[Usyd_Classics_Events] Reminder: Classics and Ancient History research seminar: May 12th Tamara Lewit

[Ben Brown]

Dear Friends of Classics and Ancient History,

We are delighted to invite you to the seventh presentation of Semester 1, 2025 in our Classics and Ancient History research seminar series.

May 12th (Monday, 12.15pm UTC+10)

Please note that this seminar will be on ZOOM ONLY

Tamara Lewit (University of Melbourne)
“She must remain as little as possible in one place”: The work of a female overseer (vilica) on a Roman estate

Zoom link: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/83159864939

Abstract:
Although much historical and archaeological work has examined Roman farming, very little attention has been paid to the roles of the female overseer (vilica). Yet this important figure is attested across five centuries and is the subject of an entire book of the Roman agronomist Columella’s De re rustica. Less than half a dozen scholarly papers have been dedicated to the vilica, and all focus almost entirely on her relationship to the male overseer (the vilicus). Her roles on the farm have remained unexamined, and modern writers have characterised her work as confined to the supervision of the women and domestic labour inside the house, especially cleaning, the food eaten by the household, and textile making. My paper will challenge this characterisation, arguing that it arises from a misreading of Columella’s text. By combining textual, iconographic and archaeological evidence, we can in fact see that the vilica oversaw not the “house” or the “domestic sphere”, but rather a range of vital productive activities on the farm. In particular, she seems to have had charge of the oil and wine making and was responsible for carrying out important rituals linked to production.


Dr Tamara Lewit is an Honorary Fellow in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, London. She specializes in the study of the Roman to late antique countryside and her publications include ‘A child’s eye view: making Roman children visible in children’s literature’ (Classicum 49.1 2024); ‘Innovation in wine-making technologies: The role of local artisans and farmers’ in D. Van Limbergen, E. Dodd and M. S. Busana (eds) Vine-growing and winemaking in the Roman world (Peeters, 2025); and in press ‘Peopling the countryside: the everyday experience of rural life’, in G.W. Tol and A. Van Oyen (eds) Roman Rural Archaeology: Society, Economy, and Culture (Cambridge University Press).

Best, Ben

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