Hortensia defends women's rights
Characters:
Theme: Roman oratory.
Competencies
Competence in Linguistic Communication
Multilingual Competence
Personal, social and learning to learn competence
Competence in cultural awareness and expressions
Subjects and year by Educational System
Spain > Latin > 4th ESO > The present of the Latin civilization
Enunciation
Read the introduction and the excerpt from Hortensia's speech and answer the questions.
The second triumvirate proclaimed an edict claiming that the 1,400 richest women of Rome should make a contribution to military expenses. The matrons tried to mediate with the wives of the triumvirs, but when they failed, they went to the Forum and, Hortensia, representing all of them, made a famous speech that obtained favorable results. This speech is recorded by the historian Appian.
... Why should we, who have no share in magistracies, honors, generalships, nor at all in the government of public affairs, pay tribute, for which reasons you engage in personal struggles that lead to such great calamities? Why do you say we are at war? And when were there no wars? When have women contributed tributes? Their very condition exempts them from it in all humanity....
Our own translation from Antonio Sancho Royo (1985)
1.- What literary genre did Hortensia write? Who was her father? What are the advantages and disadvantages of having such a father?
2.- Who conformed the second triumvirate and how long did it last?
3.- Which century did Appan live in? Why do you think Hortensia's text reached him?
4.- Does Hortensia speak in defense of women in general?
5.- What are the public life attributions forbidden to women?
6.- What do they demand in return?
7.- Look up in a Latin literature manual or Latin textbook and take note of all the female writers who appear. Make a small reflection on this.
Observations and context
In Brutus, a history of Roman oratory, Cicero provides examples of women (Lelia, her daughters -the Mucias- and her granddaughters -the Licinias-) who possessed an education and oratorical ability with which they could have become excellent orators, as used to happen with men of the same social status, if the exercise of judicial and political oratory had not been vetoed for Roman women. Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, also enjoyed an excellent preparation to pass it on to her children. Well into the first century BC, in an area of clear expansion of women's rights, three Roman matrons (Hortensia, Maesia and Gaia Afrania) practiced law.
Description
Reading and commentary of an excerpt of Hortensia's speech.