Women in the Ancient Roman Republic: Feminine Roles During the Reign of Julius Caesar

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.211220.025How to use a DOI?

Keywords

gender studies; women in Ancient Rome; Julius Caesar; Roman Republics; politics in Ancient Rome

Abstract

Using methods including analyzing primary historical documents, images, and secondary sources, this paper explores the multiple factors that resulted in the involvement of Ancient Roman women in the political field: political marriages and non-negligible roles in a family. Due to the benefits of political marriages, the two families would become allies and help each other make more extraordinary achievements in political and economic realms. Moreover, women’s roles in the domestic sphere were crucial as well. As wives, mothers, and daughters, they had a moral obligation to raise children, take care of the household, and remained virtuous to keep up the families’ reputations. Though many women were unknown, they still left a significant mark on the course of events. Despite their inferior status relative to men, women who lived in Ancient Rome closely connected to the dynamics of political power through marriages and their roles in the domestic sphere; using gender studies lens, this paper will explore three generations of women in Julius Caesar’s family: Aurelia, Cornelia, and Julia to discuss how they influenced politics during the reign of Julius Caesar. To begin, this paper provides an overview of essential historical context, including the rise of Julius Caesar, Women’s Status in Ancient Rome, and Marriages and Political Influences. Next, this paper argues that women could indirectly impact politics because of marriages and women’s memorable roles in society and the home. This paper chose three exemplifications in Julius Caesar’s family to discuss their significant influences on Julius Caesar to elaborate on this idea.

Copyright

© 2021 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.

Open Access

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Yuting Xie
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/12/24
TI  - Women in the Ancient Roman Republic: Feminine Roles During the Reign of Julius Caesar
BT  - Proceedings of the 2021 4th International Conference on Humanities Education and Social Sciences (ICHESS 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 145
EP  - 151
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.211220.025
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.211220.025
ID  - Xie2021
ER  -