Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T15:01:40.478Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Women in the Time of Augustus

from Part II - Intellectual and Social Developments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2007

Karl Galinsky
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin
Get access

Summary

Themes

In the style of Hercules, o plebs, Caesar, who was just now said to have sought the bay-branch that can be purchased at the price of death, - Caesar is on his way back to his household gods, a victor from the shore of Spain.

Let his wife, rejoicing in the matchless husband who is all to her, come out sacrificing to the just gods, and the sister of our beloved leader, and, adorned with the ribbon of suppliants, mothers of girls (virgines) and of young men lately safe; you, o boys and girls who have now known a husband, refrain from ill-omened words.

(Horace Odes 3.14: my translation is indebted to G. Williams, R. G. M. Nisbet and D. West)

Horace in 24 B.C. calls on the Roman plebs (the common people) to welcome Augustus who has crushed its enemies in Spain, thus emulating the monster-slaying half-divine hero Hercules, who later became a god. Augustus had been ill and forced to stay at Tarragona the previous year, when his nephew Marcellus had come home to marry the emperor's daughter, his cousin Julia (born 39), and other young officers had been demobilised. The princeps' wife, Livia, and sister, Octavia (who, in accordance with republican convention in public speeches, are not named) will go out in procession to meet him.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×