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The age of Augustus has long been recognized as a time when the Roman state put a new emphasis on "traditional" feminine domestic ideals, yet at the same time gave real public prominence to certain women in their roles as wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters. Kristina Milnor takes up a series of texts and their contexts in order to explore this paradox. Through an examination of authors such as Vitruvius, Livy, Valerius Maximus, Seneca the Elder, and Columella, she argues that female domesticity was both a principle and a problem for early imperial writers, as they sought to construct a new definition of who and what constituted Roman public life.
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OX F O R D S T U D I E S I N C L A S S I C A L L I T E R AT U R E A N D G E N D E R T H E O RY General Editors Dav id Konstan Al i s o n Sh a r ro c k
Oxford Studies in Classical Literature and Gender Theory publishes substantial scholarly works of feminist literary research, which offer a gender-sensitive perspective across the whole range of Greek and Roman literature, from Homer and Augustine. The series welcomes studies of any genre, whether verse or prose, whether approached thematically or by author. The Editors are particularly keen to encourage feminist readings of texts which have not in the past received much attention from a gendersensitive perspective. It is expected that contributors to the series will express the theoretical principles that inform their approach, but the series does not impose a single line or monolithic viewpoint. Feminist criticism is understood minimally as presupposing that the mental and moral capacities of women and men are not significantly different, and as recognizing that the explicit or implicit denial of gender equality, including equality of attention, is always a form of ‘epistemic violence’. Feminist criticism seeks to redress these imbalances by exposing their operation in patriarchal texts and by illuminating counter-tendencies that affirm women’s identities in Classical literature.
Gender, Domesticity, and the Age of Augustus Inventing Private Life
KRISTINA MILNOR
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Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With oYces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York ß Kristina Milnor 2005 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2005 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available Typeset by SPI Publishers Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Biddles, King’s Lynn, Norfolk.