Ближний Восток и его соседи

g 103 h The Red Sea and the Luxury of the Roman Women: A Literary Study Haec etiam clausas expugnant arma pudicas. “These weapons storm even chaste women shut up (in their homes)”. (Prop. 3.13.9) Propertius emphasizes the Roman matrons’ response to the spoils of dishonour. Then an attack comes on the venality of Roman women: nulla est poscendi, nulla est reverentia dandi, aut si qua est, pretio tollitur ipsa mora . (Prop. 3.13.13–14) “There is no fear in asking, no fear in giving, or if there is any, the delay itself is got rid of for a price”. 17 According to Propertius, Roman girls offer themselves for sale, and if there is any reluctance on their side that could be easily overcome. The price for a girl to surrender herself was the above mentioned Eastern luxuries, not least of them the pearls of the Red Sea. 18 Propertius sets an interesting comparison between the venality of the greedy Roman women contrasted with the faithfulness of Eastern women, who were untouched by corruption. Consequently he argues the case for the Eastern women against the Roman. At the end of the poem, Propertius returns to the timeless theme of the corruption of morals that gold has brought, and the sins to which men are driven because of it. 19 Finally, he concludes by predicting that: frangitur ipsa suis Roma supreba bonis. (Prop. 3.13.60) “Proud Rome herself is being destroyed by her own wealth”. 20 17 L. Richardson, Propertius Elegies I–IV , ed. with introduction and commentary (Oklahoma 1977) 373, comments that without the pentameter the line is applicable to both the man who asks the woman's favours and rewards her generously, and the woman who asks a price and surrenders herself, while in the pentameter the poet has only the woman in mind. 18 Cicero ( De Re Publica , II. 4) believes that many things that cause ruin to states as incitements to luxury are supplied by the sea. They are either captured or imported. E. Gabba, “True History and False History in Classical Antiquity”, JRS 71 (1981) 57, refers to the view of both Plato ( Laws , IV. 705 a) and Cicero ( De Re Publica , II.4) that contact with the sea led to moral decline and racial mixture: with foreign goods come foreign ideas which corrupt and confuse. 19 Seneca ( De Beneficiis , 7. 10. 4) reiterates the moral stance of many Roman writers, but with some variation on the commonplace. He is complaining against nature because it did not hide gold and silver more deeply, and it did not put upon them weight too heavy to be removed. Edwards (1996 a) 176ff. declares how ancient writers differed in their views of the point fromwhich Roman moral decline might be dated. See also: J. P. Balsdon, Roman Women. Their History and Habits (New York 1983 repr.) 33, 262; Wyke (1994) 140; D. Potter, Literary Texts and the Roman Historian (Routledge 1999) 50f. 20 Cf. Cato's speech in Livy (XXXIV. iv. 2–3). Cato says that the state is suffering from two evils: avarice and luxury ( avaritia et luxuria ) which have been the destruction of all great em- pires. Livy ( Praefatio, 12 ) points out that lately riches has brought in avarice, and excessive