What do Livy's foundation stories about Rome tell us about the role of women in Roman culture?

Introduction

Titus Livius Patavinus or Livy was a famous Roman historian whose remarkable work covers the historical events and moments of his time. Many of his successor historians regard him as a great source of information and used Livy in their work. Livy mainly wrote in the time of young Octavian 'Augustus', who became heir of Julius Caesar after his assassination. In Addition, through his writing, people are able to get an idea of how he reflected his times.

Most of his works provide a narrative history of Rome from the death of Augustus to the death of Domitian (Abbott, 83). In this essay, Livy's portrayal of Roman women is compared with his portrayal of women from other cultures. In particular, he compares Etruscan women and Sabine women with Roman women. This essay will discuss what the importance of Livy's narrations of myths and tell us about the role of women in Roman culture, portrayals of women's behavior in Roman society.

Discussion

Cultures comprehend our conversations, way of thinking, and the things we achieve; in general determining the way we live our lives. Our everyday life is has been manipulated by the culture in which we live and were raised in. Thus, with the passage of time some values and cultures has been changed, that is why writing about particular cultures or history is so admired among authors. The roman historian Livy is a main example of an writer whose writings are established on understanding of cultures and in this paper particularly his focus is on role of women in Roman and portrayals of women's behavior in Roman society.

The Roman expansion owes greatly to its military campaigns. Three of the most important campaigns in towards the peak of the expansion were: Pompey's campaigns in the East, Caesar's Gallic campaign, and Octavian's war against Antony. Livy believes that the transition of the Roman Republic to Empire can be seen as a founding reason of rise of Roman Empire. He also identifies that number of events are found in the succession of Roman conquers including Roman Senate's granting to Octavian, the Battle of Actium, and Julius Caesar's appointment as perpetual dictator (Livy, 23).

Technically, there is no difference between a republic and an empire, although Roman republic was an empire. Rome became an empire as soon as it governed territories and expanded under Roman law. With elected officials, the republican form of government was an empire, each responsible for the duties of his office at a level. Roman Empire, which it is refer to as erroneously, where one man ruled, who was not elected, is refer to as the principate, and was ruled collectively by the senate first, under the principate singularly.

All over the world, the role of women in society has increasingly changed throughout the history, and it is continued changing today. Livy reveals that even women in 195 B.C.E. were still appreciated and respected in their ...