Public Agency of Women in the Later Roman World

Building women's social capital in Late Antique Egypt: business owners and civic administrators

“…There is nothing in the documents themselves to indicate that the women were any more or less involved than their male counterparts when considering the conventions of men representing women in the legal sphere. 124 And women tax collectors may have had some historical precedent. In the year 187, a former tax farmer (ascholeo ̄) in the Oxyrhynchite nome named Sarapias, daughter of Sarapion, was repaid a land-tax debt from when she actively held the role through her agent Tetoeus; 125 in 255, a woman named Usia Ptolemais collected the annona militum tax (she is identified as an apaite ̄te ̄s) through a representative named Thonis.…”

Was the Woman with the Flow of Blood Drunk? An Exploration of the Possibility that She Was Viewed as an Anus Ebria

“…Broadly speaking, it is well known that women in antiquity were generally understood as inferior to men in all areas of life and had many ‘restrictions imposed’ on them (Marsman 2003: 129; Stol 2016: 691). Ancient Greco-Roman gender norms held that women were ‘weak and unsteady’, and in ‘need of protection’ (Vuolanto 2019: 45). ‘Roman gender norms … emphasized modesty, chastity and domesticity’, which women were expected to uphold in their daily lives (Hemelrijk 2016: 896).…”

“…‘Roman gender norms … emphasized modesty, chastity and domesticity’, which women were expected to uphold in their daily lives (Hemelrijk 2016: 896). Women lacked legal power, remaining under the guardianship of their husband, father, or remaining male relative for most of their lives to the extent that a woman’s lone ‘appearance in public’ would not be ‘self-evident’ (Vuolanto 2019: 44–5). ‘The relationship between norms and daily practice was a complicated one’, however, as ‘Roman women at once observed, reproduced and manipulated the traditional norms’ (Hemelrijk 2016: 896).…”

“…Yet, others ‘encouraged women to pursue the interests of their families’ regardless of whether this included ‘participation in economic and social life’, in which their place is not immediately clear (Hylen 2018: 35). In reality, therefore, women’s lives were far from monolithic and depended on their geography, social status, abilities, and profession (Hong 2016: 676; Vuolanto 2019; Warren et al 2021).…”