M. Paris draws special attention to these inscriptions which he himself and M. Radet discovered at Sillyium, in which a woman of the name of Menodora is praised. The first inscription begins: “The senate and people honoured her as a priestess of all the gods and a hierophantis for life and a decaprote, also as demiourgos and gymnasiarch.” Then the inscription details the extraordinary gifts which she bestowed on her native city, including a large sum for the maintenance of children. The other two inscriptions are of a similar nature.
M. Paris can find no other explanation of the activity of woman in Asia than in the altered and decaying state of affairs in that country during the Roman Empire. But it is remarkable that the matriarchate existed in Lycia longer than in most places.[254]
(2) THE SPEECH OF AUGUSTUS ON MARRIAGE.
The opinions expressed in the speech of Augustus were to be found in a series of works on marriage, which appeared from the time of Zeno to that of Libanius. They all agreed that it was the duty of every citizen to marry, and they assigned nearly the same reasons as those adduced by Augustus. A slight exception is made by Theophrastus, who came to the conclusion that the philosopher ought not to marry, on account of the entanglements and distractions which marriage generally brought along with it. As most of the philosophers who wrote on the subject of marriage were Stoics, Praechter supposes that at the earliest period of Stoicism marriage became a topic of regular discussion, and so the commonplaces of the school were handed down from one to the other. Bock, on the other hand, thinks that the initiative is due to Aristotle.
Clemens Alexandrinus made use of the Stoic materials, and especially of the works of Musonius, but he differed from the Stoics in thinking that men were not bound to marry: marriage was lawful and beneficial, but not obligatory. He agreed with Zeno,[255] Musonius, Plutarch, and other writers in the opinion that women ought to receive the same kind of education as men, due regard being paid to the peculiar physical constitution of women.[256]
Praechter gives a list of the various writers who have discussed marriage.[257]
(3) MEDICAL WOMEN.
Women from an early date tried to cure diseases, and in Homer special mention is made of Hecamede who mixed potions. Frequent notice is taken in post-Homeric times of midwives and their art, and doubtless some women applied themselves to a complete study of medicine, practised the art whenever they had opportunity, and contributed to the advancement of medical science. Mélanie Lipinska has written an interesting account of these women. A story in the work bearing the name of Hyginus (Hygini Fabulæ),[258] written probably in the reign of Augustus, with later interpolations, proves that in the time of its production it was believed that women had practised in Greece. The fable states that Chiron the Centaur first founded the art of the surgeon from herbs, Apollo first introduced the cure of the eyes, and Asclepius discovered clinical medicine. The ancients, it goes on to say, had no midwives, in consequence of which women, through modesty, perished, for the Athenians had decreed that no slave or woman should learn the art of medicine. A girl of the name of Agnodice longed to learn this art, and cutting off her hair, and putting on the dress of a man, she went to a person named Hierophilus, and learned from him the art. After making this acquisition she happened to hear a woman crying out in the pangs of labour, and she went up to her. The woman refused her proffered aid, because she thought that Agnodice was a man—but Agnodice at once gave clear proof of her sex, and was allowed to cure her. Somehow the women of Athens came to know of this, and Agnodice was constantly called in. The doctors were furious at her success, for of course the women refused them admission, and they accused her before the Areopagus of corrupting her patients; Agnodice would have been condemned, had she not taken off her male garments before the judges and proved her sex. But the doctors were only the more infuriated. Whereupon the chief women of Athens went to the court and said, “You are not husbands but enemies, for you condemn her who has saved our lives.” Then the Athenians amended their law, making it legal for freeborn women to learn the art of medicine.
(4) WOMEN IN EGYPT.
In a complete survey of the influence of women in ancient times notice would have to be taken of a remarkable set of women who appeared in Macedonia, Epirus, and especially in Egypt from about 333 B.C. to the beginning of the Christian era. These women took a prominent part in public affairs. Some of them led armies and fought personally on the battle-field. They entered into alliances, carried on endless intrigues, and wielded much power. But they were all members of royal families, wives or daughters of kings, and often styled queens. Justin says in regard to one reign that the government was carried on in the name of the son, but it was the mother that exercised the sway. In Egypt there was a continuous effort on the part of the women of the royal family to mingle in public affairs. And finally they succeeded in obtaining the mastery. The most famous of them, Cleopatra the VIIth, though governing nominally along with her brother, was the supreme ruler, and possessing all the rights of an absolute ruler, as Strack says, held in her hand for many years the Sceptre of Egypt, and directed the rudder of the Ship of State according to her own good pleasure.