Abstract
This thesis uses social network analysis models and statistical data to answer the following key research questions:• Were marriages mainly used to cement, and/or initiate, political alliances between powerful men and/or families?
• Were all late republican senatorial elites related? Is this evidence for an ordo matronarum amongst elite women?
• Was the, often great, age disparity between spouses intentional and the norm?
• How often, and under what circumstances, did an elite widow or divorcée remarry?
• Did stepmothers play an active role in the upbringing of their husband’s other children?
• At what life stage was an elite Roman woman most likely to demonstrate her agency?
• Did elite fathers value daughters over sons?
11 gynocentric networks have been created, with 12 elite women of the late Roman republic as the focal actors of the networks. By visualising their multi-generational familial connections, their significance and structurally central position within their families and Roman society can be identified more easily than through traditional family trees.
An overview of social network analysis, coupled with a detailed methodology and assessment of historical network research concludes that network models offer historians new ways of interpreting, visualising and understanding past events and societies and how ancient people were connected to each other to form complex social structures.
Keywords: social network analysis, female agency, elite Roman women, late Roman republic, elite female networks, network visualisations
| Date of Award | 1 Jun 2022 |
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| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Henrik Mouritsen (Supervisor) & Dominic Rathbone (Supervisor) |