Lives and Deaths of Women in Ancient Pompeii

Brenda Longfellow is in the School of Art, Art History, and Design at the University of Iowa, where she is the Roger A. Hornsby Associate Professor in the Classics. She is the author of Roman Imperialism and Civic Patronage: Form, Meaning, and Ideology in Monumental Fountain Complexes, and the coeditor of Women’s Lives, Women’s Voices: Roman Material Culture and Female Agency in the Bay of Naples.

"From the moment that Pompeii became a Roman colony, its foremost women asserted themselves through patronage, priesthoods, property, and monumental commemoration. We have long needed a book-length study that considers all the evidence for the remarkable demonstrations of female agency that enriched this town’s economic, religious, social, and political life.  Brenda Longfellow gives us just what we need and more, by demonstrating not only that Pompeii’s leading women were powerful, independent, and influential  but also that they were prominent in every phase of the Roman town’s life." - Rabun M. Taylor, author of Ancient Naples: A Documentary History "The Lives and Deaths of Women in Ancient Pompeii is a timely and insightful study. It provides a remedy to past work, which often has been guided by the idealized gender roles presented in Roman literature to apply a narrow reading of the material evidence from Pompeii. Longfellow analyzes a wide range of material sources, and her book will make a significant contribution to Pompeian and Roman studies." - Allison L. C. Emmerson, author of Life and Death in the Roman Suburb "The Lives and Deaths of Women in Ancient Pompeii is a much-needed addition to the fields of Pompeian and Roman women’s studies. I would, without doubt, use this monograph for both teaching and research. It will be a benefit to anyone (student or scholar) working on the Vesuvian region, women, or Rome more generally. More scholarship on women needs to be integrated into mainstream teaching, and this book is exactly the kind of resource that is needed."- Virginia L. Campbell, author of The Tombs of Pompeii: Organization, Space, and Society

• List of Illustrations Introduction. Mulvia Prisca and the Women in Pompeii Chapter 1. Life after Life: Female Tomb Builders Chapter 2. Annedia and the First Generation of Tomb Builders Chapter 3. Eumachia and Her Neighbors Chapter 4. Funerary and Civic Honors for Pompeian Women Chapter 5. Eumachia, Mamia, and the Religious Activities of Pompeian Women Chapter 6. A Woman’s Place? The Domestic Sphere Chapter 7. Minding Their Own Business(es): Julia Felix, Holconia, and Eumachia in the Economic Life of Pompeii Acknowledgments Appendix. Female Tomb Patrons and Supervisors in Pompeii Notes Bibliography Index