Bielman, Cogitore, Kolb – Femmes influentes dans le monde hellénistique et à Rome

Anne Bielman Sánchez, Isabelle Cogitore, Anne Kolb (ed.), Femmes influentes dans

le monde hellénistique et à Rome (IIIe siècle avant J.-C. – Ier siècle après J.-C.), ELLUG,

Grenoble, 2016.

The Hellenistic queens have always been of interest to the academic field, if only because they featured active women following the political transition to the Diadochic dynasties. The study of ancient literary testimonies brought women at the centre of court intrigues, feeding a fantasised vision of the political relations in the Eastern Mediterranean; simultaneously, the exotic representations of Cleopatra VII in the fictional works have greatly fuelled the collective imagination. The linguistic turn and the development of gender studies have enabled scholars in the last three decades to revisit this issue with new approaches, as they seek to highlight the specificities of the various influential women in the Hellenistic-Roman period.

The present publication is the result of several conferences following this trend. It seeks to interweave different points of view, in order to provide a complex and nuanced picture of the manifestation of female power. Through nine contributions, the authors attempt to highlight the misleading – or, at least, incomplete – nature of the testimonies that have been preserved. Hence, to create a discourse about the central power, Plutarch's mentioned the queens to promote the life of the sovereign, with regard to his matrimonial situation, coloured by a certain mythical aura. It is against this distortion that the current scholarship operates. The questions of agency are thus much more directly expressed by the researchers. They distinguish more clearly what is the product of the portrayal of women by others for political purposes and where lies their true agency: the authors have therefore decided to divide the book into two parts, which in essence reflect this dichotomy. It is also important to note that the methodology is transversal, drawing examples from both the Hellenistic and the Roman periods, as well as from the eastern and western part of the Mediterranean basin. The purpose of this project is to carry out a comparative analysis, since the contributors seem to be convinced that underlining the asperities between the different situations allows for a better explanation of the phenomena that were at play during these epochs.

The first part focuses on the position of women in familial or dynastic strategies and the extent to which power was granted to them. The example of Apame (Chapter 1) and the emissions of coins at the turn of the first century AD (Chapter 4) place women within broad political

strategies, whose aim is to render visible the expression of institutional power. Whether through the names of cities or the portraits minted on the coins, a permanence of government power is established. The contributions underline that these undertakings are part of a set of strategies, so as to diversify the expressions of power. In the case of Apame, it is as much about showcasing the solidity of the Seleucid dynasty as of highlighting a more benevolent side of royal power, through a motherly figure: such an endeavour made it possible to avoid weakening the Seleucid succession, in the light of the upcoming marriage between Seleucus I and Stratonice. As for the coinage during the

Roman period, the objective was to emphasise the power of the emperors, which was reflected in their collaterals: women indirectly bathed the imperial aura, thus eventually legitimising the succession. Here again, a particular dynastic idea of power is promoted.

This concern for legitimacy is particularly crucial in episodes of succession crisis, during which women's role becomes more proactive. As such, the vacancy left by the death of Antiochus II places the widows Laodice I and Berenice Syra at the forefront of political intrigues (Chapter 2): Monica d'Agostini rightly points out that their status as women, who passed from one territory to another and from one family to the next due to matrimonial alliances, allowed them to found alliance networks that were, in some respects, more complex than those of the kings. This same flexibility of the female figure can be found in the cases of the daughters of Hellenistic kings (Chapter 3) and the matrimonial strategies with the Augustas (Chapter 5). Their specific status indeed allowed them to be showcased

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