Jan-Maat’s Reviews > Verborgen levens, publieke figuren; Romeinse vrouwen buiten Rome > Status Update

She argues that in provincial towns there was scope for wealthy man and women to celebrated for their patronage and remembered while in Rome even the elite were overshadowed by the Imperial family

Several statues put by town councils to commemorate young women who died in pay more attention to her father or occasionally her husband than to her.

In Italy public statues of women were spread throughout the city but generally where not in the fora. However in Spain and north Africa statues of women were placed in fora.

Some women become 'mother's of cities' (in central italy) or 'mother's of associations' ( Danube provinces ). This part of the domestication of public life on the model of the title mater patriae which some empresses were awarded. In practise there roles seem to have involved giving money to the town or association. Bank of mama.

Worship of the goddess Kris although popular with both man and women. Women tended to lower functionaries and only rarely became priests. The cult had a fairly poor reputation at least in the literary sources for corruption.

A curiousity about priestesses of Ceres in Roman North Africa is that according to their gravestones, they frequently lived to be over 100 years old.

During the Roman Republic after marriage the wife became legally the property of her husband. This was obviously a completely unsatisfactory situation & in the early empire the law was changed so women remained the property of her father, grandfather or brother and could be married or divorced and remarried at their discretion.