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Republican and Imperial Roman Women in Politics

Continued from: Republican and Imperial Roman Women in Politics: Part 1

The apparent reason for this harshness was that in order to guarantee that his legislation would be followed, Augustus had to show that he was ready to impose the moral rules on those who refused to obey. Even when one of his favourite freedmen, Polus, was convicted of adultery, Augustus ordered him to commit suicide. Nobody was allowed to get away with the low ethics. He could afford no exceptions, otherwise his legislation would be useless. Julia was a victim to his rule. Accordingly to Suetonius, her father had even considered her execution. It is notable, however, that when she was exiled, her mother, of whom we did not know much since her divorce with Augustus, followed Julia the Elder into banishment. Several years later, Julia the Younger, granddaughter of Augustus, was exiled from Rome for the same reason.

The only woman that seemed to have a stable position with both power and security was the wife of the emperor. On the example of Livia Drusilla, wife of Augustus, we can see how influential a wife of a powerful man could be. Augustus married her when she was very young taking her away from her first husband Tiberius Nero. From then on, Augustus' affection was fixed on her - they stayed together till the end. Despite certain insecurity from not giving Augustus an heir, Livia was the most powerful woman of her time. Augustus appeared to have taken most of her advice, for she was the only one whose interests resembled his own. If he was thriving - she would be thriving with him, if he got shaken - she would be shaken with him. She was even resented by the Senate for all the power she had without the accountability. However, all she had was totally dependent on the affection of her husband. As long as he loved her, her position was enviable. Still, what if he chose not to stay with her anymore? We have enough examples of this kind of situation with Augustus himself. He divorced his first wife Claudia, stepdaughter of Mark Antony, as soon as his alliance with the latter fell apart. An even scarier example is his second wife, Scribonia, whom he divorced on the exact day when she bore him his only daughter, Julia.

Tacitus, as most Senators, did not like Livia. In his Annals of the Imperial Rome, he accuses her of causing the deaths of, Lucius Caesar and Gaius Caesar - the sons of Julia the Elder, persuading Augustus to banish Agrippa Postumus, and later ordering his execution. He portrays her as a manipulative and controlling wife of an aging husband, at the same time calling her "feminine bully", "catastrophe, to the nation and to the house of the Caesars". Tacitus suspected Livia of causing the death of Augustus himself⁵. This accusation, however, has no foundation. Livia had lost most of her power as soon as her husband died. She was still able to influence her son in certain issues, for example in case of Quintus Haterius, who had appealed to her for protection from the emperor's anger⁶. In most of his actions, however, Tiberius was not willing to share his power with her.

Suetonius mentions some of the unchanged Roman values in his Life of Augustus. He tells us that education of Augustus' daughter and granddaughters still included the tradition of spinning and weaving. According to the historian, the emperor on most occasions wore simple clothes made for him by Livia, Octavia, and Julia the Elder, or his granddaughters, Julia the Younger or Agrippina. Although this may not have been absolutely accurate, Augustus reflected on the ancient Roman ideals: in the imperial times, just as in the beginning of the Republic, all the women, even the wives of Senators, were expected to make clothes for their families.
 

From all these examples we can see what effect on the women of the Roman political world the change from Republic to Empire had. Many changes both positive and negative came with the coming of the Empire and the women generally improved their position under the rule of the Emperors.