AGRIPPINA THE YOUNGER IN SUETONIUS:

THE MALE GAZE ON FEMALE PROTAGONISM

Abstract

In the field of historiography, when we have representations about women, they are created, most of the time, by the opposite gender, the male. Suetonius - in his work "Lives of the Caesars", composed in the year 121 AD, during the rule of Emperor Hadrian - when describing Agrippina the Younger, makes clear the weight of the symbolic aspect that male domination carries when questioning a woman's morals who played roles considered masculine within politics. To understand this relationship of male domination over the female - constructed historically, culturally and linguistically - it is necessary to define the submission imposed on women as symbolic violence. This article aims to understand the role of women in politics in the period of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, based on the problematization of the relationship between the female and the male. More specifically, it is through the analysis of episodes in the work of Suetonius and other ancient authors - such as the choice of Agrippina as the wife of Emperor Claudius, his death, his succession and the death of Agrippina Minor - that we can bring to light the way in which the male gaze often dehumanizes, disregards and delegitimizes the role of women in history.