6 - Public Life
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 November 2020
Summary
This chapter focuses on women’s roles as benefactresses section I), civic patronesses or ‘mothers’ section II) and on the public honours granted to them (parts III and IV), such as public statues and public funerals. Numerous women of wealth in the Roman West bestowed lavish donations on their cities from their own resources, thus acting as their cities' benefactresses. Some also provided other services, such as mediation between the city and men in power in Rome, and were officially co-opted as patronesses or ‘mothers’ of cities and civic associations (collegia). In recognition for their merits as civic patronesses, benefactresses (or priestesses, see Chapter 5) they could be granted public honours, such as public portrait statues and public funerals. The chapter closes with a sample of painted electoral programmata in Pompeii showing women publicly supporting a candidate for office section V).
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- Women and Society in the Roman WorldA Sourcebook of Inscriptions from the Roman West, pp. 266 - 298Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020