L'identità come ruolo. Lucrezia e la fondazione dell'ordo matronarum

In Roman tradition, Lucretia is the first republican matron. Compared to the hyper-characterized women of the monarchical age, from Hersilia to Egeria, from Tanaquil to Tullia, her attitudes and virtues are those of a next-door wife: faithfulness to husband, domestic wool-working, undisputed acceptance of her position within the family. In a sense, Lucretia can be considered the founder of the ordo matronarum. Her own self-killing stems from the inability to fulfil her role as wife and mother of Collatinus' future children.