Female Agency in the Ancient Mediterranean World, edited by Greg Gilles, Karolina Frank, Christine Plastow, and Lewis Webb, is the second instalment of Women in Ancient Culture.[1] Recently launched by Liverpool University Press, the series joins the ranks of fellow brand-new editions on women and gender studies in the ancient world, such as “Women of the Past, Testimonies from Archaeology and History.”[2] This volume, consisting of proceedings from an inaugural ‘Women in Ancient Cultures’ online conference series, offers contributions that explore female agency in the ancient Mediterranean through a wide offering of lenses and dimensions and does so chronologically from the seventh century BCE to the sixth century CE. Such initiatives that seek to expand female visibility in the ancient world deserve our highest praise and interest.
The current volume relies on a unified methodological framework, which is laid out in the Introduction as a general blueprint for the chapters that follow. Departing from a summarised brief definition of agency, the editors meticulously apply its various elements onto women in the ancient world.[3] These include ancient women’s capacities (2-3), free will (3-4), socially authorised actions and ideals (4), coercion, control, and influence (5), and the individual versus collective action.[4] After explaining the strengths and pitfalls of equality and different feminisms, they state that, in this volume, they “aim to avoid gender essentialism”, and following the foundational work of the feminist scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, [they] recognize that social inequities, oppression, and privilege occur across multiple dimensions beyond gender, including ethnicity, class, age, sexuality, and ability” (10). Additional sources of inspiration include “women’s ‘field of action’ (champs d’action) used by Sandra Boehringer and Violaine Sebillote Cuchet, and the concept of ‘spaces and modalities of action’ (spazi e modalità dell’azione) used by Alessandra Valentini, Francesca Cenerini, and Francesca Rohr Vio” (11).
The first chapter, “Patriarchy, power and place: women’s participation in epigraphy in Italy, c. 700 – 50 BCE” by Katherine McDonald considers (albeit regretfully limited) epigraphic sources for representations of possible agency of pre-Roman Italian women. McDonald retreats from simply comparing Etruscan women (who generally have enjoyed considerable popularity) to their Greek and Roman counterparts. Instead, McDonald shows how comparing them to contemporary women of, say, Samnium, Campania, and the Veneto can be more productive. The contribution helpfully engages with recent findings: for instance, how civic conflict often causes “increased archaeological and epigraphic visibility for these women and their activities” (31). The latter may also explain why priestesses gained in prominence in Paelignian inscriptions of the early first century BCE. Both high and low status burials receive attention, from which it becomes clear that “change over time, local difference, and social status are important axes of variation in ancient Italian women’s agency” (43).
Next, the volume races to the period from the fourth century BCE to the first century CE Greece. In “Women at the Races: Female Victors at Greek hippikoi agones” Melanie Meaker further investigates female visibility by turning to Greek horse and chariot races. The scarce scholarship that exists on the topic tends to represent these (albeit invariably elite) women’s participation and achievement as follows: in terms of how exceptional a female victress was, how indirect their participation was, and how little they competed at their own initiative and for their personal ends. Considering these three questions, Maeker bases her study on the Database of Hellenistic athletes, a complete record of hippic and gymnastic victors from 336 until 30 BCE. It is worth noting that, while women did not uncommonly win such contests, it would often depend on the type of contest (women tended to be significantly less successful in the keles, for instance). The Spartan princess Kyniska (victress in the Olympian tethrippon in the 390s BCE) proves to be a reliable bet to examine female motivation and achievement, both in the literary and epigraphic records. Maeker thus shows that the female agency is more present, public, and nuanced than scholars have previously seemed willing to admit.
Hereafter, a consultation of the prophecies seeks answers about female agency. In “Oh Zeus Naios and Diona, will I succeed?” Women’s inquiries at the oracle of Dodona in the Classical and Hellenistic periods,” Karolina Frank considers some 4,000 oracular inscriptions on (often fragmentary) lead tablets addressing the deities at the sanctuary of Zeus Naios and Diona in Epirus. As with the previous inquiries of the volume, Frank investigates the direct nature of these women’s consultations: did they physically write these themselves or was an additional party involved? This question is worth pondering yet difficult to answer. But what does emerge is a close, almost intimate view into these female consultants’ public and private lives. Their inquiries range from finding the right husband, engendering offspring, financial matters such as dowry or female inheritance, to questions of freedom from servitude (thus touching upon issues of class and status), to illness and health. Frank’s conclusions range from the consultations’ demographic (mostly local to Epirus, with some possibility for travel) to the nature of their personal agency.
The next chapter takes us to court. In “Mulier testabilis: Women as witnesses in Roman Law” James Townshend investigates changes in the Roman legal system with respect to women’s ability to testify in court. Townshend starts with the intriguing anecdote of a woman who was singularly allowed to testify in court and thus act as an instrumental witness and was the “only person designed testabilis” (133): the Vestal Virgin Tarkunia (in Plut. Publ. 8.4) or the likely more correct Taracia (Gell. NA 7.7.1-4). A lot depends on the definition and use of (in)testabilis, itself subject to change and heavy debate, about which Townshend concludes: “testabilis is not a gloss that means simply ‘capable of giving testimony’. Nor does it refer to the Vestals’ right to make a will… if testabilis is the opposite (contrarium) of intestabilis, as Gellius claims, then what the lex Horatia might bestow on Taracia—and on her alone of women—is the right to be an instrumental witness at a mancipatio, and thus, for example, at the making of wills. Now that would be unique” (127). Townshend emphasises the radical and unusual nature of this finding and then shifts to judicial witnesses in Roman law, aiming to reconcile two opposing pieces of evidence: the prohibition on women to give testimony (per the Augustan lex Iulia de adulteriis) and the appearance of female testimonies in the late republic, especially through Ciceronian speeches. (139) By the beginning of the third century CE, this judicial practice would have been commonplace for women. Yet, on the whole, as Townshend shows, the answer is more complicated for the previous centuries, even with the visibly increased personal agency of women in the late republic and early empire.
“Pompeian Women: Agents in Life and Death” by Brenda Longfellow takes us to the afterlife as she starts by taking a variety of wall and object inscriptions into account, before delving into the funders and builders of Pompeiian tombs. Longfellow states that of the “44 dedicatory tomb inscriptions […], twenty-two […] name a total of 23 women as tomb patrons or as otherwise tasked with building the tomb […] 11 are freedwomen and 12 are freeborn” (156). The following pages provide a list of these female tomb builders, from which a more nuanced and varied picture of female agency and motivations to act emerges, as not just elite women such as Eumachia seem to have been able to participate.
This theme of Roman female spending, then, continues but shifts to celebrations of life. In “Spending on Public Feasts: Female Benefactors in the Cities of the Roman West,” Shanshan Wen regards the understudied topic of female food gifts to local communities. The main questions are the following: who were these women, why did they participate in these schemes, and why were they able to do so in the first place? The findings show that this type of civic munificence entailed “women of senatorial rank, women related to men of equestrian rank, women from municipal elite families, and freedwomen” (173). As in the other contributions, relative scarce epigraphic sources are considered, in this case to explain the differences between “municipal patronage and civic munificence” (177). The occasions on which these patronae engaged in these food benefactions turn out to include responses to honours such as religious appointments, celebrations of birthdays and memorials, and dedications of public construction projects. As with many of the female endeavours in this chapter, the reasons for such acts could range to acting for one’s own fulfilment or that of one’s family (these two types of prestige are not mutually exclusive).
“Significant Women in the Religious Life of Roman Dalmatia” then turns towards the eastern and religious sphere, as Anna Mech employs epigraphic evidence to examine female religiosity in the provinces, e.g., in Liburnia, Asseria, and Narona. Three categories emerge: from imperial cult (often connected to Livia, Diva Augusta, with examples such as Iulia Tertulla), public religious office, and elite religious munificence. The votive inscriptions from Salona dedicated to Magna Mater are of particular interest. On the basis of these examples, Mech concludes that the Dalmatian women were able to act within the parameters of female agency set out as the theoretical framework of this volume.
“My Lord, do it for God’s sake!’ Female Correspondents in Late Antique Monastic Letters from Egypt” then takes up the pen(wo)manship of fourth-sixth centuries CE Egypt. Paula Tutty examines a fascinating epistolary relationship on papyrus between Christian women and Egyptian monks who might act as potential allies in the religious and legal sphere. Tutty regards the provenance and authenticity of the female letters before delving into their contents. As with Frank’s findings, Tutty identifies health issues as a common reason for requests for prayers from these monks. Legal intervention, however, also emerges as a theme, especially for women who were in need of male representatives. These women often came from the lower classes (although that is not to say that elite women did not send similar letters: they, too, would often pray to be healed). Thus, the monks would act as power brokers and protectors, although, at times, monetary rewards would play a significant role. Financial management, incidentally, is ubiquitous in these letters as well, which often concern “debt and indebtedness.” In spite of the focus on the penmanship of male monks as the receiving party, Tutty also acknowledges the existence of epistles by female monastics (in the shape of the White Monastery federation, and its leader Shenoute, for instance), though the evidence is lamentably scarce. Even so, these documents serve as evidence of their self-government and autonomy. As for the corresponding women, however, even with their dependence on the monks, one can perceive considerable agency on their part, as they would enlist these clerics to take matters in their own hands, if they would otherwise have no one to protect them.
A brief though characteristically potent and delightful epilogue by Judith Hallett applies the introduction’s definition of agency by Bowden and Murry to four female writers of Hallett’s earlier work: Sappho, Cornelia, Sulpicia, and the Vindolandian friends Claudia Severa and Sulpicia Lepidina. Hereafter, as an envoi, she reflects on the chapters in the volume as a whole and voices her wish that “more female writings by ancient women will emerge—like the funerary inscription that the Augustan poet Sulpicia composed for the enslaved female literature teacher Petale—in the decades to come” and concludes that “even the paucity of such writings has not hindered the contributors to this volume from recovering valuable information, and offering important insights, about female agency in the ancient world” (251).
In spite of the excellent quality of this rather handsomely produced volume equipped with helpful index, the occasional typo has managed to slip through, e.g. “a young women” (31), “the Spartan princes Kyniska” (54). While all contributions respond to both theme and theoretical framework, more conversation amongst the chapters would have been welcome, although Hallett’s epilogue admittedly fulfils the latter admirably. Regardless, this volume takes the reader on an intriguing, multifaceted journey of female agency through diverse times, spaces, and media of the ancient Mediterranean.
Authors and Titles
Introduction (Karolina Frank, Greg Gilles, Christine Plastow, Lewis Webb)
- “Patriarchy, power and place: women’s participation in epigraphy in Italy, c. 700 – 50 BCE” (Katherine McDonald)
- “Women at the Races: Female Victors at Greek hippikoi agones” (Melanie Meaker)
- “Oh Zeus Naios and Diona, will I succeed?” Women’s inquiries at the oracle of Dodona in the Classical and Hellenistic periods” (Karolina Frank)
- “Mulier testabilis: Women as witnesses in Roman Law” (James R. Townshend)
- Pompeian Women: Agents in Life and Death (Brenda Longfellow)
- Spending on Public Feasts: Female Benefactors in the Cities of the Roman West (Shanshan Wen)
- Significant Women in the Religious Life of Roman Dalmatia (Anna Mech)
- My Lord, do it for God’s sake!’ Female Correspondents in Late Antique Monastic Letters from Egypt (Paula Tutty)
Epilogue (Judith Hallett)
Notes
[1] The series “aims to unite ground-breaking research from all fields of ancient world studies, publishing research that pertains to all aspects of women’s lives in the ancient world, and the various levels of agency that they could, and could not, attain as well as the dynamics and modalities of female agency under, and against, oppressive conditions – patriarchal, heterosexist, and otherwise.” The first title, Empresses-in-Waiting, appeared last July and Khitan and Mongol Imperial Women in the Chinese Imagination was the third and most recent this January. https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/topic/book-series/women-in-ancient-cultures?target=titleSearch
[2] Published by Brepols, Turnhout; its maiden volume was recently reviewed for BMCR by this reviewer.
[3] Peta Bowden and Jane Mummery 2009: 124-5.
[4] Peta Bowden and Jane Mummery 2009: 124-5.