In ancient Roman culture and religion, Pudicitia ('modesty' or 'sexual virtue') was a virtue and central concept in Roman sexual ethics. Pudicitia was a defining characteristic of proper female sexuality, and embodied ideals such as modesty and loyalty. Men who failed to conform to masculine sexual norms were said to be exhibiting feminizing impudicitia ('sexual shamelessness').
Virtues believed to be key to the success of the Empire and Roman society were personified as deities and bestowed with imperial cults, temples, and festivals. The goddess Pudicitia was worshipped as the protectress of women's pudicitia, and had two dedicated temples in Rome: the Temple of Pudicitia Patricia and the Temple of Pudicitia Plebeia.
Pudicitia was a complex virtue explored by many ancient writers, including Livy, Valerius Maximus, Cicero, Tacitus and Tertullian. The philosopher Seneca wrote that the loveliest beauty and greatest glory a woman could have was her pudicitia, and the author Valerius Maximus wrote that it was the principal virtue underpinning the lives of men, women, and Rome itself. Married Roman women (matronae) were expected to wholly embody and radiate the virtue. It was important that a woman's pudicitia be conspicua ('evident'): easily seen and experienced by others. Women competed publicly in pudicitia; Valerius Maximus claimed that a corona pudicitiae ('crown of pudicitia') was awarded to women deemed to be outstanding. Therefore, the Romans likely considered pudicitia to belong to the publicâ or communalâ realm, alongside virtues like Virtus and Pietas.
Pudicitia was used in different ways, sometimes referring to a moral quality, and sometimes referring to the physical state sexual purity. Romans idealized the woman who was ' ('one-man woman'), even though divorce was common by the time of Cicero and Julius Caesar. Livy described the legendary figure of Lucretia as the epitome of pudicitia. She is loyal to her husband and is modest, despite her incredible beauty. Some say that the story of Lucretia shows that the more virtuous a woman was, the more appealing she was to potential adulterers.
The opposite of pudicitia was impudicitia, "shamelessness" or âÂÂsexual vice.â An assault on pudicitia was stuprum, a sexual misconduct or 'sex crime.' Romans associated the loss of pudicitia with chaos and loss of control. In Cicero's oration against Verres, he discusses many of the governor's transgressions including sexual misconduct with both men and women. In the Imperial age, Augustus enacted a program of moral legislation to encourage pudicitia.
Starting in the late 1st century CE, pudicitia was personified as a woman on coins minted by the imperial family. It is unclear when the personification was deified, but the 1st century author Valerius Maximus described her as a goddess who defended children, youths, and married women.
According to Juvenal, at the end of the Iron Age, humanity had grown so cruel and greedy that Pudicitia, along with her sister Astraea, goddess of justice, abandoned the earth and returned to the heavens, leaving humans to deal with their evil unguided.
Roman historians Livy and Festus described two separate shrines (sacellum) dedicated to the goddess in Rome. One was the older Temple of Pudicitia Patricia near the Temple of Hercules in the Forum Boarium, and the second was the Temple of Pudicitia Plebeia along the Vicus Longus. Both authors wrote that only married women in their first marriage (') could participate in the goddess' rituals. However, no written account of the cult or the aforementioned rituals has survived. While univirae were not the only Romans who could cultivate pudicitia, their key role in the goddess' rites suggests that they were believed to have a special relationship with the virtue.
Livy described the origins of the two temples in his Ab Urbe Condita. A dispute arose in 296 BCE after Verginia, a patrician woman who had married a plebian, was barred by the matronae from participating in the goddess' rites. She then established a small sanctuary dedicated to the goddess along the Vicus Longus where she lived. The new temple carried out the same rites, and was only open to women of good pudicitia who had been married once. Later, the temple was abandoned after women of questionable morals began to worship there and defiled its sacred character.