<i>Mothers, Murderers and Mistresses: Empresses of Rome </i>(2013): a feminist turn?

Taking the recent BBC series Mothers, Murderers and Mistresses: Empresses of Ancient Rome as its case study, this chapter explores the extent to which ‘Roman’ historical television documentaries purportedly about, by and for women might advance a feminist agenda. At issue are the ways that images and sounds combine within the audio-visual storytelling format to generate ideas about ‘real’ women in the past and present. While priority is awarded to women both as the subjects and narrators of ‘herstory’, the series’ presentation of female autonomy, agency and authority is complicated by the integration of artefacts, ancient male voices and story-types that replicate and amplify misogynistic views of women, familiar to ancient Rome and modern society. This tension between progressive and retrogressive elements illustrates some of the challenges and opportunities for telling factual stories on television about ancient Roman women that might empower women today.