Editing Pudicitia

{{Short description|Concept in ancient Roman ethic}}
{{For|the genus of [[grass skipper]] butterflies|Pudicitia (butterfly){{!}}''Pudicitia'' (butterfly)}}
{{more footnotes|date=October 2011}}
[[File:4547 - Istanbul - Museo archeol. - Donna - Copia rom. da orig. sec. IV a.C. - da Thasos - Foto G. Dall'Orto 28-5-2006.jpg|thumb|Statue of a woman, perhaps the [[Roman Empress|empress]] [[Vibia Sabina]], dressed as Pudicitia]]

'''Pudicitia''' ("modesty" or "sexual virtue") was a central concept in [[Sexuality in ancient Rome|ancient Roman sexual ethics]]. The word is derived from the more general ''pudor'', the sense of shame that regulated an individual's behavior as socially acceptable. ''Pudicitia'' was most often a defining characteristic of women, but men who failed to conform to [[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Male sexuality|masculine sexual norms]] were said to exhibit feminizing ''impudicitia'', sexual shamelessness. The virtue was [[personification|personified]] by the [[List of Roman deities|Roman goddess]] Pudicitia, whose [[interpretatio graeca|Greek equivalent]] was [[Aidos]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=AEDOS (Aidos) - Greek Goddess or Spirit of Respect, Modesty & Shame (Roman Pudicitia) |url=https://www.theoi.com/Daimon/Aidos.html |access-date=2025-03-10 |website=www.theoi.com}}</ref>

==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]]]]
==The goddess==
According to [[Livy]], there were two temples of Pudicitia in Rome, the [[Temple of Pudicitia Patricia]] and the [[Temple of Pudicitia Plebeia]]. The original one was for women of the [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patrician]] class only, but when [[Verginia (wife of Lucius Volumnius Flamma)|Verginia]] was excluded on account of marrying a [[plebs|plebeian]] [[Roman consul|consul]], she and a group of plebeian matrons founded an altar of Pudicitia for women of the [[plebeian]] class as well. Livy states that the plebeian shrine of Pudicitia eventually fell into disuse after its sacred character had been abused.

According to [[Juvenal]], at the end of the Iron Age humanity had grown so cruel and greedy that Pudicitia along with her sister [[Astraea]], goddess of justice, abandoned the earth and returned to the sky, leaving humans to deal with their evil unguided.<ref>[[Juvenal]], ''[[Satires (Juvenal)|Satires]]'' [https://archive.org/details/juvenalpersiuswi00juveuoft/juvenalpersiuswi00juveuoft/page/84/mode/2up?view=theater 6.10–20]</ref>

==References==
{{Commons}}
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== Further reading ==

*[[Rebecca Langlands]], ''Sexual Morality in Ancient Rome.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
*[[Olakunbi Olasope]], '''Univira'': The Ideal Roman Matrona' ''Lumina'', Vol. 20, No.2, (2009) 1-18. ISSN 2094-1188
*[[Livy]], History of Rome ([[Ab Urbe Condita (book)|Ab urbe condita libri]]), 10:23 ([http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/Livy/Livy10.html#livy.hist.10.23 English text])

{{Authority control}}
{{Ancient Rome topics|state=collapsed}}
{{Roman religion|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:Roman goddesses]]
[[Category:Personifications in Roman mythology]]