Constructing a New Woman for the Body Politic: The Creation of Claudia Quinta

Abstract

Rome’s legendary historical narrative is an excellent source for the defining characteristics of self-constructed Roman identity.1 While this identity naturally centers on the masculine military/political realm, women do play a role in the construction of Romanitas. Rhea Silvia is raped to bear Rome’s founders; the kidnapped Sabine women form a human shield between their men folk to meld two peoples into one; and women like Tullia Minor and Tarpeia serve as negative examples of correct behavior. The positive portrayals of individual women usually end in their sacrifice to the greater good of the Roman state. In particular, the tragedies of Lucretia and Verginia mark major turning points in the sociopolitical Roman landscape. To quote Sandra Joshel’s introduction to her landmark article “The Female Body and the Body Politic,” “raped, dead, or disappeared women litter the pages” of Livy’s comprehensive history (Joshel 1992, 112). There is another way that legendary women can contribute to the mos maiorum, however. Although Roman women’s social position limited their political roles to inspirational victims, in the religious sphere women had the potential to contribute substantially to the construction of Roman identity and bolster the safety of the state without becoming a sacrifice. One such woman is Claudia Quinta, who performs a miracle in the service of the Magna Mater and thereby, at least according to legend, saves Rome from Hannibal’s invading Punic armies. Joshel suggests that positive portrayals of active women appear in the literary records only when events force Roman historians to admit them. Yet Claudia Quinta’s act of superhuman strength in the service of the Magna Mater cannot have been an unavoidable fact of history. Evidence suggests that not only the miracle but the woman herself were fabricated in order to serve a socio-religious goal. That moment in Rome’s self-fashioning was defined by a purely legendary event where a female character was created, given a voice and the power to act both on her own behalf and in the best interests of the state. Claudia Quinta represents a different way