The Romans believed that women were the weaker sex. Families mourned when a baby girl was born, and sometimes girls were exposed - left out in the cold to die - if the father was displeased. Often daughters were hated by their fathers.
Doctors thought that a woman’s womb moved about inside her body, from her stomach to her legs, and caused hysteria, fainting and fits. However highborn a woman was, she was not a citizen and could not vote. Women had few legal rights, and were dependent on their fathers or husbands. This left them in much the same position as the slaves, who also could not vote and were dependent on their masters.
Yet a woman slave, in turn, had a harder life than a male slave. Women slaves could be sold to breed child slaves to add to the master’s property. The master could sleep with her at will and, indeed, was the only one with a legal right to do so, unless he gave her permission to marry. Or she might work in a brothel or a mine. One British woman’s story is told in a law case. She was captured by pirates while she worked in the salt mines, and sold to Marcus Cocceius Firmus, a centurion. When the authorities found out, she was sent back to the mines, and the centurion had to sue the treasury for a refund. Neither she nor the centurion had any say in the matter, even though she might have preferred working for him to working in the mines.
Some women slaves had the dubious honour of being trained as gladiators. A stone relief commemorates Achillia and Amazon (probably stage names) winning their freedom from the arena.
On the next level of society, among the plebeians, women worked as the equals of men. They worked as fruit-sellers, fishmongers, butchers, bath attendants, polishers and porters. Matters improved after Augustus’ rule; a few women even became teachers and doctors. Some women ran their businesses themselves; one was a lamp-maker, and a woman called Eumachia owned a brickyard in Pompeii. Asellina owned a bar in Pompeii - her name is painted on the wall, and excavators found the water she was heating still in the kettle, 18 centuries later. Inscriptions on tombstones tell us that they also worked as midwives, dressmakers, mime artists and hairdressers. Women could act in mime, in which the performers were unmasked and acted on rough wooden stages set up in the streets, but otherwise female roles were played by male performers in masks. In general, men kept most professions for themselves, relegating women to the home or the shop.
Wealthier women could become priestesses, of whom the most important were the Vestal Virgins, who guarded the holy flame of the goddess Vesta in Rome. These were the only ones of all the priests and priestesses who were dedicated full-time to their work.
The expected career of a Roman woman was to become a wife and mother, and to run the household. If girls received an education, it was only up to a primary standard. ‘Hard work, lack of sleep, hands rough from working wool’ were the signs of a dutiful wife. Most Roman cloth was made of wool or linen, and it was a woman’s job to spin and weave yarn, and to make clothes. Wealthy women got their slaves to do it, but Augustus imposed this task on his very unwilling daughter Julia, wishing to make of her an example of Roman tradition and wifely virtue.
A wife owed complete devotion to her husband and was expected to be quiet, loving and obedient. One wife even stabbed herself to encourage her husband, who had been ordered to commit suicide: ‘It does not hurt,’ she assured him. One good wife’s story is told by her tombstone. Her name was Veturia: ‘My father was Veturius. My husband was Fortunatus. I lived 27 years, and I was married for 16 years to the same man. After giving birth to six children, only one of whom lived, I died.’
In practice, it was wealth and status that bought a woman her freedom. A widow, especially, could enjoy a great deal of independence; and even if her husband was still alive, the wife of an emperor or senator could exert real influence as ‘the power behind the throne’. Augustus may have boasted that he controlled his third wife, Livia, but his ‘control’ had no discernible effect on her, for she did just as she pleased. A wealthy women spent her time discussing poetry, law and literature, and trying to influence politics through her husband. Claudius’ fourth wife, his niece Agrippina, murdered him to make way for her son Nero to become emperor (though Nero in his turn had both Agrippina and his own wife murdered).
Women wore a dress (stola) and a cloak (palla). Both the inner and the outer stola were made of wool or linen, though wealthy women could wear cool silk from China, or cotton from India. Women had separate baths, or else went in the morning. A wealthy woman suffered for her beauty (though not as much as her slaves did, who might have to spend hours intricately curling and plaiting her hair). According to Martial, she kept her beauty in a hundred boxes. To prevent baldness, her slaves would rub into her scalp a mixture of rats’ heads, rats’ dung and pepper. She would pluck her eyebrows, prepare her skin with a face pack of bread and cream, and then apply powdered chalk or white lead to achieve the fashionable pale complexion - often poisoning herself in the process. Red ochre coloured her cheeks and lips, and eye shadow was made from ash or antimony. False teeth, if needed, could be imported from Germany; sweets freshened her breath. Hairpieces were made from hair taken from slaves. A coloured wax picture survives from a Roman tomb in Egypt, and it gives us a clear idea of a wealthy woman’s taste in hairstyle and jewellery.
