political sphere through her sons and husbands.
Livy presents Lucretia as an embodiment of this empowering submission. A party of young aristocrats ‘Lucretiam…nocte sera deditam lanae inter lucubrantes ancillas in medio aedium sedentem inveniunt’ 7 . The authoritative position of ‘Lucretiam’ contrasts with its accusative form and subjection to (male subject) of the verb ‘inveniunt’ 8 . Lucretia’s position ‘in medio aedium’ (the exact centre of the house) and ‘inter… ancillas’ emphasizes her devoted emersion in the female domestic sphere. The aedes was the locus of submissive womanhood, sacred to the goddess Vesta and associated with cooking and warmth. But ‘Aedium’ also translates as tomb foreshadowing Lucretia’s fate 9 . The soft, white ‘lanae’ symbolizes Lucretia’s own purity, while her weaving alludes to the Homeric paragon Penelope. Initially, Lucretia is therefore a moral exemplum . The young aristocrats deem Lucretia the most virtuous wife in Rome but Livy questions the conduct of these self-appointed judges. After the failure of the Ardean military campaign they have indulged in luxury and drinking; ‘interdum otium conviviis comisationibusque inter se terbant’. 10 The aristocrats have betrayed the morality they claim to represent; ‘otium’ is antithetical to the negotium (military duties) which should concern the officers while ‘conviviis comisationibusque’ suggest dissolution and degeneracy. The officers’ assessment of their wives morality during this bout of drunken negligence is a deliciously ironic attack on hypocritical moralizers. Inspired by her virtue, Sextus Tarquinius subsequently attempts to rape Lucretia declaring ‘tace, Lucretia. Sextus Tarquinius sum.’ Livy juxtaposes Tarquinius’ symbolically disempowering demand for silence with his assertion of identity; Sextus’ identity is derived from the suppression of Lucretia’s. ‘Manu’ evokes roman marriage ‘cum manu’ implying Sextus perceives his position entitles him to Lucretia. 11 Employing the language of warfare Livy suggests Sextus associates the act with legitimate sexual violence directed against captured foreign women in war. Livy therefore uses Lucretia to expose the despotic nature of the Roman monarchy. Ignoring conceptual divisions, Sextus exercises the same dominion over Roman citizens as over foreigner slaves. 12 Livy’s framing of the incident within the context of warfare asks troubling questions about Roman warfare: does the crime arise because the brutality of Roman warfare inherently fails to obey the status distinctions of Roman society or because the failure of the Ardean campaign leaves Tarquinius no opportunity for legitimate violence? Lucretia remains ‘obstinatam’ until Sextus declares ‘cum mortua iugulatum servum nudum positurum ait ut in sordid adulterio necata’, offering a choice between rape and the destruction of her life and identity. 13 Livy’s readers enter the chamber with Sextus and are privy to his lust but Lucretia’s thoughts remain concealed. When Lucretia submits even the rape itself is merely perceived as conquest for Sextus (‘vicisset’) from which Lucretia is peculiarly absent. Readers therefore view Lucretia’s decision to submit through the eyes of her rapist, a mystification which forces us to reconstruct her reasoning, transforming Lucretia into a space for engagement with Roman moral structures. Lucretia’s decision to sacrifice the reality of her virtue to illicit penetration rather than merely her reputation for virtue suggests she may perceive morality to be an appearance rather an internalized code. Chaste Lucretia may be virtuous due to love of reputation rather than love of virtue itself. Certainly, the reader consistently views her from a superficial external viewpoint. Livy may imply Lucretia’s choice arises from female superficiality and irrationality, reflecting widespread classical assumptions; Solon’s much admired legal code considered women as inimical to male reasoning as drugs or mental illness (Plutarch, Solon 21.3) whilst Aristotle considered women deformed men who, 7 Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 1.57 8 Conceiving the role of women in Livy’s narratives of the early roman state, HMS Drew 9 http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aedis 10 Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 1.57 11 http://www.roman-empire.net/society/soc-marriage.html 12 William V. Harris, War and Imperialism in Republican Rome 327-70BC (Oxford, Oxford University Press) 1979. 13 Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 1.58
61
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker