an impression on you; you
wished to see him oftener; you were sometimes seen in the same gardens
with him, being a woman of high rank; you are unable with all your
riches to detain him, the son of a thrifty and parsimonious father. He
rejects you, he does not think your presents worth so much as you
require of him. Try someone else. You have gardens on the Tiber, and you
carefully made them in that particular spot to which all the youths of
the city come to bathe. From that spot you may every day pick out people
to suit you. Why do you annoy this one man who scorns you?'"
If the orator was just in all that he insinuates against her, Clodia,
the wealthy, fashionable, and doubtless beautiful daughter of the great
patrician family, was well qualified to be the high priestess of
Aphrodite for the city of Rome.
V