The ancient Roman Senate opens its doors to the public once again for the PArCo Thursdays lecture series, with “Radici classiche: alle origini del femminile” (“Classical roots: the origins of the feminine”), a series of conferences that compares the representations and daily lives of women in Roman society and later periods.

Against the evocative backdrop of the Curia Iulia the conferences, in the form of conversations between two specialists, give the public the opportunity to reflect together upon the history of Roman women and upon those aspects that continue to influence our interpretation of female existence within domestic, public and political spheres up to the current day.

On 12 September, historian Andrea Giardina and Parco archeologico del Colosseo director Alfonsina Russo will introduce the lecture series; each conference will then see PArCo archeologists and scholars from Italian and foreign universities expand upon the female experience through an analysis of selected privileged contexts to show how women were not always excluded from public and political life. On the contrary, they exerted significant influence in family political strategies and in operations of intervention and mediation, and acted as deputies during emergencies and in times of civil war.

Our goal is to involve the ever-growing public in the studies conducted over the past thirty years which have enriched our understanding of the role played by women and of the relations between the sexes in the ancient period, drawing comparisons at every lecture with the modern and contemporary periods.

The seven dates, organized by Marina D’Amelia, Ines Arletti and Alessandro D’Alessio, will take place on Thursday afternoons at 16:30, from 12 September to 31 October 2019. The project is promoted by the Parco archeologico del Colosseo with the invaluable contribution of the Società Italiana delle Storiche, and has been made possible in collaboration with Electa.

Free entry subject to availability (100 seats with standing room for 30), upon exhibition of event invitation or program.

Download the program here: RADICI CLASSICHE 2019