Women in the Forum
Republican Forum
The traditional activities that took place in the forum were those carried out by men, such as the giving of speeches and the conducting of business. As such, it can be easy to overlook the place that women had in the Forum. One of the notable ways in which women were an integral part of the activity in the Forum was as priestesses. Both the temple of Vesta, where the eternal flame of Rome was tended, and the House of the Vestal Virgins which housed the priestesses of Vesta were in the Forum. The Vestal Virgins were among the most powerful religious officials in Rome and the temple of Vesta was one of the most important temples. In addition to the temple of Vesta there were priestesses associated with the other temples of the Forum, and Roman women would have frequently visited such sites in the course of their religious duties. However, it was not only as priestesses that women had a place in the Forum. During the Roman Republic, women are rarely included in literary depictions of trials or assemblies, likely because women could not vote or serve on juries and usually did not represent themselves in court. There are a few notable exceptions of women representing themselves which were included in literary descriptions of trials. Those few literary mentions of women in the Forum during the Republic are largely of women without agency or else women portrayed in a negative light 1.
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1.Mary Boatwright, "Women and Gender in the Forum Romanum," Transactions of the American Philological Association 141, no. 1 (2011): 105-41.
Statue, Livia Drusilla
Imperial Rome
During early Imperial Rome, the role of women in the Forum was much the same as during the Republic. Depictions of women in the art around the Forum were rare, and literary descriptions of women in the Forum were few and, where existing, generally negative. During the middle part of the Imperial period, however, the Forum began to change in nature and the place of women changed with it. Necessitated by near continuous rebuilding efforts due to repeated destruction of buildings by fire, the Forum began to accumulate more and more buildings of everyday importance. Also during this time period, statuary representating women began to proliferate within the Forum. Before this time statues of the women of the imperial family were not uncommon, but generally were not located within the Forum. Additionally women other than those in the imperial family began to be depicted, such as the Vestal Virgins. During this time period, the Temple of Faustina was constructed. The temple of the deified Augustus was also rebuilt by Antoninus during this period, and there is evidence from ancient coins that a statue of Augustus’s wife, Livia, was erected next to his. There were also two statues of Julia Domna, wife of Emperor Septimius Severus, located in the Forum. As far as literary descriptions, there are few descriptions of women in the forum due to the poverty of surviving texts from this time period. However, those that exist describe an increased presence of women in the forum matter-of-factly1.
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1.Mary Boatwright, "Women and Gender in the Forum Romanum," Transactions of the American Philological Association 141, no. 1 (2011): 105-41.