Women experienced class structure both directly, as it qualified them for certain social privileges and for entry into the few religious offices open to them, and indirectly, as women's status derived from males with whom they were most closely associated. From the time of the kings, Roman citizens (excepting women and children) were registered in the census by tribe and class, originally for purposes of taxation and military service; the quinquennial census enrolled new citizens and monitored class criteria, which had social and political implications for the entire citizen family. Although the divisions and qualifications of class changed over time, the hierarchical concept did not, as it translated into wealth, privilege, and office. An upper-class woman's identity was tied to her social status, as her single name for much of the Republic was a feminized version of her gens name, setting the many Claudias, Aemelias, and Julias apart from the crowd. As sisters, wives, and daughters, elite women shared in the prestige and glory of their male kin, jealously guarding their privilege and jockeying for primacy. They claimed rank through dress, jewelry, public display, and reputation as respectable matronae, watching each other carefully for lapses. Polybius, a 2nd century BCE Greek historian of Rome, noted that Aemilia, Scipio Africanus' sister, dressed opulently and rode in an elaborately decorated carriage when she participated in women's ceremonies; she brought with her sacrificial baskets, cups, and utensils made of gold or silver and was accompanied by a retinue of servants larger than any other woman's. She reasoned that such state was fitting for one who had shared the life of the great Africanus (Histories 31.26-27 ). Because we have fewer visual and literary sources for the lives of lower-class citizen women and freedwomen, it is less clear how class and social distinctions within class affected their lives. No doubt they were required to work in the house with little or no help; many also worked outside the home to contribute to family resources. They, too, must have experienced the benefits and disadvantages of close community oversight of virtue, family honor, and wealth. For further information see Social Class and Public Display, Weidemann (1981) and Hallett (1984) in the Bibliography; see also Images of Class below.

Text-Commentaries	Additional Readings
Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita 10.23: Pudicitia Patricia	See the Latin reader The Worlds of Roman Women for the following texts:
Valerius Maximus, Factorum et Dictorum Memorabilia 8.3.3: Hortensia's advocacy	Petronius Arbiter, Satyricon 37, 67, 76 (excerpts): Fortunata at dinner
Cornelius Nepos, De Viris Illustribus, Praefatio 2-8: Greek and Roman women	C. Nepos, De Viris Illustribus, frag. 1-2: Cornelia's letters to her son
Domitius Ulpianus, Digesta Iustiniani XXIII.2.43.6-9: social class and prostitution	M. Tullius Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares 14.4, 20: scenes from a Roman marriage
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, De Consolatione ad Helviam 19.4-7: an aristocratic matrona	C. Plinius Caecilius Secundus (minor), Epistulae 8.10: Calpurnia's miscarriage.
	Gaius, Institutiones 1.144-145, 148-150: tutela.
Inscriptions	T. Livius, Ab Urbe Condita 39.9-10 (excerpts): Hispala Faecenia
Funerary for Petronia Hedone	C. Sallustius Crispus, Bellum Catilinae 24-25 (excerpts): Sempronia
Memorial for Claudia Olympias	ILS 6373, Funerary Inscription: Naevoleia Tyche, public benefactor.
	T. Livius, Ab Urbe Condita 1.39, 41 (excerpts): Tanaquil
	See De Feminis Romanis at Diotima for the following on-line Latin texts:
	Dessau, Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae
	C. Plinius Caecilius Secundus (minor), Epistulae 7.24: Ummidia Quadratilla

IMAGES of CLASS

UPPER CLASSES

"Pudicitia Pose" of the aristocratic Matrona:
- Example 1: a female statue with a portrait head. Capitoline Museums: Palazzo Nuovo, Rome;
- Example 2: female statue with a fringed cloak (from a Hellenistic type). Capitoline Museums: Palazzo Nuovo, Rome;
- Example 3: a funerary sculpture from the late Republic or early Empire. Altemps Museum, Rome;
- Example 4: marble funerary portrait torso of a mature woman. Augustan age. Vatican Museum: Gregoriano Profano;
- Example 5: a limestone funerary relief bust of Haliphat, a fashionable bejeweled woman of Palmyra's prosperous merchant class who died in 231 CE. Washington, DC, Smithsonian: Freer-Sackler Gallery.
Portrait statue in marble of a closely draped matrona of the early Antonine period (side view). 130-50 CE. Rome, Museo Montemartini.
Seated woman elegantly dressed and posed on a bench, holding an apple/pomegranate. This white-painted terracotta figurine reflects the life and tastes of the Greek Hellenistic period that Romans came to admire and emulate. From Tanagra (Boeotia), late 4th century BCE. Copenhagen, Glyptoteck Carlsbad.
Portrait head in bronze of a noblewoman; the hairstyle connects the woman with the late Augustan period. Rome, 14 CE. NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Portrait bust in marble of an upper-class woman, displaying a hairstyle like that of the Antonine court. Roman. c. 180-200 CE. London: British Museum.
Profile portrait on a sardonyx cameo brooch of an elite woman with a likeness to Agrippina the Elder. Roman, 30-40 CE. London: British Museum.
Portrait Bust in marble of a young woman. 3rd century CE. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum.
Portrait bust of a woman displaying the hair arrangement of aristocratic women of the Flavian period. Late 1st-2nd century CE. Rome, Palazzo Nuovo.
Portrait in colored mosaic of a stylish woman wearing jewels. From Pompeii, 1st century CE. Naples, National Archaeological Museum.
Scene of two formally attired women seated on throne-type chairs in animated conversation; mosaic. Trier, Landesmuseum.
Friends: two elegantly dressed women seated on a couch share close conversation; painted terracotta figurine. From Myrina. 100 BCE. London, British Museum.
Two women, a younger and an older (daughter and mother?), richly attired, sit quietly but eloquently on a fragment of a pastel wall fresco. Roman, 1-75 CE. Malibu, Getty Villa.
Etruscan girl wearing elaborate jewelry, perhaps molded on real pieces; life-size terracotta torso. Late 4-early 3rd century BCE. NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Seianti Hanuvia Tlesnasa, elegantly dressed and bejeweled, peers into her mirror on the lid of an opulently decorated sarcophagus. From Poggio Cantarello near Chiusi. Etruscan c. 150-130 BCE. London, British Museum.
The Toilette: a marble relief of a mistress, seated in a throne-like wicker chair, having her hair styled by her slaves. Detail from the side of a family tomb monument in Neumagen. Trier, Landesmuseum.
Isidora: mummy portrait of a woman dressed in costly fabrics and jewels that indicate her wealth and social standing. Her name (Gift of Isis) is written in Greek on one side of her head. Painted linen on wood. Roman, from Egypt, 100-110 CE. Malibu, Getty Villa.
Patrons
- Mineia, a benefactress of Poseidonia (Paestum) and daughter and widow of leading citizens, was honored in an unusual way by her local Senate with a small bronze coin. On its obverse is the head of Venus or Mineia, inscribed MINEIA M[arci] F[ilia]; its reverse contains the image of a 3-storey building, probably the basilica in the local forum financed by Mineia, inscribed PS [for Paestum/Poseidonia?] on the left and S[enatus] C[onsulto] (by decree of the Senate) on the right. Minted in Paestum. Late 1st century BCE. London, British Museum.
- Volusia Cornelia, a wealthy member of the senatorial class (possibly the daughter of the consul in 56 CE Q. Volusius Saturninus), was a donor to the theater situated between her luxurious family villa and the Sanctuary of Diana at Nemi. For her restoration of the theater this honorary plaque with dovetail handles (tabula ansata) was mounted on the frons scenae of the building (AE 1932.68). Mid 1st century CE. Rome, Terme Diocleziano.

FREEDWOMEN AND LOWER CLASSES

Philematium and her husband Aurelius Hermia, dressed as Roman citizens, appear on a marble funerary relief, one of the earliest tombstones to commemorate the marriage of freedpeople (for the text see WRW, p. 47). From a tomb on Rome's Via Nomentana, c. 80 BCE. London, British Museum.
Old woman: encaustic mummy portrait reproducing wrinkles and grey hair; the absence of jewelry and fine clothes suggests she belongs to the lower classes. Roman, Fayum Egypt, 300-325 CE. London, British Museum.
Drunk: an African red slipware jug, shaped in the form of a comically drunken old woman clasping a wine jug. Roman, early third century CE. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts.
Maria Auxesis: marble tombstone with a portrait relief of a freedwoman (see inscription). Trajanic period (98-117 CE). Rome, Baths of Diocletian.
Caltilia Moschis, a freedwoman of Ostia; relief detail from her funerary altar. Santa Monica, Getty Museum.
Leisure: a painted terracotta mold figurine of two women crouched over a street game of knucklebones. Capua, 340-330 BCE. London, British Museum.
Funeral Stele for Dasumia Soteris, set up by her former owner and husband, inscribed: D[is] M[anibus]/ DASVMIAE SOTERIDI LI/BERTAE OPTIMAE ET CON/IVGI SANCTISSIMAE BENE/MER[enti] FEC[it] L[ucius] DASVMIVS CAL/LISTVS CVM QVA VIX[it] AN[nis]/ XXXV SINE VLLA QVE/RELLA OPTANS VT IPSA/ SIBI POTIVS SVPER STESEV/ISSET QVAM SE SIBI SVPER/STITEM RELIQVISSET. (CIL VI.16753) Rome, 2nd century CE. London: British Museum.
Hedone dedicated a votive bronze plaque to the goddess Feronia, worshipped particularly by freedpersons; inscribed: HEDONE/ M. CRASSI ANCILLA/ FERONIAE V[otum]S[olvit] L[ibens] M[erito]. Roman, 2nd century CE. London, British Museum.
Pinnia Didyma, a freedwoman whose columbarium niche was covered by this plaque (CIL 6.7580), dedicated by the freedman Hermes, a friend or her contubernalis (see student project). From the Appian Way. 1st/2nd century CE. British Museum.

THE WORLD OF CLASS

Inscriptions

IMAGES of CLASS

UPPER CLASSES

FREEDWOMEN AND LOWER CLASSES