Misogyny in Ancient Rome a.k.a. The plight of being a clever woman in Rome
A Roman woman was expected to be educated just enough in order to understand her husband's opinions and work. Anything more than this was frowned upon and considered off-putting and therefore an intelligent woman would have to be particularly careful not to exhibit this (in fact she would have to go to great pains to mask her cleverness) as this might show her as being more clever and / or educated than the men around her which was definitely not on for Roman men. (Any of this sound familiar? Hm. It seems some things never change! Anyway, getting back to the Romans....) The Roman poet Juvenal even went so far as to write a caustic attack on women, thus revealing to us the precise forms of behaviors which vexed Roman men. For instance, the men would be greatly embarrassed by and indeed dislike women who were more learned or clever than they were. Juvenal writes the below particularly misogynist foul passage, which openly conveys the fierce contempt and loathing with which