Elite Women in the Mediterranean 31 BC – 1380 AD: An Investigation into Female Agency, Identity, and Patriarchy Across Classical and Christian Paradigms
This paper explores the responses of elite women to patriarchal regimes across the Classical Pagan and Medieval Christian paradigms in the Mediterranean from 31 BC to 1380 AD. While the current historiography acknowledges the radical differences between the two worldviews fundamental to the core values of Western Civilization, an investigation of three women that can be taken to be emblematic examples of the periods in which they lived reveals a striking continuity in the nuanced social roles available to women. This continuity contradicts expectations of significant changes reflective of this revolutionary paradigm shift.
I utilize Julia Augusti, Vibia Perpetua, and Catherine of Siena as a strategy to see what difference, if any, existing paradigms made in the situation of women in terms of available options, methods for navigating cultural barriers to gender equality, and success in these endeavors. All three attempted to defy the patriarchy in some fashion.
Julia Augusti took command of her romantic and sexual interests in direct defiance of her father’s moral legislation reforms and arranged nuptials, though to her detriment, as evidenced by her eventual exile and personal distress. Vibia Perpetua challenged the desires of all male-dominated authority present in her life, from her father to Roman officials, in a powerfully self-assertive manner, ultimately choosing to die for her faith rather than submit to their wills. Catherine of Siena, arguably the epitome of complexity and contradiction in the social position of women, circumvented her gender and defied the patriarchal roles of mother and wife, gaining a degree of influence as a holy figure, though still operated within the confines of a patriarchal institution.
All of this can be taken to reveal that even as culture and circumstances changed, male surveillance and control persisted across the Classical and Christian paradigms. This paper argues for sustained interest in the persisting complexity in the social roles available to elite women across paradigms that seem to be so radically different on their face
