Women in the ancient world, what we've learned and, have we? Through experiences of Julia the Elder

Inequality has always been a nasty part of history. The most obvious example being slavery. But in a close second, and not so obvious to some, is the treatment of women.
The utter dominance of the Male in Republican Roman society was so despicably complete that they had the right to murder or sell into slavery their wives or progeny!

Nothing on record survives of it ever happening. But the law was there.
And let's not even talk about the heartbreaking age young Roman women were married to men 3-4 times their own age at.
Cut to, Augustus: The literal pinnacle of majesty. He had a daughter whom he has swept under the carpet of time. Between he and Tiberius, who then swept her into hades, they essentially did a damnatio on one of the most remarkable women of all time.
What you talking about, Jack?

Julia the Elder (as she had an important daughter named Julia as well. Thus Julia, the Younger)

was raised with the harshest and most "traditional" Roman upbringings wealth and prestige can buy.
This woman was not only the daughter of Augustus from his marriage before Julia, Livia, Scribonia.
Our Julia was married to Marcellus at 14.
When he died young she remarried at 18 to a general you might have heard of...
She was the wife of AGRIPPA.

The man behind the Augustin mask. The general who made it all work when the odds against, then Octavian were so dismal.
She is the woman who gave a man 25 years her elder 5! children!! to enhance her family and its prestige.
Of those amazing (or insane) offspring she was CALIGULA'S grandmother!

as well as Agrippina the younger (daughter of Germanicus, whom went on to marry her uncle Claudius to become empress?!)

... and Nero's great grandmother!!!
However, once Agrippa died, out of nowhere in 12 CE, against her will she was forced by her father to marry her step brother. Ewwwww, Tiberius.
As we all remember, Tiberius, supposedly, loved the wife he was forced to divorce so he could marry Augustus daughter. He even made an embarrassment of himself when by chance he'd run into the ex and became emotional.
And then the rumors start. Not until Tiberius did rumors start circling about Julia's improprieties with, brace yourself, Mark Antony and Fulvia's son!!! Amongst others.

But, if even a sliver of the debauchery that Tiberius was known for are true, can you blame her for enjoy life with the intelligentsia of Rome? Not this lower to mid level human barely being. Not I. Not I, ryroius.
Augustus exiles her to an island.
After five years he feels sorry and brings her inland, or I should say, on land and gives her an allowance and her own digs.
However, ten years later... once Augi dies, Tiberius had her life smothered out within the same year, 14 CE, but even the specifics of her death are withheld from us due to the lack of writing on women of the ancient world.

Awful to read what a male dominated society can do to its MOST important patrons, matrons.
Soooooo, here she is! The woman of the hour from whom whoes womb some of the most impactful humans in history came from (I always thought she was a cutie), Julia the Elder:

and my coin:

Posthumous Coinage of Augustus
Livia and Julia under Augustus. Bronze
10-2 BC, Pergamum/Mysia. LIBIAN
HPAN XAPINOS Draped bust of Livia
(as Hera) to r. Rev.( IO)YLIAN
(AFP)ODIT(HN) Draped bust of Julia
(as Venus)! to r 18 mm,. 3,79 g. BMC
248. RPC 2359. Vagi 370248. Very rare
Julia Daughter of Augustus by his first
wife Scribonia. Born 39 BC, she was the
wife of Marcellus, Agrippa and Tiberius,
respectively. Banished by her father to
the island of Pandataria in 2 BC, she
remained there 5 years and then was
allowed to reside in Rhegium, where
she died in 14 AD.

Just saying, the average working woman in America still makes roughly three quarters to the dollar of what equivalent male counter parts make.

We have exactly 1 other CT poster that has ever posted a coin of Julia the Elder, @Finn235 !!!
And it's a beauty (hopefully he'll share it here).
So, I will ask that you post a woman that history/men treated poorly. And hopefully you all pile them on before the Saturnalia posts take over the board in just over one day!!!

 

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LIVIA
AE Dupondius
OBVERSE: IVSTITIA, draped bust of Livia as Justitia right, wearing stephane
REVERSE: IMP T CAES DIVI VESP F AVG REST, around large SC
Restoration issue under Titus.
Rome, AD 80-81
9.9g, 27mm
Cohen 9, RIC II 424 (Titus), BMC 289 (Titus), Komnick 15
Modern stamp, 7 over 36 on obverse

Livia Drusilla (Classical Latin: LIVIA•DRVSILLA, LIVIA•AVGVSTA;[1] 30 January 59/58 BC – 28 September AD 29), also known as Julia Augusta after her formal adoption into the Julian family in AD 14, was the wife of the Roman emperor Augustus Caesar throughout his reign, as well as his adviser. She was the mother of the emperor Tiberius, great-grandmother of the emperor Caligula, grandmother of the emperor Claudius and the great-great-grandmother of the emperor Nero.

Livia was a power unto her own throughout her life, but history paints a picture of a manipulative woman who would do whatever it takes to get her way. Tacitus and Cassius Dio wrote that rumors persisted that Augustus was poisoned by Livia. The most famous of these rumors was that Livia, unable to poison his food in the kitchens because Augustus insisted on only eating figs picked fresh from his garden, smeared each fruit with poison while still on the tree to pre-empt him. These same historians depict an overweening, even domineering dowager, ready to interfere in Tiberius’ decisions, and give as a reason for Tiberius' retirement to Capri: his inability to endure his mother any longer.

 

Informative and entertaining write-up, as usual, @Ryro! I have one of those Livia/Julia coins of Pergamum, too:


Livia, wife of Augustus, and Julia, daughter of Augustus.
Roman provincial AE 17.2 mm, 3.44 g.
Mysia, Pergamon, 10 - 2 BC.
Obv: ΛΙΒΙΑΝ ΗΡΑΝ ΧΑΡΙΝΟΣ, draped bust of Livia as Hera, right.
Rev: ΙΟΥΛΙΑΝ ΑΦΡΟΔΙΤΗΝ, draped bust of Julia as Aphrodite, right.
Refs: RPC I 2359; BMC 15.139, 249; SGI 213; SNG Copenhagen-467; Vagi 370.

 

Tiberius Ae Dupondius? Romula Spain Obv Head of the Divus Augustus right radiate. Rv Head Of Livia lest diademed set on globe. Reverse legend essentially refers to her as Mother of the world GENITRIX ORBIS Photo by W. Hansen

 

Great call out to history and more specifically historians painting an atrocious picture of one of the most influential women of all time.
The slander was so bad that even Graves in I, Claudius paints a scathing picture of her as being as near to evil as one can get (without the horns)!
Also, I do LOVE your Justitia with the modern CMs!... And the excuse to post mine:

 

Great write up and coins! And thanks for the call-out

Here's my well-circulated example of the rare Pergamum type

 

LIVIA


R Alexandria Livia, w Augustus Diobol CE 1-2 Æ 23.5mm 7.46g. Rev. Athena holding Nike Sheild ex Dattari-Savio Pl. 3 60-this coin RPC pag. 692-5-this coin R


I AM fascinated that a Culture strongly influenced Early Rome with their religion, rites, laws, a few kings, were next-door neighbors. Just to the north of Rome was Etruria / Rasenna... and their art shows a lot of equality between men and women.