Introduction

Abstract

There is a paradox evident in the ideals and ideologies of gender which prevailed in the early Roman empire during the reign of Augustus. In Roman society, women were traditionally associated with domestic life, their highest tasks confined within the household, and their most praiseworthy roles thought to be those of wife and mother. In the Augustan period, however, women were able to take on real and important roles in the civic sphere without compromising their perceived domesticity. This book explores the creation and consequences of this paradox and identifies the conflicts and contradictions which adhere to the position of elite Roman women during the first years of Julio-Claudian rule. The book looks at female domesticity as one of the principles which made Roman politics work, the separation of public life from private life, and the image of female domesticity in book 8 of Virgil's poem Aeneid.