A Rome of One's Own Quotes

“Worst of all, when Lucius Tarquinius engaged in public building projects, like the Great Sewer, he forced free people to work instead of using enslaved labour. Romans found this to be wildly offensive: what was the point of enslaving people if they didn’t do all the work?”
― Emma Southon, A Rome of One's Own: The Forgotten Women of the Roman Empire

“For as long as women have drawn sanctity and power from virginity, men have wanted to take those things from them;”
― Emma Southon, A Rome of One's Own: The Forgotten Women of the Roman Empire

“This all sounds pretty bad, but the glorious Republic cannot rise unless the monarchy falls and the monarchy cannot fall unless two women bring it down.”
― Emma Southon, A Rome of One's Own: The Forgotten Women of the Roman Empire

“The Romans considered parricide – the murder of a member of the family – to be the most egregious and polluting of crimes.”
― Emma Southon, A Rome of One's Own: The Forgotten Women of the Roman Empire

“The point of Lucretia is not that she is a real woman who really suffers and really makes an active decision of her own; it is that she is an impetus for Brutus to realise his true destiny as a Roman superhero.”
― Emma Southon, A Rome of One's Own: The Forgotten Women of the Roman Empire