Description
Book SynopsisThe civil wars that brought down the Roman Republic were fought on more than battlefields. Armed gangs infested the Italian countryside, in the city of Rome mansions were besieged, and bounty-hunters searched the streets for public enemies.Among the astonishing stories to survive from these years is that of a young woman whose parents were killed, on the eve of her wedding, in the violence engulfing Italy. While her future husband fought overseas, she staved off a run on her father''s estate. Despite an acute currency shortage, she raised money to help her fiancé in exile. And when several years later, her husband, back in Rome, was declared an outlaw, she successfully hid him, worked for his pardon, and joined other Roman women in staging a public protest.The wife''s tale is known only because her husband had inscribed on large slabs of marble the elaborate eulogy he gave at her funeral. Though no name is given on the inscriptions, starting as early as the seventeenth century, scholar
Trade ReviewOsgood skillfully interweaves the story of the unnamed wife (Turia) with those of other prominent women, mostly from senatorial families, and allows the experience of each individual woman to inform that of others, using both comparisons and contrasts. In this way this discussion offers far more than a single biographical sketch; rather, it explores the huge cultural changes of these years in terms of the experiences of two generations of elite Roman women. Insightful treatments of most of the prominent women whom we know about in the mid to late first century BC encourage a whole new way of looking at Roman women, their social and political roles. Meanwhile, Osgood's analysis of the famous inscription itself is fresh, lucid, and flawless. * Harriet I. Flower, Princeton University *
In this wonderfully learned and beautifully written book, Josiah Osgood enables his readers to feel the transition from the Republic to Empire through the experience of a woman of astonishing determination, a woman who survived tragedy and abuse to save her husband and family from great wrongs. Viewing the period from this unique perspective, Osgood has brought these troubled years to life in an original, persuasive, and deeply humane way. * David Potter, University of Michigan *
a fascinating book ... a wealth of information. * Cath Milnes, Classics for All *
Osgood succeeds in expanding traditional perspectives on the social positions and attitudes of the commemorated Roman woman and her unnamed commemorator as well as our knowledge of the experiences and attitudes of elite Roman women and men living during a period of significant political and social transition. * Peter Keegan, Sehepunkte. *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ; List of Illustrations, Tables, and Map ; Prologue ; 1 Father's Death ; 2 The Fiance ; 3 At the Tribunal of Lepidus ; 4 Children Hoped-for ; 5 Preparing for Death ; 6 Between the Torches ; 7 Missing Pieces, Other Pieces ; 8 The Monument Itself ; Appendix 1: A Brief Note on Chronology ; Appendix 2: Reading Text and Translation ; Bibliography ; Index
