The portrayal of Roman wives in literature and inscriptions.

摘要

This work examines the portrayal of Roman women in epitaphs and literary texts. Specifically, the portrayal of wives and intimate partners is examined to discover differences and similarities between five Latin terms: coniunx, uxor, marita, concubina, and contubernalis. A sixth Latin term, amica, is considered in Appendix C. The traditional scholarly view has been that Roman wives were statically portrayed as chaste, modest, and wool-working. These ideals appear not to have been important to the portrayal of most Roman women. Through a comparison of the evidence available for these terms, with special consideration given to the epigraphic material, it is clear that the traditional view of Roman women and the ideals held for them needs to be revised. Wives, and their husbands, in general, were not concerned with portraying traditional domestic and sexual virtues. Furthermore, the portrayal of the Roman wife was not a static entity. The Romans had a nuanced understanding of each of the terms under discussion and the scholarly discourse on Roman marriage and wives needs to be adjusted to take this into account. The overarching concern of this thesis is to examine the differences among term usages based on epithets. In the investigation of epithets and term usage, it became clear that status and time period were important. The result of this study is to show that the portrayal of a wife depended on her status, time period, burial location, and, ultimately, the term chosen to categorise her relationship. Adding to the scholarship on women in ancient Rome, this study augments the current understanding of Roman women and wives.