#EtiamEgo. Violence against women in ancient Rome: historical perspectives and symbolic constructions.

Areas:
SH - Social Sciences and Humanities, Ancient History, Gender Studies, Roman History, History of Women

Abstract:
This research aims to investigate models, behaviours and features of violence against women in Rome (VIII century BC – V century AD) through an analysis of the sources (literary, historiographic, epigraphic, legal, numismatic), and to identify the historical and cultural superstructures that may have produced or justified the phenomenon of violence against women in Western society from ancient times to present. This research aims to interpret the guidelines indicated by the EU Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025, among whose priority areas is the explicit fight against gender violence. However, knowledge of this phenomenon from a historical, legal, economic and anthropological perspective is a crucial prerequisite for any intervention strategy. The female body has been a cultural and symbolic place for the construction of gender identity and relations between sexes, and an entity from which models, norms and behaviours arise. Therefore, this research aims to verify the validity of these premises by looking at the history of ancient Rome which, for Western culture, is the main historical, ideological and symbolic reference from the post-classical age to today. This research involves several parallel paths: the systematic analysis of the sources will highlight the protagonists, the different forms of violence, the motivations behind the violent action, the narrative format, and the lexicon/vocabulary. The investigation will be focused on the cases attested in the ancient sources during the Republican period and on the persistence of the phenomenon during the Imperial and Late Antique eras. The focus allows us to trace the cultural and anthropological origins of gender asymmetry, to explore imaginary and symbolic perspectives, to reconstruct long-lasting historical dimensions, to read correctly the historical and cultural superstructures that still persist in today’s Western society. The sagas of the regal period will be valued not for the reconstruction of the historical fabric, but as a privileged context for the codification of the system of values, thus for the understanding of social roles of ancient Rome.

Duration of the project: 28/09/2023 – 28/09/2025

Co-Principal Investigator: Beatrice Girotti

Principal investigator: Silvia Giorcelli (University of Torino)

Partnership: University of Torino, University of Venezia,”Ca’ Foscari”, University of Firenze, University of Padova, University of Catania

Budget of the University of Bologna: 53.925

EUR ERC sectors:
SH6_6 Ancient History SH6_13 Gender history, cultural history, history of collective identities and memories, history of religions