Arria (Pliny)

Arria (Pliny)

1. Devoted Wife

   • "Am I to listen to you who can live on after Scribonianus died in your arms?"
     • shocked at how other wives are
     • outspoken
   • "So she hired a small fishing boat and she followed the enormous ship in a small one"
     • stubborn
     • perserverance
     • determination
   • "Who can feed him, dress him and put on his clothes, I alone will take care of these things."
     • willing to degrade herself for her husband
     • tricolon
   • "to draw a dagger, to stab it in her chest, to pull it out and offer it to her husband, adding the immortal and almost divine words, "It doesn't hurt Paetus.""
     • God-like
     • taking the lead
       • role reversal
     • Direct speech
       • vivid
       • gives importance to her words
   • "if my daughter were to have lived for so long and in such great harmony as I have with Paetus then I would want this."
     • outspoken
     • honest
     • strong-willed

2. Loved by her family a lot

   • "you can ensure that I don't die a painful death but you can't ensure that I don't die"
     • strong-willed
   • "Indeed when her son-in-law Thrasea begged her not to carry out her resolve to die,"
     • he is not blood related
       • shows deep bond in the family
   • "She had increased the level of concern felt by her household and she was guarded even more carefully."

3. Loyalty to her family

   • "Arria arranged the funeral for this boy and even led the funeral processions without her husband knowing;"
     • mature
     • wise
     • apathetic
   • "Arria's husband, Caecina Paetus, was ill; her son was ill too, both of them very seriously..."
     • men were ill but woman wasn't
     • Arria's husband
       • female is given more importance
         • role reversal
         • she is more dominant

4. Stoic

   • "Then, when the tears, which had been held back for so long started to get the better of her and to break out, she would leave the room; only then would she give herself to her grief; but having had her fill of tears, she dried her eyes, composed her face and went back into the bedroom, as if she had left her bereavement behind outside."

5. Brave

   • she died first
   • attempted suicide
   • spoke out in front of Cladius
   • spoke against Cladius' evidence
   • led the funeral procession all by herself
   • took a small fishing boat by herself
   • known for her courage, a trait associated with males in the Ancient Roman world

6. Pliny admires her

   • 'remarkable'