Editing Pudicitia (section)

==As virtue==
[[File:Bust of a Modest Roman Woman of the Severan Period 193-211 CE at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York MH.jpg|thumb|left|Bust of a Modest Roman Woman of the Severan Period 193-211 CE at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York]]
Romans, both men and women, were expected to uphold the virtue of ''pudicitia'', a complex ideal that was explored by many ancient writers, including [[Livy]], [[Valerius Maximus]], [[Cicero]], [[Tacitus]] and [[Tertullian]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.tertullian.org/works/de_pudicitia.htm|title=Tertullian : De pudicitia|website=www.tertullian.org|access-date=2019-05-22}}</ref> Livy describes the legendary figure of [[Lucretia]] as the epitome of ''pudicitia''. She is loyal to her husband and is modest, despite her incredible beauty. Some say that the story of Lucretia shows that the more virtuous a woman was, the more appealing she was to potential adulterers.

''Pudicitia'' was not only a mental attribute but also physical; a person's appearance was seen as an indicator of their morality. The way a man or woman presented him or herself in public, and the persons they interacted with caused others to pass judgment on their ''pudicitia''. For example, if a woman was seen associating with men other than her husband people would make a negative judgment on her ''pudicitia''.  Romans idealized the woman who was ''univira'', a "one-man" woman, married once, even though by the time of Cicero and [[Julius Caesar]], [[Marriage in ancient Rome#Divorce|divorce]] was common, the subject of gossip rather than social stigma.<ref>[[Suzanne Dixon]], "From Ceremonial to Sexualities: A Survey of Scholarship on Roman Marriage" in ''A Companion to Families in the Greek and Roman Worlds'' (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), p. 248.</ref> Modest self-presentation indicated ''pudicitia''. The opposite of ''pudicitia'' was ''impudicitia'', "shamelessness" or “sexual vice.” An assault on ''pudicitia'' was ''[[stuprum]]'', sexual misconduct or "sex crime."

Romans associated the loss of ''pudicitia'' with chaos and loss of control. In Cicero's [[In Verrem|oration against Verres]], he discusses many of the governor's transgressions including sexual misconduct with both men and women. In the Imperial age, [[Augustus]] enacted a program of moral legislation to encourage ''pudicitia''.
[[File:Pudicitia.JPG|thumb|220px|Pudicitia depicted on the [[Obverse and reverse|reverse]] of an [[antoninianus]] of [[Herennia Etruscilla]]]]