Hortensia
Hortensia was a Roman woman known for her significant role during a tumultuous period in Roman history. Likely the wife of Quintus Servilius Caepio, she was the daughter of Quintus Hortensius Hortalus, a prominent jurist. In 42 BCE, amidst the civil conflict that followed Julius Caesar's assassination, the ruling triumvirs mandated that wealthy women, including Hortensia, submit their property valuations for tax assessments. In a notable act of defiance, Hortensia was chosen to represent a group of women who protested against this decision. She delivered a powerful speech in the Roman Forum, arguing against the fairness of taxing women who lacked male figures for support and emphasizing that their contributions to the war effort should not be compelled without a voice in governance. This moment marks Hortensia as the only documented Roman woman to speak publicly in this significant political arena. Her legacy highlights the involvement of women in civic matters during a time when their voices were often marginalized.
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Subject Terms
Hortensia
Related civilization: Republican Rome
Major role/position: Wealthy Roman woman speaker
Life
Daughter of Quintus Hortensius Hortalus, the foremost jurist at Rome in the generation preceding Cicero, Hortensia (hohr-TEHN-see-uh) was probably the wife of Quintus Servilius Caepio, who died in 67 b.c.e. In 42 b.c.e., during the Roman civil war following the assassination of Julius Caesar, the triumvirs of the First Triumvirate (Marc Antony, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, and Octavian) placed Hortensia’s name on a list of fourteen hundred wealthy women ordered to provide a valuation of their property for tax purposes. The historian Appian, writing nearly two centuries later, reports that some of the targeted women rushed to the Roman Forum to protest and chose Hortensia to speak for them. Appian records her speech as arguing that the women already deprived of male relatives would be reduced to penury and that they should not have to pay taxes without a voice in making policy. In addition, they would contribute to a war against a foreign enemy but not to the conduct of a civil war. Appian’s Greek version of what would have been a Latin speech may be a literary exercise composed by a later rhetor; nevertheless, references to it by Quintilian and Valerius Maximus give some support to its authenticity.
Influence
Hortensia is notable as the only Roman woman documented as speaking publicly in the Forum.
Bibliography
Appian. Appian’s Roman History. Vol. 4. Translated by Horace White. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972.
Munzer, F. Roman Aristocratic Parties and Families. Translated by T. Ridley. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.