Roman Weekly: Women's Edition

Artist statement:

I mocked up a magazine about the sackings of Rome about three years ago, and it was heavily inspired by a book by Matthew Kneale. I returned to that idea and, seeing as I'm doing a class on Roman women's history, I thought it would be interesting to combine that with that old idea.

The historical features are a coin of Constantine II (emperor during part of the 4th century) and the Fresco of Domitilla and Petronella, which has been dated to the same century as his ruling. I did want to show some letters from women in the zine, one was from a woman about a girl's incredible weaving, at that she should be rewarded for her crafting ability. Although, I wanted the zine to consider the other side of the coin when it comes to women's history during the Roman Empire. We can only guess the lives of many women because they either could not write themselves or were not written about. Some women weren't depicted in art because they did not fit whatever narrative was intended by the piece. When it comes to writing, we only really have access to the elites and imperial women, so where does that leave everyone else? I wanted to ask that because so many stories fall through the cracks when we don't pay attention, and this can be said for women after the period this zine aimed to look at too. The theological and legal discussions of men that concerned women do not include the voices of women, and this reflects even today.