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How Were Women of low and High Class treated in Ancient Greece and Rome

Ancient Greece and Rome – Background

Both Ancient Greece and Rome are located in the southern part of Europe. Ancient Greece lasted about 1000 years beginning after the 8th Century, after the Dark Ages, until the rise of Christianity. Ancient Greece settlements consist of Hellenic, Cyprus, the Aegean Islands, and parts of southern Italy, and other settlements along the coast. Ancient Rome was a civilization founded around the 9th Century B.C is located on the Italian Peninsula. “A legend says that Rome was founded by twin brothers in 753 B.C.” (WB). It first started out as a monarchy, and then eventually grew in to an Empire “The Roman Republic was established in 509 B.C. after the Roman nobles overthrew the king” (WB).The Roman civilization controlled majority of Western Europe. Ancient Rome and Greece gave law, war, literature, art, and language to the world. Aside from that, we see in both Ancient Greece and Rome how role and the treatment of women come in to play, and what that has added to our society.

Women’s Role in Ancient Greece and Rome

In Ancient Greece (Athens) women did not have very many rights, “the lives of women in Ancient Greece were very restricted” (EWG). Women of Athens were not given an education unlike their neighboring city-state, Sparta. Ancient Greece was a very patriarchal society dominated by men and ruled my men. Women are “very much under control of their husbands, fathers, or brothers”(EWG). Most women in Ancient Greece had to marry early to [usually] older men at the ages of 13 and up, suitors are “chosen by her father” (EWG). These men tend to be friends with the father, or business partners for example. Women did household work, like cleaning, cooking and taking care of children. Due to their lack of education, most of them simple can’t have any other career with the exception of spinning and weaving. “Their spinning and weaving work made an important contribution to the household” (EWG) as she usually makes her own clothing and most of her family’s. Some families, who were wealthy enough, gave women the luxury the minimum ability to at lease read. Wealthy women did not have to do spinning or weaving as they were most likely done by slaves. Women who were wealthy were also blessed with some possessions but rarely her own property. Daughters were expected to learn housework from her mother, including spinning and weaver while her brothers attend school, learn with scholars, or train to become a soldier. Although many women had important roles in temples as priestesses they were not treated as well as priests, even oracles of the Goddesses Athena and Artemis. By contrast, women of Ancient Rome provided women more rights. Not all women were expected to be restricted doing housework all their lives and never get an education, some women (mostly nobles) are allowed to have an education. Traditions are no exception, for “women in Rome were expected to run the household and be dignified wives and good mothers” (EWR). Marriage was similar to that of the Greeks. Circumstances changed a few things: men married women for money (or vise versa), for disputes between two families or as a binding contract of some sort. Most women in Rome took care of their children and they are “brought up to look and behave like miniature versions of their parents”(EWR). Similar to Ancient Greece, “girls received very little schooling it at all” (EWR). Unlike women in Greece, who were restricted to whatever position they had (if any), women in Rome could move up in position, even to positions greater than that of men.

Treatment of Women in Ancient Greece and Rome

Because they had few rights, women in Ancient Greece were not seen important to society, even though women are clearly vital to sustain society and life. If a family was not wealthy and a couple was blessed with a daughter, the family would get rid of this daughter. Only a son could be acceptable and worth the investment. A son would be the blessings of the Gods, and a daughter should simply be fed to Minotaurs in the mountains, a half man and half cow who feeds on human flesh. The baby girl, probably newborn, would be placed in a pot and left up in the mountains to die because the family is not willing to raise that child. Husbands were allowed multiple wives but a woman did not have freedom of multiple husbands, and any other affair with another man would be considered adultery. Compared to Ancient Greece, women of Ancient Rome were much better off than women of Greece or Sparta. Women had the luxury of more rights, property (including their own slaves) and land. Women typically take care of their children anyway, but they are mostly taken care of by slaves and housework was done by slaves. Romans conquered many nations and took war prisoners as slaves so they were plentiful. These slaves did most of the work that women would have had to do. HBO’s Rome, suggests that women had a lot of power, they could move higher up in their positions by associating with the right people that will be helpful in the future if the family would fall on hard times. Women had fairly passive lives of luxury, for her “degree of freedom had a lot to do with her wealth and status” (EWR). Only peasants and those in poverty are no different from women of Ancient Greece. Noble women could even influence politics, especially those married to notable men. Even though the woman herself is not part of the senate, she could bring “influence behind scenes” (EWR).

The fall of Ancient Greece and Rome

When the rise of Christianity came about in Greece, ideas began to change. People began to feel differently about ethnicity in Greece. Eventually when the spread of the Roman Empire began the Ancient Greek civilization began to deteriorate. The fall of the Roman Empire came about after the spread of the empire. When the Roman Empire began to spread, the land became to large to control. This led to the fall of Ancient Rome. When both empires fell the idea of women change within different countries and throughout out history. Where women had luxury in Rome became nothing but dirt in later times.

References :

(EWG) Pearson, Anne. Ancient Greece. New York: Dorling Kindersley Publications, 1990.

(EWR) James, Simon. Ancient Rome. New York: Dorling Kindersley Publications, 1990.

(WB) Erich S. Gruen. "Ancient Rome." World Book ed. 1990.