After the painting by H. le Roux.
]
Like the Greeks the Romans venerated a divine guardian of family life.
Her name was Vesta, “the domestic hearth-fire.” The hearth, around which
the members of the family assembled in the evening, was the place
consecrated to her. Numa Pompilius is said to be the one who erected the
first temple to this goddess in Rome. Round in shape, its center
contained an altar with a fire that was never allowed to be
extinguished. To keep this sacred flame always burning and to offer
daily sacrifices and prayers for the welfare of the state, two virgins
of the noblest families were chosen by the Pontifex maximus or
High-Priest. Afterwards the number of these “Vestal Virgins” was
increased to four, and later to six. Their garments were of spotless
white, with a veil and a fillet round the hair. Strict observance of the
vow of chastity during the thirty years of their term of service was one
of their chief obligations.
The privileges extended to these virgins were very remarkable. Free from
any paternal control, except that of the Pontifex maximus, they could
dispose by will of their own property. When appearing in a public
procession they were preceded by a number of lictors, who carried with
them the symbols of their judicial office, the fasces, a bundle of
sticks, out of which an axe projected as a sign of sovereign power.
Should it happen that in the street they met a criminal on his way to
execution, they had the prerogative of pardoning him. In theatres, in
the arena, and at other places of amusement the best seats were reserved
for them. They also lived in great splendor; their home, the Atrium
Vestæ, was not only very large, but of the best material and
magnificently decorated. Like the emperors they shared the privilege of
intramural burial.
With all this esteem, the Vestal Virgin was severely punished if found
guilty of neglecting her duty or violating her vow of chastity. The
latter crime caused the whole city to mourn. While innumerable
sacrifices and prayers were offered up to appease the offended goddess,
preparations were made to punish the priestess as well as her seducer
horribly. The man was scourged to death on the public market; the
unfortunate priestess was placed in a subterranean chamber on the
criminals’ field. After she had been provided with a bed, a lighted
lamp, and some bread and water, the vault was closed, the earth thrown
over it, and the priestess left to die.
While the “Vestal Virgins” enjoyed many privileges, the Roman women
during the first time of the republic were completely dependent. A
daughter, if unmarried, remained under the guardianship of her father
during his life, and after his death, she came into the control of her
agnates, that is, those of her kinsmen by blood or adoption who would
have been under the power of the common ancestor had he lived. If
married she and her property passed into the power of her husband.
Whatever she acquired by her industry or otherwise while the marriage
lasted fell to her husband as a matter of course. Marriage was a
religious ceremony, conducted by the high priests in the presence of ten
witnesses. Its effect was to dissociate the wife entirely from her
father’s house and to make her a member of her husband’s, provided he
himself had grown to manhood and started a household of his own. If this
was not the case, his wife and their children, as they were born, fell
likewise into the power of the “pater familias,” the father-in-law of
the wife, and the latter was entitled to exercise over his
daughter-in-law and grandchildren the same rights as he had over his
sons and unmarried daughters.
Of the wife of the “pater-familias” the Romans spoke as the
“mater-familias,” the “housemother,” or as the Domina, “the mistress of
the house,” and she was treated as her husband’s equal. But in spite of
the fact that her position in the family was one of dignity, she could
not make a will or contract, nor could she be a witness or fill any
civil or public office.
So the life of a Roman woman was one of perpetual servitude. For
centuries she had no control over her own person, no choice in marriage,
no right to her own property, and no recourse against cruelty. Any man
could beat his wife, sell her, or give her to some one else, when he was
tired of her. He could even put her to death, acting as accuser, judge,
jury, and executioner.
The dependent position of the women changed considerably, when the
Romans came in touch with the Greeks and other nations. Marriage was
made easier. It became even possible, without the sanction of priests or
civil authorities, to conclude an agreement to which men and women might
live together on probation. If such union was kept up without
interruption for one year, then it was considered a regular marriage
with all its consequences. If, however, the two persons concerned wished
to reserve for themselves the right of separation later on, it was only
necessary that the wife should stay in the house of her parents for
three nights before the end of the year.
There was also perfect freedom in divorce, as it was regarded improper
to force persons to continue in the bonds of matrimony when conjugal
affection no longer existed.
In later times women secured full right to dispose over their own
property. Either they might manage it personally or have it administered
by a “Procurator.”
The Greek conception that the presence of women lends charm and luster
to festivals, was adopted by the Romans. As they were convinced that no
entertainment was worth while without the presence of the ladies,
festivals were developed to even a far greater extent than was the case
in Greece.
This step for the better was due to the greater intelligence of the
Roman women. Recognizing that the vast influence exerted by many
courtesans over the prominent men of Hellas was not due solely to the
beauty and grace of these women, but also to their refinement and
knowledge of literature, music and art, the Roman ladies, to attach
their husbands to their homes, eagerly endeavored to acquire similar
merits. And so they devoted themselves to the culture of everything that
makes life interesting and beautiful. We know the names of many Roman
women, who in this way became real companions of their husbands. Hear,
for instance, what Pliny, the famous naturalist, wrote about Kalpurnia,
his wife, in one of his letters. Having praised her keen intellect,
moderation and affection, he continues: “In addition to these virtues
comes her deep interest in literature. My own books she not only
possesses them, but reads them over and over again, until she knows them
by heart. If I have to give a lecture, she sits close by behind a
curtain, listening eagerly to the appreciation shown to me.” In similar
terms Plutarch speaks of the wives of Pompejus and Kato; Tacitus of the
wife of Agricola, of Cornelia, the mother of the Graches, of Aurelia and
Atia, the mothers of Cæsar and Augustus.
While such cultured women retained a strong sense of duty towards their
home and family, the influence of Hellas, however, made itself felt also
in other ways. Its universal corruption and immorality had made it easy
for Rome to subjugate the whole country. But during the occupation of
the country the Romans became acquainted with the luxurious life and
lascivious debaucheries in which the rich Greeks indulged in full
disregard of the dreadful distress of the lower classes. Many Roman
officers, consuls and prefects, morally unfit to resist the allurements
of such loose life, fell victims to all sorts of vices and crimes. And
when, after several years, they returned to Italy, they generally took
with them, besides enormous quantities of stolen valuables, numbers of
courtesans and slaves.
With the expansion of the empire these evils increased accordingly. And
so Rome became finally permeated with foreign elements, manners and
vices.
Even religious life became demoralized. Not only the voluptuous worship
of Aphrodite or Venus was transplanted to Roman cities, but also the
obscene service of Astarte, the Phœnician goddess of the begetting
agencies. The orgies, committed in the ostentatious temples of these
deities, formed indeed a striking contrast against the chaste worship of
Vesta.
By all these conditions the life of the Roman women became deeply
affected. The works of contemporary writers abound with complaints about
the growing emancipation of the female sex, the neglect of their duties,
and the ever increasing love of amusement. Comparing the women of his
time with those of former days, Kolumella remarks: “Now, our women are
sunk so deeply in luxury and laziness, that they are not even pleased to
superintend the spinning and weaving. Disdaining home-made goods, they
always seek in their perverted mania to extort from their husbands more
elaborate ones, for which often great sums and even fortunes must be
paid. No wonder that they regard housekeeping as a burden and that they
do not care to stay at their country seats even for a few days. Because
the ways of the former Roman and Sabine housewives are considered
old-fashioned, it is necessary to engage a housekeeper, who takes charge
of the duties of the mistress.”
Young girls liked to stroll through the shady colonnades of the temples
and through the groves, that surrounded them. Here they met their beaus,
who in the art of flirt were just as cunning as are the Lotharios of
to-day. The ladies of the aristocrats or patricians enjoyed to be
carried about in sedan-chairs, as in these comfortable means of
transportation they had full chance to show themselves to the public
richly dressed and in graceful positions. As these sedan-chairs were
always provided with costly canopies and curtains, and shouldered by
fine-looking Syrian slaves, clad in red and gold, such a sight could not
fail to attract general attention and to become the talk of the town.
That this mode of shopping and paying calls became a real fashion may be
concluded from a remark of Seneca, who grumbles that those husbands, who
forbid their wives to be carried about and exhibit themselves in such
manner are considered as unpolished and contemptible boors.
As appears from the works of Juvenal, Sueton, Plutarch, Martial and
others the growing passion for emancipation, notoriety and excitement,
combined with the rage for gossip was responsible for the production of
many unwomanly characters. We hear the complaint that scores of women
boldly intrude into the meetings of men and often compete with them, in
their drinking bouts. These authors also condemn that such females
eagerly mix with officers and soldiers, to discuss with them the details
and events of the war, while others try to spy out all domestic secrets,
only to blab them out again in the street.
Ovid too expresses his disappointment about the changes going on in the
life of the fair sex. “Disdaining matronly seclusion, our ladies
patronize circus, theatre and arena, eager to see and to be seen. Like
an army of ants or like a swarm of bees they hurry in elaborate attires
to the beloved plays, often in such crowds that I am utterly unable to
guess their numbers.”
This inordinate greediness for enjoyments grew in time into a real
intoxication of the senses. Nothing indicates this more than the
concentration of all thoughts, of the patricians as well as of the
plebejans, of the men as well as of the women, of the free as well as of
the slaves on the questions which party would win in the public games,
how many hundred gladiators would fight each other, or how many
thousands of wild beasts would be set loose in the arena.
When we read that such public shows sometimes lasted for weeks and
months, and that all regions of the known world were ransacked in order
to secure some new and more cruel feature, that would set people wild
with excitement, it will be clear that the susceptible mind of women
must have suffered most. And indeed with the increasing degeneration of
social life the female sex became more and more demoralized. As among
the foreign slaves as well as among the freed and enfranchised were many
fine-looking and accomplished persons, unfaithfulness and adultery
increased. Especially among the ladies of the upper classes the “nicely
curled procurator,” who managed the property of such women, served only
too often as a “Cicisbeo,” in which role he figures in many satires and
comedies. Men and women met in the public bath houses as well as in
watering-places like Bajae, an ill-reputed resort, where libertinism and
dissipation flourished, and from which it was said, that no virgin, who
went there, ever returned as a virgin.
Bajae and Rome were also the places where the mysterious rites of the
Bachanalia found the greatest number of devotees. Originally a festival
in honor of Dionysos, the Greek god of spring and wine, it degenerated
into wild orgies after its introduction to Rome. This is what Livy
writes about it: “The mysterious rites were at first imparted to a few,
but were afterwards communicated to great numbers, both men and women.
To their religious performances were added the pleasures of wine and
feasting, to allure a greater number of proselytes. When wine,
lascivious discourse, night, and the mingling of the sexes had
extinguished every sentiment of modesty, then debaucheries of every kind
were practiced, as every person found at hand that sort of enjoyment to
which he was disposed by the passion most prevalent in his nature. Nor
were they confined to one species of vice, the promiscuous intercourse
of freeborn men and women. From this storehouse of villainy proceeded
false witnesses, counterfeit seals, false evidences, and pretended
discoveries. In the same place, too, were perpetrated secret murders and
other unmentionable infamies. To consider nothing unlawful was the grand
maxim of their religion.”
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