CUP (2021) h/b 345pp £92 (ISBN 9781107142459)
H. is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Amsterdam and her research centres on the position of women in the Roman World, concentrating predominately on the late republic and early empire. Her previous publications explore various aspects of this territory, for example women’s access to education and their life in the city. The present volume provides a resource relating to some of the material on which those publications are based.
Her book contains individual descriptions of 502 inscriptions (mainly on stone, but including a few graffiti and similar miscellanea), drawn from the Western, Latin speaking, Empire (a similar selection of inscriptions from the Eastern, Greek speaking, Empire is in the course of preparation). In 71 instances these descriptions are supported by photographs.
The collection does not claim to be a comprehensive list of all inscriptions in which women are mentioned. Only those which contain information which goes beyond the names of the dedicator and dedicatee have been selected and not necessarily all of those.
The inscriptions selected are classified by type and then arranged broadly chronologically within that classification. There are seven classifications – Family life, Legal status, Occupation, Social relations and travel, Religion, Public life and Imperial women. Each classification has a brief introduction and each inscription is presented in a standard format: Documentary source; location of the inscription and its approximate date; a brief explanation of its context; an English translation of the inscription—with the original Latin provided for some key words; suggestions for further reading. This format is supported by a short glossary, a list of Abbreviations—particularly relevant for the transcribed epigraphical sources; a 10 page bibliography and four maps, which, though useful, are like much of the text quite small.
This material might sound rather dry and unapproachable, but, as H. implies, her presentation is by no means as byzantine, confusing and diffuse as the standard epigraphic literature. If there is going to be wider study of gender issues in the ancient world, and especially if it is to be conducted by students who do not have Greek and Latin, then assisted access to the most significant material that exists for such a study must be important. That access has indeed been magisterially achieved—concise, elegant, jargon and slogan free. H. undoubtedly justifies the basic conclusion of her research, namely that women in the Roman world had a much more active and significant life outside the home and household than has previously been recognised.
What though of the more general reader? It is clearly not a book readily to be read from cover to cover but it will repay dipping into. How else would you come across Naevia Clara from Rome, who shared a doctor’s surgery with her husband; Aurelia Vernilla who ran a lead workshop in Dalmatia; Umbricia Antiochis of Pompeii who sold a slave for 6,252 sesterces (minus commission), but had to get a man to do the paper work; Claudia ‘mother of the college of fullers’ in Picenum; Seia Spes who won the 185 metre foot race at the 39th Italic Games; Voconia Avita of Tagilis in Spain who donated bath houses to her city, together with an endowment to service them; or Tania Baucylis, wet nurse (nutrix) to the children and grandchildren of Vespasian. And these examples have been selected almost at random. Only the price holds me back from recommending the book warmly to CfA readers in general.
Roger Barnes