THE WORLD OF LEARNING

Fresco detail, Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii, 1st century CE

It is difficult to assess or even confidently generalize about women's education in ancient Rome. Experience no doubt varied greatly depending on period of time, location (urban/rural, regional, Italic/provincial), and class. Evidence is scattered, tends to the anecdotal and extraordinary, and is often prescriptive if not downright critical. Sources document that accomplishments which won approval for an aristocratic matrona were practical and shifted focus over time, from weaving (Lucretia) to wise maternal counsel (Cornelia) to patronage and benevolence (Empress Faustina). While the docta matrona was not rare, there is much evidence that public displays of learning were popular targets for censure of women. Perhaps the best case for educating the elite woman was made by Quintilian (Institutio Oratoria 1.6) who argued that since early education of children took place in the home it was important for a mother as well as a father to be as educated as possible. Although in the early Republic, learning to communicate, spinning and weaving, and cooking were primary goals of female education, from the 1st century BCE onward, with the advent of abundant slaves, all but the poorest households had a servant to prepare clothing and food for them. Girls in wealthy homes may have shared their siblings' tutors or been tutored by their mother in other areas beside religion, cosmetics, and home and family management. Since marriage could occur as early as puberty, there was little time for girls to attend school, though there is evidence that some attended primary schools (ludi). In lower class families girls would have been prepared at home to raise families, trained in the family business, or sent out to work or apprentice to a trade. For further information about this topic, see the Companion bibliography and Images of Learning below.

IMAGES of LEARNING

Child Reading: in this detail of a room fresco depicting the mysteries associated with Dionysus, an older woman holding a rolled scroll looks down at a child reading an open scroll. Roman, 1st century CE. Pompeii, House of the Mysteries.

Woman with Scroll: a marble sarcophagus relief of an older woman, the deceased, holding scrolls in three panels. In the center, in a kind of aedicula, she stands veiled, with a child at her knee seeking her attention. In the two side panels she is unveiled, in conversation with the same bearded male who is seated on a podium and holds scrolls in his lap (a teacher/philosopher? her husband?); between and behind them stands a younger woman (fellow student? daughter?), watching and also holding a scroll. Rome: Vatican Museum.

Artist-Patrons: marble sarcophagus relief representing the learning and culture of a wife and husband. It consists of three panels: on the left the seated woman holds a scroll, with two muses beside her and a tragic mask at her feet; on the right the seated young man holds a scroll, with two muses beside him, an epic mask and scrolls at his feet. The center panel between them is a doorway to the underworld with doors decorated with Medusa heads and lion head knockers. Rome: Vatican Museum. Museum

Girl in Toga Praetexta: this reconstruction of the clothing worn by young girls before their marriage is modeled on the younger girl on the Ara Pacis. She wears a white tunic bound with a cingulum tied in a nodus Herculaneus beneath the toga. From an image supplied by Judith Sebesta of a student in a course (late 1990's).

Fragment of a Letter from Claudia Severa, wife of Aelius Brocchus, to Sulpicia Lepidina, wife of Flavius Cerealis, Prefect of the ninth cohort of Batavians stationed at the Roman fort in Vindolanda, Britain (see the tablets online), inviting Lepidina to Severa's birthday party. This detail, the conclusion of her letter, is added in her own hand, the earliest extant example of writing in Latin by a woman: “I will expect you, sister. Hail and farewell, sister, my dearest soul, so may I prosper” (Latin: sperabo te soror uale soror anima mea ita ualeam karissima et haue). Roman, 97-103 CE. London, British Museum.

Sarcophagus base: high relief depicts children holding masks, musical instruments and scrolls, perhaps symbolizing Muses. On the left, a boy holds a mask and another holds a cithara and plectrum (pick); in the center, the dead youth sits on stool holding an open scroll, while a boy on his left writes on a wax tablet with a stylus and a girl on his right holds a closed scroll with a bundle of scrolls at her feet. Rome, Vatican Museum, Gallery of the Candelabrum.

Women holding scrolls (students/disciples?) in a sarcophagus relief, standing among men around a seated male (teacher?) with a scroll open on his lap. Roman, late imperial/Christian. Rome, Vatican Museum.

Veiled woman pointing to an open book (?bible) in a relief on a marble sarcophagus; to her left are scenes from the Old Testament and the New to the right. 4th century CE. Rome, Vatican Museum (Christian).

All images are courtesy of the VRoma Project's Image Archive.