Women also competed for status superiority in mid-Republican Rome
Purple clothing, gold trimmings, earrings and two- or four-wheeled carriages. Among the elite, competition for status superiority was just as vital to women as it was to men in Rome around 2000 years ago. This has been demonstrated in a thesis that investigates the domains and resources women had access to for status competition and how these were regulated by law.
Elite status competition was a distinguishing feature of mid-Republican Rome (264-133 BCE). Struggles for superiority in status among the senatorial elite catalysed social growth and conflict, and the desire for glory suffused elite society.
Previous studies have focused almost exclusively on the domains and resources of status competition among elite males and the often-ineffective regulation thereof. For his thesis at the University of Gothenburg, Lewis Webb instead chose to focus on status competition among elite women in this period. Read more.
