Lucretia and Dido are both viewed as ideal Roman women. The story of Lucretia is found in Livy’s Early History of Rome, while Dido is written about in The Aeneid by Virgil. By looking at Roman values, the story of Lucretia, the story of Dido, their similarities and differences, a background of Livy and Virgil, as well as the similarities and differences of Virgil and Livy’s views toward them, Dido and Lucretia can be seen as exemplary Roman women.
Roman society operated under the authority of paterfamilias. Paterfamilias is where the oldest living male of the family was considered to be the father of the household; he had “virtual life and death authority over the entire household” (MPN, 107). He would make the all the decisions in the family, and made the rules and standards, including the moral standards that women were expected to follow. Ideal Roman women were valued for their piety, modesty, performance of womanly duties, and faithfulness to their husbands. In both their stories, Lucretia and Dido do what is necessary to maintain their image of the ideal Roman woman.
The story of Lucretia begins with men boasting about their wives, trying to determine who is the best of them all. It is clear to them that Lucretia is the winner when she is found “hard at work by lamplight upon her spinning” (Livy, 100). She then moves on to be a gracious host to all of these men, again showing success in her womanly duties. Later that night one of the visitors, Sextus Tarquinis, comes into her room, and forces himself upon her, telling her that if she does not comply he will make it look like she had an affair with on of the servants (Livy, 101). She yields to him because she does not want it to seem as if she had an affair and n...
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...n their stories at first, but by the end they both praise them for their ability to act with the virtues that every Roman woman should strive to act with.
Overall, the Dido and Lucretia exemplify what it means to be an ideal Roman woman. They uphold the values that Virgil and Livy find most important. Dido does this through her solution to her offenses, and Lucretia by her ability to look past personal status and focus on the well-being of Rome.
Works Cited
Livy. The Early History of Rome: Books I-V of The History of Rome from its
Foundation. Trans. Aubrey de Selincourt. Intro. R.M. Ogilvie. Preface and Additional Material by S.P. Oakley. London: Penguin Books, 2003.
Matthews, Roy T., F. De Witt Platt, and Thomas F.X. Noble. Experience Humanities.
New York: McGraw Hill, 2014. (MPN)
Virgil, The Aeneid, Trans. Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Vintage Books, 1990.
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Munson Deats, Sara. “The Subversion of Gender Hierarchies in Dido, Queen of Carthage.” Marlowe, History and Sexuality. Ed. Paul Whitfield White. New York: AMS Press, 1998.