It should be noted that these injunctions to young wives which aimed to bring them back to their senses culminated in the final call `to be in submission to their own husbands' (uTroza(Y6op6vas Toil i6fots &vbp&otv). Given that the preceding terms discussed were `self-control, `purity', and `kindness' and `lovers of their husbands and children, this last injunction sought at the very least to counter a prevalent view of marriage in which a wife might pursue a life of pleasure as some of the Roman wives did. It may also be aimed at the problem of adultery and, if that was the case, then the use of `own' (ibiots) contrasted with any sexual surrendering of themselves to another man. An inscription from the Roman period recording the virtues of a woman who was `fair, good, gentle, and divinely beautiful' proudly adds that she was `faithful to one husband' - the last term meant literally a woman of `one marriage bed' (povvoXEXq).88
The Neo-Pythagoreans provide an interesting contrast between those who love their families and focus on their needs and the promiscuous wife whose deviousness forces her into deception which undermines the household as well:
Having mastery over appetite and high feelings, she will be righteous and harmonious; no lawless desires will impel her. She will preserve a loving disposition towards her husband and children and entire household. As many women as become lovers of alien beds become enemies of all at home, both the free members and the servants of the household (Xcu6epwv zc xai of cET&ov). Such a woman continually contrives lies and deceits for her husband and fabricates falsehoods about everything to him, in order that she may seem to excel in good will and, though she loves idleness, may seem to govern her house to such an extent.89
On the basis of this verse (2:4), Marshall suggests `that one of the goals of the teaching is to prevent younger women from adopting patterns of careless, flighty living that would attract criticism'.90 This goes some way to securing the sense but it was not primarily preventative but restorative in terms of the traditional role of women. The adjectives used help confirm that the concerns were not notional and primarily preventative. The significance of the verb is that older women were good teachers when they called their younger sisters back to their senses concerning their responsibilities in marriage to their hus bands, their children, the management of their own households, and above all sexual faithfulness to their own husbands.
The term `debauchery' (6CGwTla) had also been mentioned early in the letter as a vice among `children' (1:6), and the existence of such behaviour by members of the families of potential elders ruled the father out of that role in Christian communities. The reference there must be to older and not younger children because they would have had to have reached puberty in order to engage in sustained sexual misconduct.91
Strabo refers to another Cretan peculiarity, viz. `love affairs' which were limited to male homosexual liaisons as part of a rite of passage into manhood for Cretan citizens. Young men were sought out for sexual intercourse by their own gender and rewarded for submitting to them.92 This conduct was not endorsed in Roman society for it was a criminal offence to sexually penetrate a male who was a Roman citizen, although no breach of the law occurred on the part of a Roman who penetrated a male who was not a citizen. 93
The reference to `debauchery' may refer in part to this and also a disease known in the ancient and modern medical terminology as `priapism' or `satyriasis' known to be suffered by Cretans. A plant, satyrion, was used as an aphrodisiac and the resulting condition if untreated could cause death. Themison in his work Symptoms of Acute Diseases recalled that `often in Crete many men die of satyriasis [priapism] ... because a plant called satyrion is often consumed in great quantities' 94
While it is known that soon after reaching puberty young women married, usually between the ages of fourteen and seventeen, the age at which young men took the toga virilis was around eighteen. This transition was seen as providing the licence to `sow their wild oats' with society's general acquiescence. In Athens when `the new adult, aged eighteen, usually acquired the right to accept invitations to recline ... he was considered sufficiently mature to cope with sexual advances'.95 Tacitus records, `The elegant banquet .. . along with the use of the toga ... are the enticements of Romanization, to vice and servitude.'96 Cicero would have sneered at the call to sexual purity on the part of young adults not yet married (Titus 2:6). He wrote:
If there is anyone who thinks that youth [males] should be forbidden affairs even with courtesans, he is doubtless eminently austere, but his view is contrary not only to the licence of this age, but also to the custom and concessions of our ancestors.97
His appeal was to contemporary culture and ancestral conventions for young Roman men. Evidence produced shows that already in the first century some married women did compete with courtesans for the sexual favours of younger or other men at their debauched banquets.
There were no less rigorous demands made on `older' men, i.e., married men who were not normally censured by society because of their adultery in the `after dinners' or for their quarrelsome conduct.98 On the latter Plutarch noted `the practice of the Cretans, who often quarrelled with and warred with each other'.99 However Titus 2:2 calls upon them to be `temperate in the use of wine, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, love and patience'. The younger men did not escape the counter-cultural demands made of them, given the societal endorsement of their indulging themselves at din ners with wine and fornication or engaging in sexual liaisons with their own gender in the rite of passage to manhood. The single comprehensive imperative was sufficient to refute the Roman Cretan values of the self-indulgence of young men.100
Immediately after chapter 2:i-lo, which also included instructions to older and younger men as well as slaves, the grace of God is declared to have brought salvation to all. Its intention involves
instructing us that we should renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age (7taibrUOU6a i pas 'Na &pvq66gsvoi T V wfI3E1av xai zas Kooµ1K&S r vpfac 6w4p6vws xai 6 aiwc xai ri or JS (rjowJEV).... [God's aim is] to purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds (2:11-12, 14).
This theme is repeated in 3:3-8 where the goodness and loving-kindness of God our Saviour appeared for salvation. The purpose was not only that those Cretans who believed might be justified and have hope of eternal life but also that they would be godly and apply themselves to good works that were excellent and profitable to others (1:1, 2:14, 3:8). Christian virtues that manifested themselves in good works and that benefited others could be undertaken only if there was a renunciation of those Cretan values that were antithetical to them.
In the city of Aphrodisias the wife of Pereitas Kallidedes, Tatu, was officially recognised in her death by `the Council and the People'. They `honoured' her on her sarcophagus as `a woman who was modest (Gc 4 pova), who loved her husband and children (4iaavl pov Kai 4ta6TEKVOV), and who all her life was adorned with dignity and virtue (KOapg6EiGav GE1V6TT1zt Kai &pEip)'.101
Some sixty years ago Lattimore argued on the basis of epigraphic material surveyed in his book: `The world disclosed by the Greek epitaphs is mostly a woman's world, existing at a time when the old Athenian ideal had gone out of fashion even as an ideal. To be sure, it is mostly the old-fashioned virtues on which they are complimented; with beauty, they must have faith, honesty, seemliness, above all, affection for husband and family. They are praised because their children resemble their fathers, for being faithful to one husband, for loving their husbands in the good old way, for housekeeping, even for being yuv~ 4stbwXi [a thrifty wife] '102
The terminology used in 2:4-5 helps provide a composite picture of what young Christian married women were being called upon to abandon and what they were being summoned back to do. They were to operate with modesty primarily in the arena of the `household' (Tx tbta) which in the first century was distinguished from the other sphere, i.e., `the public place' (Tro - atzsi(X).103 Because the age for the consummation of marriage for young w
omen in the first century could be immediately after puberty to mid or late teens, the temptation to look for casual liaisons was not peculiar to their husbands who normally were a decade older. For the latter group adultery was a social given but a husband was to be above reproach, being a `one woman' man if he was to be considered for the eldership in the Christian community (1:6). The opening chapters of this book provided evidence of wives following their spouse's promiscuous example, and the legal steps taken to curb their unfaithfulness to their husbands was examined in chapter 3.
The tying of the virtues of the wife to salvation is unique in Titus. If Christian bonded servants (2:10) were required to live in such a way as `to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour', then in the final purpose clause younger women were not to engage in inappropriate conduct that caused the word of God to be blasphemed (2:5). It was not the husband who would be shamed by the wife's inappropriate conduct, but rather the word of God would be contradicted by it. Rome banned certain religious cults which were cloaks for political or promiscuous conduct. This may also have been an aspect of the background to this comment about discrediting the Christian faith by sexual and other forms of misconduct (2:5).104
In the light of the above discussion it is suggested that discrediting the Christian faith would occur for the following reasons: if young wives (i) did not return to their role of loving their husbands and children; (ii) did not exercise self-control but indulged in debauchery; (iii) were not pure, or committed to managing their own households; (iv) were not kind or submissive to husbands in the intimacy of marriage but engaged in casual sexual liaisons. Where this happened the credibility of the Christian message would be called into question. In terms of marital infidelity they would open themselves to judicial censure for adultery, but in terms of their religious profession their conduct would contradict their Christian confession.105
This divorce between faith and ethical conduct would deny the claims of Christianity and hold it up to ridicule. In the verses that immediately follow, the grace of God is said to train or discipline Christians to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives. Grace is spelt out in terms of redemption from all iniquity with the aim to create a community that would be zealous for good works (2:11-14), which included older and younger wives and did not exclude older or younger men.
What is to be concluded from the preceding evidence which explored the Sitz im Leben of Titus 2:3-5? `Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord' was the simple injunction given to Colossian women (Col. 3:18). The following argument supplemented this apostolic tradition to wives in Ephesus: `for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its saviour. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject to their husbands in everything' (Eph. 5:22-24). When this is compared with the teaching given to married women in Titus, it would be difficult to argue that Titus 2:3-5 simply reflected standard apostolic paradosis in `all the churches' (cf. i Cor. 7:17) and therefore had no specific first-century Sitz im Leben in Crete. However, Dibelius and Conzelmann concluded, `The following verses warn against vices which should be avoided by the Christian as a matter of course. That the warning is still presented, even though it would seem to be superfluous, is explained by the consideration that both the rules for the household and the list of virtues frequently use traditional material.'106 Their conclusion, then, that there is no Sitz im Leben, is rejected.
When compared with the instructions to young wives by the older women in the Neo-Pythagorean tradition, the intention in Titus 2 is slightly different. In that case older women give the warmest commendation to those who underwent philosophical instruction on marriage of their own volition because they had been drawn to the Stoic or Neo-Pythagorean lifestyle.107 As we com pare with patterns commended in the philosophical schools, a succinct and perhaps sharper contrast emerges between what was praiseworthy for young married women seeking instruction from older women in the philosophical schools and the role given to older women in relation to the younger wives in the Cretan Christian communities.108 For the latter it was with a very specific task to recall them to their senses by means of a set of specific instructions.
The Cretan behaviour was succinctly epitomised in part by Epimenides' phrase `lazy gluttons'. This is reflected in the behaviour of both men and women in Titus 2:2-6 with the older women's addiction to much wine and slanderous talk and the lack of self-control by younger married women and older and younger men alike.
In the light of the evidence produced in connection with the number of injunctions given to young Cretan Christian wives, it is suggested that they had been influenced by some of their secular married sisters. Terminology used in Titus to counter the situation in Crete fits well with what is known of the `new' Roman women's conduct with their lack of interest in the welfare of the household which Cretan women had to demonstrate their ability to run before marrying. The neglect of her husband as well as her children presumably in favour of a social life that might involve casual extramarital affairs is also commented on. The call, therefore, was for the young Christian wives to come to their senses and no longer follow the secular trend. Just as such a promiscuous mindset earned the disapproval of the philosophical schools and might attract legal penalties under Roman law, so too there was a strong rebuke to be given to young Christian wives.
There could be no special pleading for those wives in the Christian communities on Crete. While their cultural traditions and legal provisions had long ago given them more independence than their sisters in the Eastern Mediterranean, they were not justified in embracing the avant-garde ground rules of the `new women' with the coming of the Romans to their island. These new mores might also have furthered their freedom in another area - inappropriate liaisons with those not their husbands with the resulting neglect of their own spouses and children. In addition, there was the complex management of what was regarded as the backbone of first-century culture, viz. their households, where they were required to `take the helm and steer the household's course'Y09 It was not the legal status in terms of their own prop erty that was being curtailed in any way in the instructions given in Titus 2:35, but their conduct as married women that contradicted their confession of the grace of God that was bringing salvation to all. The aim was to recall them to their responsibilities with the implication that they had abandoned them for a lifestyle that replicated that of the new women whose values had found fertile ground with some in Cretan culture.
Did women in the first century, unlike their earlier Greek sisters, have any place in the `public' domain, what the ancients called politeia (7roXtzsia)?1 Thus far, this book has been concerned to trace the impact of the values of the `new' woman on households, including Christian gatherings held there. The question now being explored is whether women functioned in commerce, in the courts, and in the forum. In this final chapter we will assemble epigraphic evidence that demonstrates that they were able to participate in and contribute to each of these areas of politeia in the first century.2 The concluding section asks whether this social shift affected the way in which the women named in the Pauline communities were able to contribute to the Pauline mission in Corinth and Rome.
Bauman, a Roman legal historian, drew this conclusion. `When Octavian "restored the Republic"; that is, founded the Principate in 27 B.C., he initiated the most far-reaching change in Roman history. It was one that had a profound effect on every aspect of life, including women's role in public affairs. That role was still dominated by the upper echelons of society, but with a difference, for there was now an elite within the elite ... women have a high profile in so many sectors of the Augustan kaleidoscope." He helpfully traces the expanding role of women in the business of government, law and public affairs, and then looks at its connection with the activities of the imperial wives in Rome in the public sphere.4
Culham argues that there was a further effect of the Augustan reforms. `A
ugustus' emphasis on the importance of elite political rank, and his own benevolent display, had the impact of opening new social and economic horizons for elite women, and that in turn had some impact on the lives of men and women outside the elite. 's
To explore this, we will examine the evidence for the role of women in (I) the commercial sphere; (II) the courts; and (III) the political sphere. We will then determine whether the contribution of Christian women was in any way facilitated by these important developments. Section III while recording the civic offices held by a number of women is a detailed discussion of Junia Theodora of Corinth whose composite inscription consists of five official commendations of her by leading cities in the Lycian Federation. It is the longest official extant testimony to the role of any woman in politeia in the first century, or indeed, in the early Empire.' Section IV is a comparative study of evidence from sections I to III and women in the Christian community.
As one would expect, this sort of evidence is naturally sparse given that there was little need to maintain records of transactions, but three areas are examined that provide insights into the participation of women in commercial activity from epigraphic and papyrological sources. Women contributed to commercial and other endeavours using their households as a base. For example, a physician who lived in Pergamum in the second century A.D. recorded that his wife, Pantheia, was not only the mother of his children who had cared for him and them, but she also `took the helm and steered the household's course and heightened the fame it had in the healing art'.'
Jane Gardner in an important article on "Women in Business Life" has, among other things, undertaken a careful analysis of some 170 waxed wooden tablets discovered at Murecine near the Roman colony of Pompeii. They cover the period from March A.D. 26 to February A.D. 61 and relate to women's activities in business in the former city,' showing that women borrowed and lent money and went to court to recover it.9
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