How were Roman Women protrayed (in paiting, literature etc.) the Imperial Age?
The ideal Roman woman was the virtuous matron, who was good and chaste wife and mother. The paragon was Cornelia, a virtuous widow, who turned down an offer of marriage from a Ptolemy (the ruling house of Egypt), and remained faithful to the memory of her husband, Tiberius Gracchus, to whom she had borne twelve children. In ‘Women’s Life in Greece and rome; a Sourcebook’ it says ‘Cornelia was admired for her virtue, fidelity, and not least, her intelligence. She was the standard by which roman matrons were measured and has been remembered as the ideal of roman womanhood for two millenia.’ Plutarch wrote of her: ” She remained a widow, and of her children, only a duagher survived, who married Scipio the younger, and the two sons, the subject of these biographies, Tiberius and Gaius. After they were born she raised them in such a laudable manner that, although they were generally agreed to be the most naturally gifted of all romans their virtue was regarded as having come from their educ
