ce their political careers.(19)Even the girls would receive this sort of home education because they would be expected to teach their own children one day.(20) In The Elements of Oratory, Quintilian reports that Cornelia, mother of Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus, played a major role in their education and cultivation.(21) Roman women had children, but they were not exclusively "tools of reproduction"(22) -- they "were also a fundamental instrument of the transmission of a culture ... [and] it was their job to prepare them to become cives romani ... "(23) Who were they preparing to become Roman citizens? Were only the males given citizenship, as was the case for centuries in Athens? This is a difficult question to answer.
In the introduction of As the Romans Did, Jo-Ann Shelton discusses how the Romans "took the remarkable action of granting Roman citizenship to every free person within the borders of the Roman Empire."(24) It does not sound as if women were excluded. In Women and Politics in Ancient Rome, Richard A. Bauman says that "the public position of women was so unfavourable that it has even been doubted whether they were Roman citizens. The doubts are unfounded ..."(25) So it seems that they had a higher position than Athenian women, who were not considered citizens. They did have something in common: neither was allowed to vote or to participate in political activities. This applies primarily to the Republican Period, since the kings made the decisions during the Monarchy and the Emperor had the final say during the Roman Empire. In Augustus' time, the assemblies began to fade into the shadows. Regardless of the laws, inscriptions uncovered in Pompeii from the first century AD prove that women had an interest in politics. An example, painted on the side of a house states: "Nymphodotus, along with Caprasia, asks you to vote for Marcus Cerrinus Vatia for the aedileship."(26) Another, found on the side of a wine shop reads: "Caprasia along with Nymphius -- her neighbors too -- ask you to vote for Aulus Vettius Firmus for the aedileship; he is worthy of the office."(27)
Women had more than a passing interest in politics years earlier when the Romans initiated the Oppian Laws. These laws prohibited women from buying any luxury items such as jewelry or expensive clothes(28) -- they could not buy anything that cost any amount of money. The government felt that there would be more money available to fight Hannibal. The women went along with this because they were willing to do their share for the war effort, but twenty years later, they tried to have the law repealed.(29) Livy, in his A History of Rome, explains how the women poured into the Forum, where the assembly was under way. They were trying to convince their male relatives to vote in favour of the repeal. One of the opponents of the repeal gives us some insight into what some men felt about the incident. Marcus Porcius Cato wonders "what kind of behaviour is this, running around in public and blocking streets and talking to other women's husbands? ... it is not right, even in your own homes for you to concern yourselves about which laws are passed or repealed here."(30) The law was abolished and women had won a victory. It showed them that they had strength in numbers. One can only imagine the scandal it caused within families. This incident makes one wonder what other things were off limits to women. Where could they go when they left their homes?
It seems as though they regularly attended Roman public baths, since bathing "was a recreational activity enjoyed by people of all ages, sexes, and social classes."(31) There were often separate baths for women and men, but if not, women bathed in the morning and men in the afternoon. This was an integral part of the lives of most Romans, and for the upper classes, so were dinner parties. Women were able to accompany their husbands to these affairs, which could vary from quite ordinary functions to wildly fantastic ones such as the kind the character Trimalchio presented in Petronius' book The Satyricon. One notes that w