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WOMEN, POLITICS AND IMMORALITY IN ANCIENT ROME
Abstract
The woman in ancient Rome did not have a direct political role, but often from behind the curtain, her influence was overwhelming, whether it was family or public life. The significant involvement of Roman women in politics was eased by the crisis following the civil wars that led to a disintegration of the family and the moral principles hard-pressed by the new rules, exiles, and property confiscations as follow-ups of the triumvirate. All of these gathered, lead to an uncertainty of life, extremely favourable to the feminine "independence" of patricians. Political marriages are increasing, as well as divorces, love affairs, and youth immorality, which led to the emergence of a panoply of energetic, selfish and domineering female figures on the political scene of Rome. These women did not hesitate to defend their husbands or their partisans, but neither to act politically against them, reaching to betrayal and murder. From the female mythology gallery of Ancient Rome, we have very selected with difficulty several notable personalities for the historical, political and literary imaginary. The gallery of these characters and personalities is opened by Emperor Livia, the wife of Augustus, continued by the beautiful daughter of Augustus, Iulia Maior, who became the wife of Tiberius and the grandmother of Caligula, respectively Nero's great-grandmother. These two women open the list of women with a strong will, involved in brutality and wars between generals and politicians, eager to influence the leadership of a world. Fulvia is another strong name in the gallery of famous women of the ancient Republican Rome, equally impetuous, violent and arrogant in character, but protected by Caesar's disposition, incapable of resisting the persistent prayers of a woman, she dismantles the myth of the housewife matron. Often, a feminine destiny and personality are one of the most memorable and positive ones to leave as a legacy a dictatorВ’s personality who is in direct contradiction with the positive, innocent and dignified character of the mother (Agrippina Maior and Cornelia Africana). The immorality of these women lies in particular in social structures and politics. They are female grey eminence, authors of intrigues and capable of murder, they represent avant la lettre power-struggling fighters and masters of a male-dominated world through their political ambition.
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