Gendering wealth. Women and economic agency in Roman Asia

Thesis

The thesis investigates female economic agency in the Graeco-Roman cities of Asia. By looking at their backgrounds as well as their impact on the social fabric of the civic communities, it furthers our understanding of the phenomena of female benefactors, office-holders, and fund-managers. The fundamental question that I address is whether such roles were an anomaly against the backdrop of ancient gender ideology or if women consciously appropriated practices originally defining the male élite: I am arguing that in the Graeco-Roman urban economies, asset-availability and class-belonging were more significant than gender in shaping one’s economic participation.

My study, strongly inspired by intersectional theories, presents a shift in perspective from the purely legal and social scholarly approaches to date to the political and economic importance of ‘female assets:’ this shift enriches our understanding of the relationships between different social actors within urban communities. Female euergetism in the Roman East was influenced by a plurality of intertwined Anatolian, Greek, and Roman cultural heritages. In the Hellenistic period, wealthy women with a long-standing experience as religious office-holders started to imitate euergetic practices and to be involved in quickly-developing ruler cults; with the Roman conquest, these practices were further re-shaped and spread. This transition was characterised politically by a gradual centralisation of power in the hands of supra-regional magistrates, and economically by a marked polarisation of wealth in urban communities. In this context, wealthy women systematically gained new spaces of autonomy and visibility.

My dissertation engages not only with the specific roles of women in economic contexts, but also with the modern discourse on the ancient societal constructions of gender roles, showing that a certain reading of these constructions has in the past been misinformed by a one-sided focus on literary sources and by modern readings of female agency still approached by a male-dominated view of history.

Authors: Vitello, E

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-4rvpdd8zg
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: social and economic history; gender studies; ancient history; Greek epigraphy; women's history; Roman history; Anatolian studies
• Subjects: History; Inscriptions; Civilization, Ancient