Nick Lienesch

Anna’s paper deals with the unequal relationships that were present in Athenian marriage, asserting that this unequal relationship inevitably turned into a power struggle between the two parties. Either the man took charge and the woman submitted to her usual role of subordination, or the women turned the tables and forced the men into a subordinate position. Despite the fact that Roman gender roles were slightly different, with women experiencing more freedom outside the household, marriages still seem to retain this unequal characteristic in the Roman works we read. The marriage between Antony and Cleopatra in Plutarch’s Mark Antony, and the questionable marriage between Aeneas and Dido in The Aeneid by Virgil ended up with destruction of either one or both participants, due, in part, to this inherent inequality.

The idea of women ruling kingdoms, while not unheard of, was considered to be a very foreign practice by the Romans. Therefore, although Dido and Cleopatra are very successful rulers, the marriages that they engage in are of a nature that cannot be reconciled with their marriages. In Mark Antony, for example, the marriage between Antony and his Egyptian queen bride, Cleopatra, starts out seeming to be very loving and egalitarian. Soon, however, Cleopatra begins to rule every aspect of Antony’s life and thoughts, and makes him unfit to rule his army. Plutarch describes how Antony becomes consumed with love for Cleopatra saying, "it excited him to the point of madness many passions which had hitherto lain concealed, or at least dormant, and it stifled or corrupted all those redeeming qualities in him which were still capable of resisting temptation"(Mark Antony, 25). Soon Cleopatra takes over his thinking to the point that he can no longer manage his army effectively. When Octavius declares war on Antony, Plutarch writes, "By this time Antony had become so much of a tool in Cleopatra’s hands that, although he was far stronger than Octavius on land, he was determined that his victory should be gained by his fleet; he insisted on this merely to please the queen;"(Mark Antony, 62). Eventually this unequal marriage brings about the downfall of both lovers, as Antony, unable to hold his armies together due to his single-minded devotion to Cleopatra, loses to Octavius, and Cleopatra kills herself before the invading armies can arrive.

In The Aeneid, Aeneas and Dido have another very unequal marriage; indeed one of them believes them to be married while the other does not. While at first the two seem to be genuinely in love with each other, it becomes clear that Aeneas does not have the same feelings for Dido that she does for him. Then, when Aeneas leaves Dido’s kingdom, while Dido is truly heartbroken, Aeneas is fairly casual and even cold. Also, some of the gender role reversal that Anna indicates in her paper lead to unequal marriages is evident in this section of the play as Mercury first addresses Aeneas as "tame husband that you are"(Aeneid, ln.363) This inequality in their feelings for each other, their shifted gender roles, and their dissimilar thoughts on their marriage lead Dido to commit suicide, while Aeneas sails on in his journey, apparently not giving her a second thought.

As Anna points out, Greek marriages have blatant inequality that can manifest itself often as a power struggle between the two parties. The same proves to be true in many cases for Roman marriages, with varying outcomes. Although these marriages often seem to have less glaring inequality between the people involved than do the Greeks, they still can turn into power struggles, as evidenced by these two plays.