There were actually drastic changes between Constantine and Marcus Aurelius. The Empire effectively fell apart in the 3rd century AD, and was cobbled back together by warlords. By the time of Constantine, between changing norms and the weakening of Rome's (and Italy's) position as central to the Empire led to Constantine being able to push through changes like turning "Death penalty for anyone raping a freeborn person" to "Any woman who is raped is put to death if she doesn't scream loud enough" (itself a violation of one of the oldest norms of Roman society regarding rape which dates back to the founding of the Republic). Christian values!

The provinces of the 1st and 2nd century AD were still heavily influenced by traditional Roman values, especially in the Western half of the Empire. And some of those provinces were more female-friendly than Roman traditions were. We have evidence of Roman businesswomen acting in their own names as far east as Syria and as far west as Britain.

thank you for your time writing all this, it was very interesting.

Anytime! Rome is a personal obsession of mine, lol.

perhaps i can interest you in the book that triggered my response in the first place? it tries to shine a light on what happened to drive men away from women, i.e. how the patriarchy came to be (probably) the english title is “the good book of human nature” … the mind boggles as to why the author shies away from just calling it “the truth about eva” which would be the direct translation from german, i can only assume it’s to not cause to big an upheaval among religious folks…

I've not heard of that book in particular, but I've read numerous articles in academic journals about how patriarchy arose in various societies. Ugly stuff.

[–] janet_catcus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 month ago

cant remember what this book said about pre constantine, as it was mostly concerned with how the patriarchy developed beginning about 8000years ago, so nonsurviving cultures arent that interesting, except to highlight that indeed we could have been equal all along, if not for the rise of monotheism and then christianity.

the book also highlights how the teachings of jesus were perverted by the church to suppress women from having a say in anything. not only that, it also changed how i see this no-nut bullshit. i used to see it as a silly practice some silly men would do. but now i see it as the continuation of demonizing sexuality. (granted, if you got a problem then you got a problem, but the solutionis to go seek help, not to maim a beautiful woman, thinking she's a demon (as was pretty common in the past, thanks to christianity)) and how religion is basically just politics moved into the clouds, and how monotheism fueled tyrants..

it is funny how it was all basically already there, in stories and films, but seeing it all connected hits hard