Women and Men in Ancient Rome

Women and Men in Ancient Rome
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(March 18, 2012)
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Women and Men in Ancient Rome
In Ancient Rome the Roman men were the most distinguished people. They greatly held their positions in the family and state, and completely disregarded women in all they did. They also considered women as possession and tools which could be easily manipulated and be used for sexual satisfactions. Women could therefore not participate in leadership or deliberate on public interests since they were considered inferior or weaker sex. They performed family chores and were also supposed to bring joy and happiness to their men at home. They were also used for procreation purposes. In general the ancient roman traditions and cultures perceived women as the weaker sex and hence were viewed as men’s wealth possession in the society. However, the gradual enlistment and sensitization slowly uplifted their position in the society. They were very few women allowed to hold jobs such as being a doctor or a teacher. They were therefore not as respected as their men counter parts in the ancient Rome (Fant, 1992).
In Ancient Rome there were predominately three known forms of marriages. The woman had been placed under the control of the man. That is why the author of Women's Life in Greece and Rome noted “was conceived when I asked myself what women were doing while men were active in all the areas traditionally” as a direct concern for the roman women. In one type of marriage known as the “confarretio”, this was the solemn offering of a cake spelt in the presence of the Pontifex Maximus and the priest of the supreme god “Flamen Dialis”. In the second form of “coemptio” it was the fictitious sale of the daughter whereby the father “mancipated” his daughter to her husband. The third form known as “usus”, involved uninterrupted cohabitation for a year produced the same legal result between a Plebeian man and a Patricia woman (Bell, 1973). By end of second century A.D none of the form had survived. This gave birth to modern and new forms of unions.
After marriage, women were viewed as their husband’s wealth and men were in this case free to manipulate them whenever they so wished. That is why Fant noted that “took a cudgel and beat his wife to death because she had drunk some wine. Not only did no-one charge him with a crime but no-one even blamed him. Everyone considered this an excellent example of one who had justly paid the penalty for violating the laws of sobriety”. The symbol of the betrothal was a gift given by the male and a ring which was done in presence of the parents (Fant, 1992). In this new definition of marriage the woman entered her husband’s home on her own f...