Octavian defeated the combined forces of Antony and Cleopatra in 32BC during a naval battle at Actium. Egypt was quickly annexed into the Roman Empire ending almost 300 years of Ptolemaic rule. Egypt was, for the first time, ruled from the outside: Octavian would visit only once. As Egyptian administration and social order was gradually transformed to better suit its role as a new Roman province, we might too expect the role of women to change and become more in line with the women of Rome. I am first going to look at religious practices in Egypt and assess a woman’s place within it.
In both Greece and Rome, the only public sphere in which women were afforded any real wider role was within religious ceremonies, either for ceremonial purposes, as priestesses or to partake in cult rituals. Although this seemingly contradicts the idea that women should be excluded from public life, women’s role within religion remains consistently important. The cult of Isis ties together the religious observations of both Egypt and Rome; her cult received a constant following in both regions, both before and long after Egypt became a province.
Excerpts of a papyrus dating from the early second century AD reveal the perception of Isis as a great female figurehead of Egyptian religion:
(P. Oxy. XI 1380, Oxyrhynchus = Rowlandson 25.)
O Lady Isis, greatest of the gods, first of names, Io Sothis, who rules over the mid-air and the immeasurable, who devises the weaving of [...]. It is your will that women in health come to anchor with men [...]. You became the discoverer of all things wet and dry and cold <and hot> of which all things are composed. [...] You made the power of women equal to that of men. And in the sanctuary you... nations... queen... lady [you protect] every country with your wings.
Augustus was sure to implement, if only from his own fear of the power an Egyptian priest could wield, a strict reorganisation of hierarchy within the Egyptian priesthood. Those within the priesthood who found themselves effected by such administration could now expect to be under the supervision of Roman officials; furthermore, the priesthood in its entirety now relied on munificence from the empire. (Frankfurter, 1998: 198) Nevertheless, women would continue to act as priestesses and maintained a significant role in various cults. The following provides only one example of such:
(P. Oxy. XXXVI 2782 (3rd Century AD) = Rowlandson 36.)
Marcus Aurelius Apollonios, hierophantes, to the kalatephoros of (the village of) Nesmeimis, greetings. Please go to (the village of) Sinkepha, to the temple of Demeter, to perform the customary sacrifices for our lords the emperors and their victory, for the rise of the Nile and increase of crops, and for favourable conditions of climate. I pray that you are well.
During the early years of Roman occupation, the number of Roman citizens living within Egypt remained a small minority; it was not until the early 3rd Century AD when Roman citizenship was granted throughout the province that this figure would change significantly. Prior to this, Egyptian cities were by large made up of those of Greek heritage, or who were indeed ethnically Egyptian. Roman laws introduced at this time, especially those which concerned women, were predominantly aimed towards the minority of Roman citizens. Roman women living in Egypt, therefore, were subject to the same laws as their counterparts in Italy. However, since non-Roman women were also subject to similar obligations under ancient law – namely, the provision of a formal dowry upon marriage, and a male guardian – it is difficult to recognise which women experienced greater levels of autonomy in their everyday life. (Rowlandson, 1998: 174-5)
Roger Bagnall writes:
‘Women’s lives in Roman Egypt may typically be described in terms of a life cycle of personal and family events, beginning with birth and education, moving on to marriage and married life, and ending with sickness and death.’ (2008: ch.339)
Marriage was something all women could be expected to partake in at any time after their late teens, though sometimes earlier. It was not necessary for a marriage to be an elaborate affair; no formal paperwork was required and indeed, a marriage did not require registration with the state. Nevertheless, there is an abundance of papyri from both the Greek and Roman period which suggests that, as an important life event expected to produce a new generation of children, marriages were widely celebrated, and those who could afford to do so might spend a great deal of money on making a wedding celebration as lavish as possible. In P.Oxy. XLVI 3313 (=Rowlandson 251), Apollonios and Sarapias write to Dionysia regarding her wedding, revealing the lengths they have gone to to have a decorative garland made of narcissus flowers and roses.
If formal contracts were written regarding marriage, then we can assume it would be concerning the contents of a dowry. Although dowries had existed long before the Roman occupation of Egypt, their arrival saw a great increase of importance being placed upon them. It was not only money which passed to the groom, but also clothes and jewellery of which their monetary value would be carefully noted. Furthermore, these contracts revealed what would happen to the dowry should the couple divorce. Occasionally, a woman could receive the full dowry back; other times, as we see below, it remains in the possession of the husband:
BGU IV 1103 (13 BC)
To Protatchos from Zois daughter of Herakleides, with as guardian her brother Eirenaios son of Herakleides, and from Antipatros son of Zenon. Zois and Antipatros agree that they have separated from each other, severing the union which they had formed according to an agreement made through the same tribunal in Hathyr of the current 17th year of Caesar, and Zois acknowledges that she has received from Antipatros by hand from his house clothes to the value of one hundred and twenty drachmas and a pair of gold earrings, which he received as dowry. The marriage agreement shall henceforth be null, and neither Zois nor any other person acting for her shall take preceedings against Antipatros for the collection of the dowry [...]
Divorce was by no means uncommon in Roman Egypt – marriages could be terminated quickly and with relative ease: very often, there is no reason given as to why a couple are divorcing, but occasionally it is due to one party’s unfaithfulness or violence, or simply that a remarriage is sought. A woman’s responsibilities in married life would have been similar to that of the married women in Rome: food preparation, weaving and clothing construction, and general household management. A wealthier family might hire slaves to undertake various tasks. Nevertheless, it was a woman’s ability to provide healthy children which would establish her role as a successful wife. Children were of particular importance in any marital home: male children were especially valuable, as passing property and other inheritable possessions was always preferred down the male line (however, girls were certainly not excluded from inheritance – something I will address later). Children also offered a mother the prospect of attaining her freedom – that is, to go about her everyday life without being under direct supervision of a guardian or kyrios. Here, in a papyrus dating from the mid-3rd Century AD, a woman requests that her right to freedom under the ius trium libororium be granted to her:
(P.Oxy. XII 1467 = Rowlandson 142.)
...[Laws long ago have been made], most eminent prefect, which empower women who are adorned with the right of three children to be mistress of themselves and act without a guardian for in whatever business they transact, especially those who know how to write. Accordingly, as I too enjoy the happy honour of being blessed with children and as I am a literate woman able to write with a high degree of ease, it is with abundant security that I appeal to your highness by this my application with the object to accomplish without hindrance whatever business I henceforth transact, and I beg you to keep it without prejudice to my right’s in your eminence’s office, in order that I may obtain your support and acknowledge my unfailing gratitude. Farewell, I, Aurelia Thaisous also called Lolliane, have sent for this presentation. Year 10, Epeiph 21.
It is interesting that, although irrelevant to her request, she places particular importance on her literacy, probably to emphasise her more distinguished background. Whilst girls were certainly not prepared for life in wider public circles unlike their male counterparts, girls of higher socio-economic status could indeed receive an education which equipped them with the skills to read and write. Whilst literacy rates amongst women in the Graeco-Roman world was minimal, girls living in Ptolemaic Egypt could expect a more extensive education than those living in Rome, and furthermore, female literacy rates would drop as Egypt became a Roman province. (Jennifer A. Sheridan, 1998: 191) However, as papyri dated around this time in the forms of letters and other correspondence from one woman to another was predominantly written by hired professional scribes and rarely the women themselves, it reveals little about their individual literacy levels. P.Athen. 60 provides an insight into what was expected of young girls from more affluent families. Note how they are told not only to study, but also perform more menial chores as was typical for any female within the home:
Apollonia and Eunous (?) to their sisters Rasion and Demarion, greetings. If you are well, it is good; we are also well. You should light up the lamp in the shrine and shake the pillows. Devote your attention to learning and do not worry about mother, for she is well already. Wait for us. Farewell.
There is certainly evidence, however, of women going on to attain positions of respectability in various forms of employment. We might first look to the role of the wet nurse to see examples of this. Although often slaves, wet nurses played a vital role in taking care of both freeborn and slave children; good money was paid for her services. In P.Mich. inv 133 from 154 AD, we see a contract whereby a woman agrees to nurse a child who was left on a garbage dump:
()
"Year 17 of Emperor Caesar Titus Aelius Hadrian Antoninus Augustus Pius, Mesore 1. M..ter-Senosiris, a Persian, the daughter of Psennesis, her mother being Thaesis, aged 4x, with a scar on the left shoulder, with her guardian being her husband Pisechthis, the son of Psennesis, aged 45, agrees with Metis-Tapsais, the daughter of Psennesis, granddaughter of Ps..., her mother being Tbekis, to nurse the infant slave girl from the garbage dump, whose name is Thaesis, who was entrusted to her by her (Tapsais), for two years, receiving from her each month . . . twelve drachmae. . ."
In contrast to this, we might look to P.Mich. 3.202, whereby Valeria and Thermouthas try to convince a woman to act as wet nurse to a freeborn infant – claiming that the baby’s status would bring better wages and greater satisfaction for herself.
Gay Robins writes:
‘There are some areas of employment outside the individual’s home besides wet nursing in which, throughout Egyptian history, women seem to have been very heavily involved: milling and baking, spinning and weaving, and music and dance.’ (1993: 117)
Nevertheless, it is important to note that these forms of employment are distinctly for women of a lesser social class. That is not to say, however, that better educated women were prevented from employment. The position of a teacher or tutor was open to both men and women and was a role which commanded particular respect. Apollonous here assures her brother that his children’s education is being taken care of:
(P.Mich. 8.464)
Apollonous to Terentianus her brother, greetings and, before all, good health.
I wish you to know that since I wrote to you beforehand about my affairs, well, then . . . that the rental in kind and all the seed will be entirely available. And do not worry about the children: they are well and attend (the lessons of ) a woman teacher.
What is interesting to note, is that in an economy driven almost entirely by agriculture, women play an important wider role in keeping this economy running smoothly, from both slaves working on the land, to landowners themselves. Indeed, women would attain land in a variety of ways – either through inheritance, her dowry, or purchasing it herself. The concept of women as landowners is interesting in the sense that, as there was no legislation to prevent it, women could take an active role in its management which often included handling lease agreements (as in P.Charit 7), declaring her produce (P.Oxy. XLII 3048) and handling money. Sarah B. Pomeroy notes of the significance of landowners in Roman Egypt:
‘The importance of land ownership in a country such as Egypt that is based on an agricultural economy can not be overestimated. Land owners are fortunate people, even though landownership in a conquered territory could not be the mark of privilege that it had been in a city-state like Athens. Under Roman rule, there was no differentiation between women and men in terms of political rights in the sense that both sexes were equally subject to the Romans. But the release of land to ownership by women conferred on them a share equal to men's share in the chief means of production.’ (1988: 711)
Deborah Hobson focuses particular attention to women as property owners, especially in the Fayum village of Socnopaiou Nasos. Although not a typical village in this region in the sense that its economy was based on commerce rather than agriculture, and as such, of little interest to Greeks or Romans, there is plentiful evidence in the form of sale receipts and registration documents which reveals that here too, women made it their business to buy and sell property of various forms; slaves, camels, but in particular, houses. She specifies:
‘Among the 32 documents recording sales of houses there are 35 women principles compared with 36 men. Among twelve documents recording registration of property, there are eight women property owners and 17 men.’ (1983: 314)
Using the evidence available which dates over a time span of 200 years, Hobson concludes that one-third of the village real estate was owned by women. She points out, however:
‘Given that men’s liabilities to liturgy to taxation and liturgy were greater than women’s, we might suspect that men put their possessions into their wives’ names in order to reduce the size of their own estates... For this reason it is critical to determine whether the role of women is merely a mask for the economic activities of the men in their households, or whether women really did function in their own capacities and in their own financial interests.’ (1983: 316)
And so, whilst it was general practice throughout the classical societies that it was sons, rather than daughters, who got the largest proportion of a family’s inheritance, not all families were fortunate enough to have surviving male heirs and it was always preferable to keep such inheritance within the immediate family. As far as management of their own property is concerned, women were clearly offered considerable, yet conditional, freedom to control and dispose of it as they pleased. Hobson concludes,
‘So when we reconsider our statistics from this one small village in light of the broader spectrum of evidence provided by wills from the whole country, we obtain confirmation for the hypothesis that the economic role of women in Roman Egypt was indeed genuine, as far as it went, but that it derived quite literally from the female right to share in the property of her own family by dowry and inheritance, and probably did not extend much beyond that.’ (321)
Bibliography:
Bagnall, R. & Cribiore, R., Women’s Letters from Ancient Egypt (Michigan, 2008).
Frankfurter, D., Religion in Roman Egypt: Assimilation and Resistance (Princeton, 1998).
Hobson, D., ‘Women as Property Owners in Roman Egypt’, TAPA 113, (1983) pp.311-321.
Pomeroy, S. B., ‘Women in Roman Egypt. A Preliminary Study based on Papyri,’ ANRW II 10:1, (1988) pp. 708-23.
Robins, G., Women in Ancient Egypt (Harvard, 1993).
Rowlandson, J., Women & Society in Greek & Roman Egypt: A Sourcebook (Cambridge, 1998).
Sheridan, J. A., ‘Not at a Loss for Words: The Economic Power of Literate Women in Late Antique Egypt’, TAPA 128, (1988) pp.189-203.
The Gnomon of the Idios Logos regulated, amongst other things, status and inheritance of which women were directly affected.
