Cives Romanae. Roman Women as Citizens during the Republic

Abstract

This book goes beyond simplistic considerations, still occasionally found in popular and academic books, which merely state that, in Rome, men were citizens and women were not or, at best, were second-class citizens. Roman women were citizens and their civic roles and public presence are essential for gaining a better understanding of the Roman Republic. This monograph offers nineteen studies on Roman citizen women during this period, their roles in the public sphere and their place in the community and the res publica to which they belonged. It includes a variety of perspectives, discourses and nuances regarding the question of how women acted as citizens, in order to work towards a historical discourse that places men and women on an equal footing, considering the latter as historical actors as relevant as the former, and which incorporates gender issues into the narrative.