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| Author(s): |
Sarah Fernandes Lino de Azevedo
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Doctoral Thesis |
| Press: | São Paulo. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD) |
| Defense date: | 2017-07-14 |
| Examining board members: |
Norberto Luiz Guarinello;
Alexandre Agnolon;
Camila da Silva Condilo;
Ana Teresa Marques Gonçalves;
Paulo Martins
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| Advisor: | Norberto Luiz Guarinello |
| Abstract | |
This thesis explores some relationships between adultery and Roman politics related to questions about female sexuality and violence against women. The aim is to understand the context of the \'Julian Law on Adultery\', enacted around 18 B.C., by Augustus, the first emperor of Rome (31 B.C.- A.D. 14). This law was aimed at the aristocracy and formed part of the political reforms undertaken by Augustus during the transition from the Republic to the Roman Empire. The law prescribed the exile, to different islands, of both defendants in cases of adultery and set limits concerning the punishments of adulterers, notably those that were administered directly by fathers and husbands. The thesis hypothesises that before the Julian Law, there were disputes over the legitimacy of certain punishments for adulterers. The existence of these punishments was partially guaranteed through domestic councils that were organized by the offended men. These were men from the family of the woman who was charged with adultery. This guarantee was partial because some forms of punishment needed to be validated by this council, which, in turn, was also threatened. It shows some customs and discourses supporting the idea of excluding the adulterous woman from the society. That idea is present on some aspects of the roman ideology, for example, in narratives of important episodes of the roman political development and also in the religion. This idea was related to the power over life and death that could be exercised by pater familias over daughters and sons. However, this specific power was seriously questioned when exercised in an arbitrary manner. The pater familias was required to disclose the causes and circumstances of the death that he was responsible for. Female adultery was regarded as an acceptable reason for the woman\'s death. In the meantime, it was discussed who ought to enact this punishment: father, husband or government. In this sense, the thesis identifies and analyses a debate evident in late Republican and early imperial literary sources regarding the ideal relationship between the res publica and women in terms of punishment. This debate demonstrates how the male aristocracy thought about and discussed the limits of private and public jurisdiction over women. It also reveals how the aristocracy reacted against the Julian Law, regarding it as interfering with the domestic and private power of the pater familias. In addition, this debate shows us how a patriarchal society linked female chastity to the idea of political and social harmony. (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 12/19662-0 - The adultery, the imperial politics, and the gender relations at Rome (31 BC - 68 AD) |
| Grantee: | Sarah Fernandes Lino de Azevedo |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate |