Roman Wives, Roman Widows

by Bruce W Winter

  The island of Crete was one of the last Greek strongholds to fall to Republican Rome in 71 B.c. As a result of a subsequent internal war it became a Roman province and was joined with Cyrene in North Africa. It was ruled by a senator of praetorian rank, and the provincial capital was Gortyn on Crete.

  According to Sanders, the progress of Romanization on Crete was steady and this can be marked in part in the Julio-Claudian period by the number of Roman citizenship grants given, especially in the Principate of Claudius. The latter continued under the Flavian emperors. There was also increasing participation by Cretans in Roman affairs in the first century. The family of Aulus Larcius Lepidus Sulpicianus illustrates their integration into Roman culture and society. He was awarded Roman citizenship, and became a quaestor in Crete at the end of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, serving under Vespasian in Judaea. In first-century Crete there is ample extant evidence of the penetration of Roman culture and conventions.15

  Strabo records that the administration of its affairs was carried on `mostly by means of the decrees of the Romans, as is the case in other provinces' even though the constitution of the Cretans was worth noting `on account of its fame'. He observed that naturally not many of the institutions endured after it was given provincial status.16 From late Republican times through the first century and beyond, that did not change.

  The coming of Roman values in no way diminished the gains Cretan women had secured. The change in Rome with married women able to hold property provided the inhabitants of the imperial capital with one of the powerful levers that secured for them greater financial independence from the late Republic onwards, and hence a measure of social freedom.17 It will be suggested that the emergence of the `new' Roman woman in the first century could only fortify the long-established legal gains that already provided a measure of independence for the women of Roman Crete.

  What were the Cretan values that created problems for the Christian communities? The need for `self-control' was stressed not only for the older and younger men but also for the younger wives (Titus 1:8; 2:2, 5, 6). A lack of personal restraint was also evidenced among older women with the uncontrolled consumption of wine and the slandering of others, but the term `self-control' was not used (2:3). This term with its Latin equivalent, pudicitia, refers to a `conscience which keeps a person from shameful [sexual] actions' and in relation to women refers to sexual fidelity. It is also sometimes associated with being `faithful' (fides) to a husband.18 This gives a hint of some of the personal ethics of the Cretans.

  The concerns discussed here about `self-indulgence', `ungodliness' and `worldly passions' were also the subject of comment in the philosophical schools.19 We have already noted that virtues and the vices were recorded as part of the essential education of young men and women in first-century society. Some of these vices, especially self-indulgence, had gained a degree of acceptability among some married women and men in certain circles in the Roman world. (See ch. 2.)

  Like any first-century Christians before their conversion, those on Crete had been brought up to act and respond to issues on the basis of culturally accepted patterns of behaviour. This chapter suggests that the reason for many of the difficulties listed concerning Christian conduct was the culturally determined responses to particular situations and certain relationships. Titus had been left on Crete to `amend what was defective' (Ta XsiirovTa srt- 6top6cv6,) in the nascent Christian communities (1:5). He was now being urged to secure urgent changes in certain behaviour patterns of the local Christians.

  Refusing to renounce some of these cultural responses, or seeing no need to teach converts to do this, would have resulted in a largely culturally driven Cretan Christianity. In the end that would have robbed the new movement of aspects of its distinctiveness. It may well be the reason why countering these responses is a central motif in the letter to Titus. The call to abandon certain traits that were antithetical to the Christian life is found either explicitly or implicitly in the ethical injunctions to both men and women alike (2:12; cf. 1:7; 2:3, 10; 3:1-2, 9). For example, Christians were not to be appointed elders if they were `arrogant, `quick tempered, `a drunkard', `violent, or `greedy for gain'. Furthermore, vices such as `debauchery' and `disobedience' among their children also disqualified potential teaching elders from office (i:6ff).

  The appointment of suitable elders aimed at countering the unhelpful influence of certain instructors in the community, some of whom appear to have operated little differently from their secular counterparts. These Christian teachers were described as `empty talkers and deceivers (pazatoX, yot Kul 4psvaTrazat) who had turned away from the truth' (1:10), and they were also accused of being motivated to teach for personal gain (1:11). These three criticisms had also been made of the virtuoso orators who had come to dominate first-century teachers in education, especially those at the tertiary level. Philosophers and others, including Philo, the first-century Hellenised Jew from Alexandria, made these charges.20

  The first deficiency of `empty talk' was also said to have characterised the content of the public declamations of many orators.21 They focused on rhetorical technique rather than content, and their highly developed powers of persuasion were not used to transform their hearers, but to court the popularity of the crowd they sought to entertain with their vast arsenal of rhetorical tricks. The audiences paid admission fees to listen to their carefully crafted public orations which were largely empty in terms of content. They entertained but did not edify or improve the conduct of their audiences or their pupils.22

  They were also accused of deception. Plato had long ago made a similar two-fold charge against the sophists. The first related to the `magic' of rhetoric and the way it cast a hypnotic spell over its hearers, deceiving them into think ing that wisdom was being imparted to them.23 Dio Chrysostom speaks of the activities of the sophists at the Isthmian games held close to Corinth with a similar analogy of `jugglers showing their tricks'.24 They were also charged with being deceiving with misleading merchandise. In the early Empire the orators had usurped the traditional role of philosophers as educators in the cardinal civic virtues of the young. While teaching the virtues of `prudence, `self-control, `righteousness' and `courage' as critical for the classical education of the rising generation, many of the teachers pursued a lifestyle that was marked by the opposite cardinal vices of `folly, `intemperance, `injustice' and 'cowardice'. 25

  When challenged concerning their inconsistency some sophists actually rationalised their conduct by resorting to philosophical arguments that combined first-century Platonism and Hedonism.26 No longer was the body Plato's `prison house of the soul', but now its house was to be enjoyed by its occupant. The bodily senses were said to be the courtiers and guardians of the immortal soul, and nature meant them to be used and experienced to the full. The lifestyle of the sophists when compared with those they said were 'training for dying' validated their philosophical argument.21 It was also said of these teachers of Cretan Christians that `their minds and consciences are corrupted, for `to the pure all things are pure, and to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure' (1:15). There was a deep-seated inconsistency in the behaviour patterns of these Christian teachers, for theirs was not `a knowledge of the truth that accords with godliness' (m). `They profess to know God, but they denied God by their deeds' (1:16).

  The third charge against sophists was that of `greed'. The motivation of personal financial gain is mentioned of both potential elders and existing teachers in the Christian communities (1:7, ii). The first-century A.D. Cynic Epistles recorded that the sophists `have little regard for education, but concern themselves with making money' as does Neilus, the Alexandrian student in his letter home to his father.28 Dio also condemns sophists who `for gain make false pretensions'.29 In a comparable secular setting this took two forms. In the schools of the sophists, students were charged exorbitant tuition fees.30 It has already been noted that the audience paid an entry fee to hear a one-off lecture or a series of public declamations by an
orator. Sophists were among the rich and powerful first-century teachers, and increasing their wealth is what motivated much of what they did.31

  Certain Christian teachers on Crete were singled out for censure, `especially (p6cXtGTa) members of the circumcision party' (i:io). Jewish communities were known to have existed on the island from at least the first century B.C. Crete would not have been the only place where Christian teachers of Jewish origins had absorbed the values of secular orators or followed their conventions.32 Philo testifies that his fellow Jews in Alexandria who were trained in rhetoric paraded their superiority among their compatriots or sought preferment in official positions under `our rulers', the Romans in Egypt.33 In Rome, a Jewish orator named Caecilius wrote on the superiority of the Attic style over the Asian as well as other literary works. This made him one the leading critics in the literary world of his day.34 The Jewish/ Graeco-Roman divide in the Diaspora was not a sharp one in the field of education.35

  The teachers were said to be upsetting `whole families' (1:11). The convention of declaiming in a household was well established in the first century.36 The role of tutors was critical in the education of the young, including the daughters of some households, and sometimes provided instruction for everyone. The personal benefits accruing to teachers were offset for some of them by their being put on the same level as others employed in the households, viz. the bondservants.37 That would have created something of a prece dent for the activities in the early Christian families. This is recorded in both Titus 1:11 and in Acts 20:20 where instruction was given not only in a public gathering but also in households in Ephesus.

  The preceding discussion noted that some of these Christian instructors were uncritical of Roman Cretan culture. They themselves had clearly been shaped and motivated by the academic fraternity of the first century. It seems that little emphasis had been given to the personal transformation of the lives of those they taught. It comes then as no surprise that instructors felt no compulsion to persuade those whom they taught of the need to renounce unacceptable patterns of conduct derived from their cultural surroundings. This may help explain the problem of minimal personal transformation that had occurred in the Cretan churches and the need for Titus to redress this malaise as a matter of urgency.

  Although the text does not name the author, it has been assumed that it was Epimenides who was described as `one of their own prophets' who succinctly epitomised the deficiencies of his compatriots by three vices.38 `Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons (Kp>lzss 651 TEOGTat, xaxa 9gpia, ya0z6psc &pyai)' (1:12).39 Just as the term to `Corinthianize' in Greek meant `to fornicate' given the sexual notoriety of the city in the Greek period, so too, `to play the Cretan' (Kpgzi(sty) had long been used to mean `to lie'. Polybius records that conspirators discussed a plot `from a thoroughly Cretan point of view'. When they met their victim they did not initially consider, `as the saying is, "he was trying to play the Cretan with a Cretan". . . although a Cretan and ready to entertain every kind of suspicion regarding others'.40 Plutarch also quotes the saying: `in thus "playing the Cretan against a Cretan"; as the saying is, he misjudged his opponent'.41 Strabo cites a proverb based on the inhabitants of that island: "`The Cretans do not know the sea" is applied to those who pretend not to know what they do know.'42 This suggests that Cretans regarded lying as culturally acceptable, and hence the use of the term `to speak like a Cretan' came to mean `to lie'. It may not be insignificant that in all the literature to the Pauline communities it is only in Titus that one particular aspect of the nature of God is spelt out. He is the God `who never lies' (6 & prvbi S). One implication of this is that Cretan Christians can be assured of the hope of eternal life because God keeps the promises he made ages ago with respect to this (1:2). If Cretans could not be relied to speak the truth, God could.

  `Evil beasts' indicated their behaviour on an island that was said to be devoid of wild animals. The inhabitants and not the animals are the `wild ones' intent on destroying life on this legendary beautiful island in the Aegean.41

  `Lazy gluttons' refers to their `self-indulgence' at feasts. Plutarch records a peculiarly Cretan phenomenon of the `public mess' (&vbpria), which was something like an `association'. Each of the fifteen members who comprised the group donated a bushel of barley, eight gallons of wine, five pounds of figs and two and a half pounds of cheese. Young boys could attend such gatherings, in order, it was suggested, to benefit from the discussion of the adult men.44 However much this might happen during the dinner, the example of fifteen men consuming one hundred and twenty gallons of wine per month at such dinners would provide an unhelpful paradigm when boys reached the age of eighteen and assumed the toga virilis. Excessive drinking at meals and afterwards went hand in hand with immorality. The term that Plutarch uses, &vbpria, denoted `courage' or `manliness' which was also a euphemism for the male sexual organ.45 Strabo writing of an earlier period refers to the same public messes and the effects these had on young Cretan boys moving towards manhood in terms of toughening them up, although he makes no mention of their social drinking, etc. He notes that `even today, they are still called Andreial.46

  These uncomplimentary characterisations of the Cretans centuries before the coming of Christianity to the island were still regarded as valid, for `This witness [of Epimenides] is true' (i µapTvpia aura soTly c XgOj) (1:13). The immediate discussion in the letter reflects Epimenides' summation - 'because of this (bt' ffv)', i.e., his witness of the Cretans' lifestyle, Titus was to `rebuke them sharply, in order that (Yva) they may be sound in the faith' (1:13). Sound faith was antithetical to Roman Cretan ethical norms.47 In the letter to Titus liars and deceivers were contrasted with those who furthered the truth, evil doers with the lovers of good, and the self-indulgent with those who exercised self-control (1:9,1:12, c f . 1 : 1 , 3 : 8 , 1 : 8 , 2 : 1 , 5 , 6 , 9 - 1 0 ) . Towards the end of the letter there is a description of the vices said to be endemic in all humanity including Jews. `For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various kinds of passions and pleasures (6ovXE1 ovrES sMftpiats Kal r bovais), passing our days in malice and envy, hated by men and hating one another' (3:3). However, this letter distinguished between the negative characteristics of humanity as a whole (3:3) and specific cultural deficiencies of Cretans cited from Epimenides (1:12) that were to be subject to discussion (chs. 1-2).

  There is an overall emphasis in this letter on ethical instructions for Christians of both genders. Certain ethical demands made of older and younger men were also required of older married women and younger wives. The nexus between older men and women is also clear - ethical injunctions to older men, and `likewise' (ccouftcos) other instructions to older women (2:3). Older women were to help younger women in coping with married life and relationships. This is succinctly covered by a number of terms demanding the re-evaluation of their lifestyle and the restraint of their instincts (2:4-5). Then the younger men were immediately addressed, again with the same connective, `likewise'; they were to have `self-control' in all areas of their lives (2:6). For Titus to teach these ethical commands given to both men and women was part of the overall strategy to amend what was seen to be `deficient' in the Christian communities; these were foils to the culturally determined norms of the inhabitants of first-century Roman Crete as the following section will show.

  Older women were not to be `addicted to much wine' (i? otvo 7roXX bsbovXw i vas) (2:3), implying a problem of drunkenness among them. Aulus Gellius in his early-second-century A.D. Attic Nights cites an excerpt from a speech by Marcus Cato (95-46 B.c.) on the life and drinking conventions of women of long ago.

  Those who have written about the life and culture of the Roman people say that women in Rome and Latium `lived an abstemious life, which is to say that they abstained altogether from wine, called temetum in the early language, and that it was the custom to kiss their relatives so they could smell whether or not they had been drinking. Women, however, are said to have drunk the wine of the sec
ond press, raisin wine, myrrh-flavoured wine, a sweet drink. Marcus Cato reports that women were not only judged but also punished by a judge as severely for drinking wine as for committing adultery.

  Gellius then revealed that he had `copied Cato's words from a speech called On the dowry.... "The husband," he says, "who divorces his wife is her judge, as though he were a censor; he has power if she has done something perverse and awful; if she has drunk wine she is punished ...'."48

  In an extensive and sophisticated discourse on wine growing, on the quality of vintage and other wines and the problems of excessive drinking, Pliny notes the case of Egnatius where the offending husband was acquitted of his wife's murder because she drank wine from the vat.49 He also records information from Fabius Pictor where a woman was starved to death by relatives for having broken open the casket containing the keys to the wine cellar. Pliny also notes Cato's explanation of the origins of the custom of women being kissed by male relatives to determine whether they had drunk wine. He explains that the origin of the word `tipsy' was that women smelt of `tipple, meaning `wine'. The judge, Gnaeus Domitius, fined a woman the amount of her dowry for having `drunk more wine than was required for her health'. Pliny also recorded `that a great economy in the use of this commodity prevailed for a long time'. He reported that `women were not allowed to drink wine' in former times in Rome.so

  Almost a century earlier than Pliny, Valerius Maximus, who wrote in the time of Tiberius, recorded that there had been a penalty for `violating the laws of sobriety'. He also was aware of the case of Egnatius Mecennius from the reign of Romulus who for a `much slighter cause' cudgelled his wife to death because she had drunk wine. He noted: `All agreed that the penalty she paid to injured Sobriety was an excellent precedent.' At the end of his discussion Valerius Maximus discloses his own convictions about the nexus between excessive drinking and misconduct in his own day: `and true it is that any female who seeks the use of wine closes the door on every virtue and opens it to every vice .151