Sources of Roman Social History

Sources of Roman Social History

SENECA
Seneca on Slaves
"There is a proverb: 'You have as many enemies as you have slaves.' But in truth we make them our enemies. We abuse them as if they were beasts of burden. When we recline for dinner, one wipes our spittle, another picks up the scraps and crumbs thrown down by drunkards. The point of my argument is this. 'treat your inferior as you would like to be treated' ".
(Seneca, Letter 47.5-11)

PETRONIUS
Petronius on Slaves and Freedmen
"We approached the house. At the entrance, stood a door keeper shelling peas into a silver bowl. Over the door, a magpie squawked a greeting to guests from his golden cage."
(Satyricon, 28)
We reached the dining room. Boys from Egypt poured cooled water on our hands while others ministered to our feet, removing the hangnails with precision. I began chatting with my neighbor. Who was that woman running here and there? 'The host's wife,' he replied. 'She counts her money by the bushel. But take care you don't scorn the other freedmen here. They're oozing wealth too. See that one reclining at the end of the couch? Today he's worth 800,000. He's newly freed. Not too long ago, he carried wood on his back.' "
(Satyricon, 31-37)
"We hired a porter called Corax, who turned out to be more trouble than help. He often dropped his load, complaining about the pace and griping, 'What do you think I am? A horse? I am no less free than you, even if my father left me a pauper.' Not content with cursing us, he lifted his foot and filled the air with the noise and stench of his fart."
(Satyricon, 117.11,12)

Cornelia�s Advice to Her Son Gaius Gracchus

These quotations are preserved in the works of the biographerCornelius Neposas frags. 1 and 2. While they are probably not genuine extracts from Cornelia’s letters (which were preserved after her death), they give us an impression of what this model Roman mother might have been expected to say to her grown son. After the assassination ofTiberius Gracchus, Gaius is planning to campaign for the tribunate to carry on his slain brother’s political program. Cornelia attempts to discourage him.

1. You will say that it’s fine to take vengeance upon enemies. That seems good and fine to no one more than me, provided that it’s achieved without harm to the state. But since that cannot be, far better in every way that our enemies not perish and remain as they are, rather than that the state be destroyed and perish.

2. I would swear a solemn oath that, apart from those who slew Tiberius Gracchus, no enemy has given me as much vexation and pain as you have in this affair-you who should have assumed the roles of all those children I once had and have seen to it that I had as little trouble as possible in my old age, and that, whatever things you were up to, you would chiefly want them to please me, and that you would consider it a crime to take any major step against my will, especially since I have but a brief time to live. So you can’t be of service for even that short length of time without going against my will and destroying the state? Where will it finally end? Will our family ever cease being mad? Will there ever be a limit put on it? Will we ever stop taking and giving offense? Will we ever feel thoroughly ashamed of setting the state in an uproar and confounding it? Well, if that just can’t be, seek the tribunate when I’m dead; feel free to do what you like when I won’t know about it. When I am dead, you will perform the last rites and call upon my parental spirit. Won’t you be ashamed at that time to invoke the spirits of those whom, while alive and present, you left abandoned and deserted? May Jupiter above not allow you to continue on this course or permit such insanity to visit your mind! But if you continue on, I’m afraid that, thanks to your own fault, you will experience such pain throughout your entire life that you yourself will not be able to be pleased with yourself at any time.

Permission is hereby granted to distribute for classroom use, provided that both Marilyn B. Skinner andDiotimaare identified in any such use. Other uses not authorized in writing by the translator or in accord with fair use policy are expressly prohibited.

Skinner, Marilyn B., “Cornelia’s Advice to Her Son Gaius Gracchus,” Diotima, 2000, http://www.stoa.org/diotima/anthology/cornelia.shtml

32. The lot of women: Procne. Athens, mid-5th cent. B.C. (Sophocles,Tereus, Fr. 585 Radt. G)

Procne's husband,Tereus, has seduced her sister; in revenge she plans to murder their son.

But now outside my father's house, I am nothing, yes often I have looked on women's nature in this regard, that we are nothing. Young women, in my opinion, have the sweetest existence known to mortals in their fathers' homes, for their innocence always keeps children safe and happy. But when we reach puberty and can understand, we are thrust out and sold away from our ancestral gods and from our parents. Some go to strange men's homes, others to foreigners', some to joyless houses, some to hostile. And all this once the first night has yoked us to our husband, we are forced to praise and to say that all is well.

Additional Resources

Statuary from the Fondatin Jacques Edouard Berger: http://www.bergerfoundation.ch/Home/high_fayoum.html

Women and Gender in Ancient Egypt: From Pre-history to Late Antiquity: http://www.umich.edu/~kelseydb/Exhibits/WomenandGender/title.html