Prostitutes and Matrons in the Roman World

Anise K. Strong, winner of the Women's Classical Caucus Award for best presentation in classical gender studies, received her BA from Yale University, Connecticut and her MPhil and PhD from Columbia University, New York before beginning her professional career at Northwestern University, Illinois, Stanford University, California, and Western Michigan University. She is an Assistant Professor at Western Michigan University and is also a consultant for various television series in their depictions of antiquity.

'Her study demands that we ponder a more complex role for prostitutes in Roman society and reject their status as largely social and legal outcasts. This reader was particularly struck by Strong's parallelism between meretrices and freedmen as threatening on account of their social mobility. … Strong's contribution and what makes her work a worthwhile read are the questions she asks, the variety of evidence employed, as well as her comprehensive knowledge of the subject. I recommend her monograph to anyone interested in prostitution, gender, sexuality, women, and social and cultural history more broadly. It provokes new thought on an old profession.' Allison Glazebrook, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

• Introduction; 1. Faithful wives and greedy prostitutes; 2. Good little prostitutes; 3. Powerful concubines and influential courtesans; 4. Matrona as Meretrix; 5. Can you know a Meretrix when you see one?; 6. Prostitutes and matrons in the urban landscape; 7. Pious prostitutes; 8. The 'whore' label in Western culture; Conclusion. Liminal women.