Portraits épigraphiques des femmes de l’Afrique romaine la rhétorique de la pierre
Epigraphic portraits of the women of Roman Africa the rhetoric of stone

Summary/Abstract: Epigraphy is a favored means of information in Roman Empire. It informs contemporaries about the local leaders and about politics led at the level of the city, of the province or of the Empire. Documents from Roman Africa show that epigraphic representations of women deal with a feminine way of life which leans on civic, social and cultural values. Actually historian can’t estimate the bias between images inscribed on a long-lasting medium, and real-life for which experience objective tracks doesn’t exist. Anyway, considering cultural history, knowing reality is not a requirement since the community considers it as truth. The epigraphic image works in and by the collective imagination. Thus, exploring feminine epigraphic representations allows us to wonder about links between inscriptions and reality, and between inscriptions and the Roman civic imagination. Of course, we can also estimate the place of the women on the local political stage

• Details
• Contents