A study of women's lives in the public sphere of the ancient city of Pompeii. Pompeii's well-preserved remains provide a unique opportunity for the close study of ancient lives. Drawing on statues, inscriptions, graffiti, wall paintings, and the architecture of tombs, sanctuaries, houses, and public spaces, The Lives and Deaths of Women in Ancient Pompeii examines the public lives of women in Pompeii. Art historian Brenda Longfellow explores how historical women of all social backgrounds acted in public and exerted agency on behalf of themselves and others, ultimately finding that female initiatives in Pompeii were not only accepted but desired by the community to a greater extent than has previously been recognized. Longfellow centers her study on a few key women-including the city's most notable female patron, Eumachia-and uses them to examine female roles in postmortem commemorations, civic patronage and benefactions, commerce, the priesthood, and the home. By following these individuals, Longfellow examines women's lives in Pompeii in both abstract and concrete ways, allowing readers to better understand their importance to the city and society. The result is a groundbreaking book that foregrounds the agency of women in everyday Pompeii.
Brenda Longfellow is in the School of Art, Art History, and Design at the University of Iowa, where she is the Roger A. Hornsby Associate Professor in the Classics. She is the author of Roman Imperialism and Civic Patronage: Form, Meaning, and Ideology in Monumental Fountain Complexes, and the coeditor of Women's Lives, Women's Voices: Roman Material Culture and Female Agency in the Bay of Naples.
List of Illustrations Introduction. Mulvia Prisca and the Women in Pompeii Chapter 1. Life after Life: Female Tomb Builders Chapter 2. Annedia and the First Generation of Tomb Builders Chapter 3. Eumachia and Her Neighbors Chapter 4. Funerary and Civic Honors for Pompeian Women Chapter 5. Eumachia, Mamia, and the Religious Activities of Pompeian Women Chapter 6. A Woman's Place? The Domestic Sphere Chapter 7. Minding Their Own Business(es): Julia Felix, Holconia, and Eumachia in the Economic Life of Pompeii Acknowledgments Appendix. Female Tomb Patrons and Supervisors in Pompeii Notes Bibliography Index
"From the moment that Pompeii became a Roman colony, its foremost women asserted themselves through patronage, priesthoods, property, and monumental commemoration. We have long needed a book-length study that considers all the evidence for the remarkable demonstrations of female agency that enriched this town's economic, religious, social, and political life. Brenda Longfellow gives us just what we need and more, by demonstrating not only that Pompeii's leading women were powerful, independent, and influential but also that they were prominent in every phase of the Roman town's life." - Rabun M. Taylor, author of Ancient Naples: A Documentary History "The Lives and Deaths of Women in Ancient Pompeii is a timely and insightful study. It provides a remedy to past work, which often has been guided by the idealized gender roles presented in Roman literature to apply a narrow reading of the material evidence from Pompeii. Longfellow analyzes a wide range of material sources, and her book will make a significant contribution to Pompeian and Roman studies." - Allison L. C. Emmerson, author of Life and Death in the Roman Suburb "The Lives and Deaths of Women in Ancient Pompeii is a much-needed addition to the fields of Pompeian and Roman women's studies. I would, without doubt, use this monograph for both teaching and research. It will be a benefit to anyone (student or scholar) working on the Vesuvian region, women, or Rome more generally. More scholarship on women needs to be integrated into mainstream teaching, and this book is exactly the kind of resource that is needed."- Virginia L. Campbell, author of The Tombs of Pompeii: Organization, Space, and Society
