Social Stereotypes and Historical Analysis: The Case of the Imperial Women at Rome

Abstract

The image of the domineering and power-hungry imperial woman at the heart of Roman political affairs is familiar to anyone who has read, or seen the television adaptation of, Robert Graves’ work, I. Claudius. But as this extract from the Annals of Tacitus (c. AD 56–C.115), decrying the rise of Agrippina II shows, Graves had no need to use his creative energies to devise these characters: such depictions of Roman imperial women can be found throughout ancient historical writing on the imperial period. The portrayals of these women tell us more about Roman social attitudes than how elite women lived: they enable us to understand more fully gender relationships and their bearing on power structures at Rome, as well as how male attitudes toward gender and power influenced the depiction of women within ancient literary texts.

From this moment it was a changed state, and all things moved at the fiat of a woman — but not a woman who, as Messalina, wantonly treated the Roman empire as a toy. It was a tight-drawn, almost masculine tyranny: in public, there was austerity and, often as not, arrogance; at home, no trace of unchastity, unless it might contribute to power.²

This article is substantially based on work presented in my doctoral thesis, see Fischler (1989). I wish to thank my colleagues Chris Wickham and Simon Esmond-Cleary for their help with the drafting of this paper, and especially Maria Wyke and Léonie Archer for their guidance, patience and editorial advice.