Women and Resistance in the Annals of Tacitus

Women and Resistance in the Annals of Tacitus explores how Tacitus often represents a Roman woman's relationship to the imperial household and its members as one of resistance. Throughout his Annals, women discover ways to resist without relying on traditional forms of power. Women engage in political protests, legal disputes, public processions, and subversive religious rituals. They demonstrate resistance in acts of mourning and commemoration and overturn gender stereotypes by enduring pain and displaying courage in death. Tacitus illustrates how women's public movements, rituals, suicides, and survivals become sites of resistance and opportunities for civic engagement open to women.

Caitlin C. Gillespie situates nonimperial Roman women at the fore, reading them in comparison with Tacitus's narratives of imperial women and hierarchies of power. With this new analytical approach, stereotypes against women are variously confirmed or denied, challenged or evoked as evidence, or employed as a means of attack or defense. Women emerge to claim agency over their bodies, reputations, and actions, and though a vulnerable population, refuse to be passive victims of their circumstances.