Authors and Amicitia: Women and Letter Writing in Late Antiquity By Susie Hutchinson The main body of evidence for the lives and education of aristocratic women in Late Antiquity comes from literary sources: namely letters and hagiography. Typically, only male responses to letters are recorded, and each example of hagiography has a male author. Constructing the world of women is complicated further by the polemic and rhetorical nature of the literature.
further, support for education and intellectuality waivered in the opinion of church fathers. His ideals on education are similarly echoed later with his letter to Paula the Elder’s daughter-in-law, Laeta, on the education of her consecrated daughter Paula the Younger. Laeta is encouraged to teach Paula to learn to read from an early age, setting a passage of Scripture for her every day. Jerome prescribes the Psalms, proverbs of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Job, the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles, the Prophets and the Heptateuch, books of Kings and Chronicles, the rolls of Ezra and Esther, then Song of Songs for her to learn. He asks that Paula should read Cyprian’s writings, Athanasius’ letters, and Hilary’s works critically. Again, however, Jerome discourages certain literature, here the apocryphal books.
There is strong evidence for the opportunity for women to be highly educated and apply intellect in letters, hagiographic texts, and the case of Proba’s Cento. Letter culture was prominent in Late Antiquity. Aristocratic webs of patronage and friendship, amicitia, continued through Christianity, and is made particularly evident through the act of letter writing. Unfortunately, nearly all the letters that survive are male responses, and therefore the voices of the women themselves are lacking. Nonetheless, we can still analyse these letters and their requests for advice on education and intellectual debate on scripture. The provision of these materials suggests that women had access to a religious education and conversing with such prominent church fathers suggests a level of acceptance for this learning. Women also had the opportunity to utilise their education to participate in intellectual discussions. This correspondence shows women were not just reading, but were also engaging in religious debate and discourse. St. Augustine of Hippo and St. Jerome, along with others, were in correspondence with some of the most elite aristocratic women known to us. Jerome corresponded with aristocratic women such as Marcella (325-410), Paula the Elder (347-404), her daughter Eustochium (c. 368-419), her daughter-inlaw Laeta (c. 375-before 419), and Laeta’s daughter Paula the Younger (born c. 400). Eustochium began life in Rome and chose to reject marriage and remain a virgin, following her mother’s chaste example. Writing to her in 384, Jerome instructs her on the proper education of a virgin and encourages her Scriptural learning: ‘spend much of your time reading and learn as much as possible’. He recommends the Gospels and commentaries and theology from Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose, and verse and prose by Pope Damascus. The scope of reading material is therefore quite large. Jerome does, however, discourage her from appearing too intelligent or from reading classical works such as Horace. Despite a wide range of scripture being available and intellectuality being praised as a virtue in other women, as I will discuss
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There is also evidence to suggest that women read scripture, requesting analysis from church fathers, and that they engaged intellectually with them. Marcella, who remained in Rome as a widow after only seven months, had a significant amount of correspondence with Jerome. Through Jerome’s letters we find she requested copies of commentaries from other bishops on the Song of Songs, asked questions about specific phrasing of Psalms, explanations of untranslated Hebrew words and names, and rigorously interrogated Scripture, theology and divinity. Augustine too wrote to elite women, with a focus on the late antique Anician women: Proba, her daughter-in-law Anicia Juliana and Juliana’s daughter Demetrias. His letters to women focus more on responses to requests for treatise and materials. Proba wrote to Augustine requesting a treatise on the subject of prayer for widows. Proba is clearly well-read as she is described as understanding Christian philosophy surrounding the soul. As I will discuss, Proba’s Christian education is most visibly demonstrated in her Cento. Augustine addressed the work De Bono Viduitatis to Juliana, a treatise on the profession of widowhood. Closing the work, Augustine describes the volume of scripture Demetrias can read along with the hint of deeper scriptural analysis he has given her before. It is clear, therefore, that Christianity provided an arena within which women could become literary experts, as the material they read was sanctified by God. Although material was circumscribed by church fathers, and therefore the opportunity for education and intellect curtailed, some have suggested that this reflects their anxieties that women were reading material they were not supposed to have access to. Augustine
