CLS 239 ROMAN WOMEN: PUELLA, MATRONA, MERETRIX, AMICA

funerary statue of couple

MATRONA
A respectable adult female-- married, by cultural preference-- about whom silence was her highest praise; failing that, she was to be known through the men in her life, rather than for her own deeds


Categories: elite (noble, wealthy, imperial); freeborn; slave; freedwoman

Positive Images: wife, mother, sister, aunt, patron, nurse, midwife

Negative Images: shrew, divorcee, widow, mother-in-law, stepmother, tradeswoman

Associate Festivals: Matronalia: Juno (March 1); Venus et Fortuna (April 1); Bona Dea (May 1); Mater Matuta (June 1)

Associate Vocabulary: univira, lanifica, morigera, oboediens, materfamilias, pia, bene merens, fidelis, infirma, imbecilla

Appearance: solemn; formal hairdo; veiled; dressed in the stola

Transitional Stages: Death, Divorce, Widowhood, Adultery

 statue of mother and daughter

Latin Texts

Testimonials:
Funerary inscriptions: uxor, mater, soror, e.g., Aurelia Philematium
Honorary inscriptions: patrona, e.g., Eumachia of Pompeii
Eulogies: uxor, mater, e.g., Turia, Murdia
Images: tombstones, votive reliefs, e.g., Ara Pacis

Idealized Stereotypes:
Vergil, Aeneid 8.407-413; Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 10.23; Valerius Maximus Memorabilia 6.7; Appian (in Greek), Civil Wars 4.211- 212

Exemplum:
Uxor: (together with the male in her life)
Creusa (Aeneas): Vergil, Aeneid II.735-795
Tanaquil (Tarquinius Priscus): Livy, AUC I.34-5, 39-41
Lucretia (Collatinus): Livy, AUC I.57-60; Ovid, Fasti 2.721-852
Arria (Caecina Paetus): Pliny Yr, Epistulae 3.16; Martial, Epigrammata 1.13
Fannia (Helvidius Priscus): Pliny Yr, Epistulae 7.19
Calpurnia (Pliny Yr): Pliny Yr, Epistulae 4.19, 6.4, 6.7, 7.5, 8.10
Turia: Laudatio; Appian, Civil Wars 4.39-40
Wife #3 (Ovid): Ovid, Epistulae Ex Ponto, 1.4
Antonia Maior (Drusus Germanicus): Valerius Maximus, Memorabilia 4.3.3
Portia (Brutus): Plutarch, Vita Bruti 13
Plotina (Trajan): Pliny Yr, Panegyrica 83
Domitia Decidiana (Agricola): Tacitus, Agricola 6.1

Matrona:
Claudia Quinta: Livy, AUC 29.11.1-8, 14.5-14; Ovid, Fasti 4.291-348; Propertius, Elegiae 4.11.45-54; Suetonius,Vita Tiberii 2.3; Cicero, Pro Caelio 34
Hortensia: Valerius Maximus, Memorabilia 8.3; Appian, Civil Wars 4.32-4; Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 1.1.6-8,15-17, 20
Livia (Augustus): Tacitus, Annales 5.1; Suetonius, Vita Augusti; DioCassius, History of Rome 57.12.2-6; Seneca, Ad Marciam De Consolatione 3.1-6; Velleius Paterculus, Historiae Romanae 2.75
Cornelia (L. Aemilius Paulus Lepidus): Propertius, Elegiae 4.11; Seneca, Ad Marciam De Consolatione 16.4

Mater (together with her son/s):
General: Tacitus, Dialogus 28
Helvidius’ daughters: Pliny Yr, Epistulae 4.21 (death in childbirth)
Veturia (Coriolanus): Livy, AUC 2.40
Cornelia (Gracchi): Nepos, Frag. 59; Valerius Maximus, Memorabilia 4.4; Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 1.1.6; Plutarch, Vita T. Gracchi 1.2, Vita G. Gracchi 19; Seneca, Ad Marciam De Consolatione 16.3 and Ad Helviam Matrem De Consolatione 16.6; Cicero, Brutus 58.211
Marcia (Metilius): Seneca, Ad Marciam De Consolatione 1.1-7, 24.2
Helvia (Seneca): Seneca, Ad Helviam Matrem De Consolatione 16.3-6

Soror:
Anna (Dido): Vergil, Aeneid, 4.8 and passim
Octavia (Octavian): Plutarch, Vita Antonii 35; Seneca, Ad Marciam De Consolatione 2.3-4

Vilica: Cato, De Agricultura 143; Varro, De Agricultura 2.10.6-8

Comedic Stereotypes:
Alcmene: Plautus, Amphitryo
Artemona: Plautus, Asinaria
Cleostrata: Plautus, Casina
Matrona: Plautus, Menaechmi
Dorippa, Plautus, Mercator
Nausistrata: Terence, Adelphoe
Sostrata, Myrrina: Terence, Hecyra
Martial, Epigrammata 9.7.15; 8.12; II.104
Fortunata: Petronius, Cena Trimalchionis (Satyricon)
Widow of Ephesus: Petronius, Satyricon 111-113
Juvenal, Saturae. 6

Counter-Cultural, Transgressive:
Tullia Minor: Livy, AUC 1.46-48
Demonstrators against the Oppian Law: Livy, AUC.34.1-8
Amata: Vergil, Aeneid 7.343, 12.54
Dido: Vergil, Aeneid 1, 4; Ovid Heroides 7
Trojan Women: Vergil, Aeneid 5. 604-679
Sempronia: Sallust, Bellum Catilinum 24-25
Clodia Mettelli: Cicero, Pro Caelio 30-39, 47-72
Terentia: Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares 14.20
Ummidia Quadratilla: Pliny Yr, Epistulae 7.24
Cleopatra: Horace, Odes 1.37; Plutarch, Vita M. Antonii 25-9
Servilia: Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum 15.11.1-2; Suetonius, Vita Iulii 50
Agrippina Maior (Germanicus): Tacitus, Annales 1.33.6,1.40, 1.69; 2;3;4
Fulvia: Plutarch, Vita M. Antonii 10, 28, 30; Appian, Civil Wars 4,5; Velleius Paterculus, Historiae Romanae 2.74.2-3
Sassia: Cicero, Pro Cluentio 11-19
Pomponia: Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum 1.5.1; 5.1.3-4
Messalina (Valeria): Juvenal, Saturae 6.115-132; 10. 329-345; Suetonius, Vita Claudii 17, 26, 27, 29, 36, 37, 39; Tacitus, Annales 11.12, 26 ff.

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Ann R. Raia
Associate Professor of Classics
The College of New Rochelle
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