Teaching From Past Example: Various Interpretations of Livy's Rape of Lucretia

The final kings of Rome were expelled in 509 B.C.E. after one of their princes raped a woman, driving her to end her own life. Pure and chaste, this woman was the utmost model of feminine virtue. Her death would bring great political change at the end of the sixth century B.C.E., but her story would be carried on and projected to provoke something similar for millennia. One significant driver of this was Titus Livius, who wrote of her in the first book of his Ab Urbe Condita, a history of Rome written c. 29 B.C.E. His account showcased a model of feminine morality, a reminder of the great foundations of Rome. To begin to amend his nation’s current state, Livy pulled a past reference. His reference of Lucretia, however, would go much further than the pages of his book, being picked up by numerous varied successors. St. Augustine of Hippo would analyze her sanctity shortly after Rome’s sack in 410 C.E. to introduce new Christian values to a shaken nation. Christine de Pizan would use her example 1405 C.E. to grant women their exodus from a misogynistic culture and in 2015 C.E. Fiona Shaw would expand upon her story in opera to tie together the women of the past and present. Through the ages there have been countless renditions of Lucretia’s tale, but each could be linked in their edifying goal. Livy’s account of Lucretia granted scholars, writers, poets and playwrights of future millennia a malleable medium for aiding their circumstance. Part of the panel: Alternative Narratives and Visibility Moderator: Professor Patricia Schechter