Women in

Pompeii and Herculaneum

Social OrganisationThe primary division of the

population of a Roman area was into three broad groups;

• freeborn, • freedmen who were former

slaves, and • slaves.

This division also applied to women.

Typical Role of Women

• Running the household• Raising children• Controlling the finances

In Pompeii there seems to have been a greater degree of freedom for women compared with their Roman counterparts. Wall paintings, inscriptions and frescoes depict women active in public life and free to move around the city.

Wealthy Women• These women could own

property in their own right. • Nero's wife Poppaea owned the

villa at Oplontis, and the widow Julia Felix owned a large property in Pompeii and rented some of its rooms.

• Unlike their male counterparts, however, the elite women could not stand for political office.

• Like the elite males, the women of wealthy families dressed in a style which distinguished them from ordinary women.

Poppaea Sabina

• One of the most prominent women of Pompeii

• Her family owned the House of Menander and the House of the Gilded Cupids.

• She married the Emperor Nero

• Owned her own villa near Oplontis

Eumachia &

A noteworthy woman of this class who illustrates the degree of wealth and economic role possible by a woman was the priestess Eumachia whose family owned vineyards and brickworks. She dedicated a large building in the forum to the Fuller's guild - this is the Eumachia, the woolstore. An inscription identifies her patronage: "Eumachia L.f. sacerdos publica , in her own name and that of M. Numistrius Fronto her son, built with her own money the portico, corridor and colonnade, and dedicated them to Concordia Augusta (and?) Pietas. "

Julia Felix

Julia Felix's house occupied a whole insula and she was able to turn part of her home into a public baths and bar for rent. An inscription shown below, from her house reads: "To let, on the property of Julia Sp.f. Felix , a ladies' and gentlemen's bathing establishment (?) [ balneum Venerium et nongentum ], bars, lock-up shops, rooms. Five-year lease from August 13th"

Women such as Julia Felix engaged in business transactions including rentals and loans. A wax tablet records a transaction of AD 61 between two women involving a loan with two slaves as security. Despite their legal inability to participate in town politics, women of the middle and upper classes appear to have had considerable freedom. In houses there was no separate section for women as there was in ancient Greek homes.

The wealthy woman in the fresco below is playing a harp while her son watches

Lower Class Women

• Unlike those of their upper-class counterparts, the lives of most lower-class women, including slaves, had not changed in centuries.

• Free-born poorer women continued to work as laundresses, weavers, butchers and fish-sellers, or in one of the occupations that are recorded on inscriptions at Pompeii : bean-dealer, nail-seller, brick-maker, even stonecutter.

• Women worked in the household, as slaves, and also as business women including those who worked in brothels and those who ran businesses such as shops.

• A number of poor women worked as waitresses in taverns, where they were probably expected, or obliged, to engage in prostitution on the side. In fact, for a lot of unskilled working-class women, prostitution was the only way to make a living, however inadequate.

Political InfluenceCitizen women did not have voting rights but did have some influence

as the election grafitti implies: 1). I beg you to make Pupius duumvir. Appuleia with her neighbour

Mustius (asks), and Narcissus asks you. 2) [written on bakery (?) wall]. We beg you to make M. Casellius and L.

Albucius aediles. Statia and Petronia ask. Such citizens (would be?) in the city forever.

3). I ask you to make A. Vettius Firmus aedile. He is worthy. Caprasia asks with Nymphius, together with the neighbours. (We) ask you to vote for him.

4) [from a thermopolium]. (Make) C. Lollius Fuscus duumvir for looking after the roads (and) the sacred (and) public buildings. Asellina's (girls?) ask you, not without Zmyrina.

5) I beg you to make Cn. Helvius Sabinus aedile. I beg you to make L. Ceius Secundus duumvir. Recepta (asks), not without Talamus.

6). I beg you to make Ceius Secundus duumvir. Sutoria Primigenia with her family asks. Are you asleep, Astylus?

Slave Women

Slave women were not allowed to marry. Their children were automatically slaves of their owner. Like male slaves, they could be manumitted.

Marriage and Divorce

• Most women spent the whole of their lives under the control of a paterfamilias . Divorce was easily accomplished by either wife or husband, generally without financial penalties and for almost any reason. All that was required under Augustan law was a declaration before seven witnesses of the desire to divorce.

• On divorce, the wife (if she had had a sine manu marriage which meant she was under the control of her father rather than her husband) was entitled to a full refund of her dowry, and she returned to the protection of her father. If she had been independent of her father prior to marriage, she would regain her independence when she divorced.

• Among the upper classes, divorces became relatively common, at least those initiated by men. But though wives possessed the right to end their marriages, few actually seem to have done so. This may be because women had very few opportunities to make an independent living, and because custody of children was normally awarded to the father.

Children

• In Roman societies there were incentives to have children. For a woman bearing three or more children meant she was released from her ties to her husband and free to conduct business on her own account. For a man, political positions could be influenced by the size of the family. However, the actual functioning of these social conditions in Pompeii is undetermined. The remains of children are more susceptible to decay and the skeletal remains are few. The main source of children's remains are the casts and there are several children in the Garden of the Fugitives.