The study of the Roman world has long revolved around the power, achievements, and intrigues of “Great Men.” Yet many women played important roles in shaping its political, military, social, and economic realities. From the foundation of the city of Rome to the end of its pan-Mediterranean Empire, this course tells the story of Rome through the lives and voices of powerbrokers such as Livia, Cleopatra, and Zenobia against the background of women’s experiences and contributions at all levels of Roman society. Readings may include women’s letters and poetry as well as texts by ancient authors such as Livy, Plutarch, Cicero, or Tacitus in translation, as well as work by modern scholars. Students will develop an understanding of the place of women in the creation and experience of the Roman empire and an ability to think critically about the role of gender in the construction and interpretation of histories more broadly.

Satisfies "Ancient History" core course requirement for History majors.

In the fall of 2023, a TikTok meme went viral. It purported to expose how often men think about the Roman Empire and, in contrast, how little women do. This gendered commentary on Roman history sparked a lengthy social media trend and prompted responses in such publications as the New York Times and the Washington Post. The discussion highlighted the gendered dynamics of both the study of the ancient world and the ancient world itself. In the late first century CE, Plutarch, a Greek historian and philosopher wrote a series of biographies comparing the lives of great Greeks and Romans. These “lives” are emblematic of how Roman history has long prioritized men such as Caesar and Augustus over equally powerful and accomplished women such as Cleopatra and Livia.

This course challenges students to turn this model inside out and to tell the history of Rome through the lives of its “Great Women.” The class is structured biographically: Each week is focused on one or more individual women. We will follow influential women across the empire from the era of Rome's first kings in the 6th century BCE to Late Antiquity, situating each life in its broader historical context. Interwoven throughout the class are broader questions about women’s lives, contributions, and voices, as well as the expectations placed on them and the opportunities available to them. By focusing on the history of Rome through women, the course asks students to critically reread Roman history and question the extent to which the focus on great men has influenced the way historians understand empire and power in the ancient world.

The course is designed to be available to students of all levels. All sources will be read in translation. The primary questions that drive the course are designed to be interesting and accessible both to students with prior knowledge of Roman history, who will be challenged to deconstruct traditional narratives, and to new students, who can enter the period through close analysis of primary texts and broader discussions about the traditional exclusion of female voices in historical studies.

* Identify and understand the main phases and geographical locations of Roman history.

* Identify and understand the primary female historical figures in the Mediterranean (broadly defined) from the sixth century BCE to the sixth century CE.

*Acquire strategies for reconstructing the lives of historical Roman women and other lesser attested populations

* Evaluate primary sources in order to analyze their content critically. Apply this knowledge to primary sources in order to identify chronological disparities, class and gender bias, and the main components of Roman history as a literary genre.

* Give examples of how material culture can enhanced our understanding of the Roman past and of understudied historical actors.

* Reflect on the role of women in diverse aspects of Roman society: politics, war, science, literature, and economic and social life. Demonstrate and understanding of the intersections of these categories.

* Create a coherent discourse in the analysis of an historical topic and generate an independent written research project.

Students are required to attend each course and participate actively in group discussion. To absences are excused. Any further absences require students to write a one-page response paper to the assigned readings due to the professor in the next class period.

Schedule and Readings

Week 1: Introduction

-       Overview of course goals, expectations, texts

-       The myth of Lucretia and the ideal Roman woman

Week 2: Finding Roman Women

-       Gender and theory 

-       Sources for Roman women

-       The Legal Status of Roman Women

-       Women and religion

Week 4: Women’s Voices

-       Letters

-       The writing on the wall

Week 5: Witches and Wayward Women  (first assignment due)

-       Women in poetry and rhetoric

-       Witches and magic

Week 6: Women of the Republic: Turia

-       The Laudatio Turiae

-       Turia and the Civil Wars

Week 7: Women of the Republic: Fulvia and Octavia (final project step one due)

-       Fulvia and Octavia

Week 8: A Hellenistic Queen in Rome: Cleopatra

-       Cleopatra, last of the Ptolemies

Film Screening: Cleopatra

Week 9: Women of the Augustan Age: Roman Power Brokers (final project stage one due)

-       Imperial Women

-       Julia and Livia

Week 10: Queens on the Frontier (second assignment due)

-       Cleopatra Selene, Glaphrya of Cappadocia, Salome of Judea

-       Boudica

 Week 11: Women of the Eastern Empire(s) (final project step two due)

-       Zenobia

-       Theodora

Week 12: Women Intellectuals

-       Hypatia and Sulpicia

Week 13: Christian Women

-       Martyrs

 -       Monastics

Week 14: Student Project Presentations

Exam: Final paper due