Judith Lynn Sebesta

Women’s Costume and Feminine Civic Morality in Augustan Rome

Augustus claimed that the moral decay of the Roman Republic was especially due to Roman women who had forsaken their traditional role of custos domi (‘preserver of the house/hold’). In reforming feminine morality, Augustus created a new pictorial language that troped the feminine body as a ‘moral sign’ of civic morality and authorized a distinctive costume for women. Sebesta investigates the relationship between women’s garments, the female body and the Roman concept of feminine civic morality.

The Wedding Gifts in Catullus 64

In Catullus 64, of all the divinities attending die union of Peleus and Thetis on Mt. Pelion, only Chiron and Penios bring gifts. According to Homer and Apollodorus, in addition to Chirons gift of an ash spear, Poseidon gave immortal horses, and die odier gods presented armor and weapons.1 These divine gifts of warfare anticipate die extraordinarywarrior diatAchilles, die son ofPeleus andThetis, will grow to be. In his poem, however, Catullus has Chiron and Penios bring gifts of flowers and trees (64.279—93), unique gifts that are attested in no odier sources, and seemingly inappropriate for the future warrior: