Morire da donna
This study investigates Roman funeral orations for women. Literary and epigraphical sources, although often fragmentary, provide portraits of women that reflect the traditional idea of the Roman matron: women who are worthy of both private and societal admiration because of the traditional virtues they display. There are also women who become exceptional protagonists, able to act in a public space, such as the heroine of the Laudatio Turiae. This study gives particular attention to two funeral orations: the Laudatio Murdiae and the Laudatio Matidiae. These two laudationes raise, with their complex histories of transmission, problems of ecdosis and interpretation, and they have interest for ancient philologists, historians, epigraphers, and scholars of law.