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According to Roman law, women could not represent themselves in court, intervene for others or act as attorneys (Dig. 50.17.2). Why does the museum in Ostia antica say this fresco shows a woman in front of a judge? Does it actually do this, am I missing something? Dr Lewis Webb?

A remarkable fragment of a wall painting from Ostia depicts a woman before a judge. Roman women could appear in court and represent themselves. The fragment is a possible material trace of the practice. Thanks to Julia Hillner for drawing it to my attention.

And here is Helena patron of Jews at the oratorio of S. Silvestro at Ss. Quattro Coronati in Rome. This is from 1246, so about 60 years after Tivoli. This fresco cycle also includes the finding of the True Cross which that in Tivoli doesn’t. Helena looks a lot less Byzantine.

This here is, if I understand this well, the first (extant) representation of Helena in Rome since her lifetime.

Dr Lewis Webb Julia Hillner I think there is no doubt (see e.g. Kaser, Das römische Zivilprozessrecht, index s.v. Frauen) that women 'sui iuris' could act in civil cases, though in the legis actiones they needed the auctoritas tutoris ... /thread

Julia Hillner The original context of this painting is the House of Hercules in Ostia (IV.II.2-4). It was located next to another judicial scene. Photo: Pasini 1978, Pl. 59. For more information: ostia-antica.org/regio4/2/2-3.h… #Classics

Back to basics #HelenaAugusta

Huge thanks to Dr Sophie Hay who showed me this site today! A great finale to my visiting professorship at La Sapienza. Now back to teaching @DependencyBonn

Packing my things, trying to work out how to haul home the books I generously got given by Roman friends old and new. There is so much excellent Italian scholarship, much of it sadly not known enough because not in English.

'Genuinely groundbreaking ... it should be required reading for anyone writing on the politics of the period' I'm so pleased with Michael Kulikowski's assessment of the chapter I co-authored with Ulriika Vihervalli, 'Elite Women and Gender-Based Violence in Late Roman Italy'

Job: 1 Wiss. Mitarb. (m/w/d) "Geschichte der Spätantike und des frühen Mittelalters" (FU Berlin) ift.tt/loQ2gU7

This is part of the reason that #WCCWiki exists, because of the structural discrimination that holds women back. Congratulations to the first woman Camden Professor of Ancient History at Oxford, Professor Valentina Arena

#ICYMI We are looking for a new editorial team!

Valentina Arena FSA is the Camden Professor of Ancient History at the University of Oxford. She is an expert on the history of ancient ideas and political thought, particularly in the Roman Republic #WCCWiki en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentina…

The Camden Chair was established in 1622. Valentina Arena is the 26th Camden Professor and the first woman to hold the position #WCCWiki