Crowded and emptied houses as status markers of aristocratic women in Rome: the literary commonplace of the domus frequentata
Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: In Republican and imperial Rome, the house was seen as a locus of public life and a symbol of the status of its male residents. The influential position of elite women turned the houses that they owned, or the residential space with which they were associated the most, into appealing elements of literary discourse. Central to all the anecdotes discussed in this contribution is the idea that a woman who gathers people around her might, at some point, become a political force to be reckoned with. Modern scholarship has often characterized the Julio-Claudian period as a period of trial and error. The portrayals of Julio-Claudian women illustrate this most clearly: whereas state-regulated media, such as imperial coins or senatorial decrees, show that these women were given a visible role in public life and were consequently considered as influential members of society, they were never recognized as formal players in the struggle for power. Describing their residence and its visitors enabled ancient writers to point this out. The women whose domus frequentata is discussed in this contribution are: Verres’ mistress Chelidon, Clodia Metelli, Cornelia, Octavia, Livia, Agrippina the Elder, Messalina, and Agrippina the Younger.
Source: Eugesta
DOI: 10.54563/eugesta.679
Author: Lien Foubert
Institution: Radboud University Nijmegen
Language: English
Topic: Classical Antiquity Studies
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2589292671