Milns Visiting Professor, Professor Josiah Osgood Guest Lecture: 'Women as Witnesses in Roman Criminal Trials'

While women did not serve as prosecutors or advocates in the Roman criminal courts they did appear as witnesses. In this seminar I present evidence for women’s testimony in specific trials, including those of Verres and Flaccus (for extortion), Caelius and Milo (for political violence), and Clodius (for sacrilege). In most of these trials, women testified in pairs or groups. The evidence also suggests that prosecutors sometimes used women for emotive testimony, which can be related to women’s role as mourners. As part of my discussion, I will review the role witnesses played in criminal trials for both the prosecution and the defense and examine prosecution strategies for building up a case through witnesses. I consider what made for an effective witness in Roman eyes. I also consider scholarly debates on how important witnesses were in the criminal courts and what difference it made when, under the principate, criminal trials moved out of the Forum and into the Senate and more politics happened indoors. Women’s testimony in late Republican criminal trials is consistent with their prominent role in public life.