| Abstrakt: |
Legendary accounts of Rome's early history are marked by tales of violence between family members. The well-known episodes do not, however, relate to domestic violence as currently understood; rather (where they are not palace intrigue), they are public acts, and are judged in that light. While revelatory neither of the realities of life in the archaic community nor the violence that occurred within the Roman domus , their importance lies in the manner in which the stories were received, revised, and retailed in later eras—and the judgements both implicit and explicit that attached to them. Two themes in particular emerge: the extent to which the public interest (identified with Rome's inexorable advance) is set at higher value than the pietas and officia associated with the family; and the concomitant heroization of the perpetrators. Finally, the paper highlights an act of domestic violence associated with Rome's genesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
