The Romans - Different Times, Different Women
Reviews of two books both dealing with a woman living in a turbulent period in Rome’s history December 2025.
‘Fulvia’, by Jane Draycott, 2025
Jane Draycott is an academic with a bee in her bonnet! Determined to rehabilitate or restore the reputation of this important Roman matriarch, the author gives us an exhaustive (and often exhausting) account, not only of Fulvia’s eventful life, but also of the whole of Roman life and intrigue during the chaotic period when Rome was violently transitioning from a republic to a dictatorship.
Fulvia was born in 80 BCE and died in 40 BCE of some sort of infection, exacerbated by stress. One of her most successful sons had just died in battle and she had recently heard that her third husband, Mark Anthony, had fathered twins with Cleopatra, his latest mistress.
Although the contemporary writing and subsequent reports, ballads and stories that include Fulvia are quite plentiful, they are overwhelmingly derogatory, consisting of what we now might call ‘slut-shaming’, and comments on her lack of feminine virtues. However, it is clear from Draycott’s researches that such methods were not untypical. Influential Roman women would support their husbands by campaigning on their behalf and even going with them to foreign countries, if not actually to fight. Each of Fulvia’s husbands were important figures and her sons even more so.
The book is hard going. The names are really annoying: each Roman usually had three names, one of which included their father’s name. They quite often changed one of the names to reflect their status or even added a fourth to celebrate something important they had done. The history itself is terribly complicated. Families divided not only along class lines but also into categories depending whether the patriarch was a would-be emperor or was fighting to support the Republic and the Senate.
Most histories and dramatisations of that period sideline or miss out Fulvia altogether, despite the fact that Mark Antony owed his rise to power (and subsequent downfall) to her. Shakespeare’s. ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ for example - not to mention ‘Up Pompeii’ or ‘Carry on Cleo’!
‘La Romana’ (‘Woman of Rome’) by Alberto Moravia, 1947
In contrast to ‘Fulvia’, the protagonist of Moravia’s novel, Adriana, is just one of the many millions of impoverished and marginalised women of the years immediately following WW2. This was another of Rome and Italy’s most turbulent periods, in this case the transition from the dictatorship of Mussolini and the Nazis, to a republic.
And another difficult read! Moravia’ themes include modern sexuality, social alienation and existentialism. He explains in a foreword that whilst an uneducated young woman like Adriana would not have the vocabulary or the ability to articulate her thoughts and ideas so clearly, nevertheless her feelings and observations are real and genuine. I agree: her sense of what is going on and the way she reacts seem remarkably real*1.
At the age of 15, when the story begins, Adriana lives with her mother in Rome. Her mother, who is embittered that her husband is gone*2 and she, a poor seamstress, is left to raise the girl on her own. Her one dream, since Adrian is extremely beautiful, is that her daughter will induce a rich man to fall in love with her and marry her. To this end, she is not averse to, well, pimping her out if necessary; certainly taking every opportunity to push her towards men with money. As it turns out, Adriana finds she enjoys sex and, since she is often given money by these men, she decides she can make a more money by doing this explicitly full time.
She does meet influential men who fall in love with her but they are not interested in marriage, they only want a mistress. She does learn from this experience that she can also use them for her own ends. She meets people of her own age who become friends; she meets fascists and antifascists and even a murderer who falls in love with her. Eventually she, herself, falls desperately in love with a young student. He is a writer and an anti-fascist campaigner, but he turns out to be a nightmare! The way that Adriana describes him to us, he has all the hallmarks of an alcoholic and a manic depressive*3.
It is a very impressive novel that captures the spirit of the times. Moravia was an established author by this time. Several of his novels have been turned into films including, most notably, ‘The conformist’ which was published in the same year as La Romana, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci in 1970.
*1. This seems an unusually feminist piece of writing for a man of this time. Only a small number of Moravia’s books are still available to buy.
*2. I can’t remember whether he dies in the war or abandons her for someone else. Her bitterness and cynicism, though, is part of her character as well.
*3. I won’t tell you the ending: it will only make you more depressed.
Chris Shaw 26.12.2025