The lecture “Aurelia from Viminacium: From Puella to Matron” by Ilija Danković, PhD, scientific associate of the Archaeological Institute in Belgrade, was held in the Gallery of the National Museum Kraljevo, on Tuesday, March 26th, 2024, starting at 6 p.m., as part of the exhibition “Femina Balcanica: Mater, Matrona, Augusta, Dea. Woman on the Balkans in Antiquity” of the National Museum of Serbia. At the beginning of the program, Tatjana Mihailović, PhD, museum advisor of the National Museum Kraljevo, greeted the audience and introduced the guest.
In his presentation, Ilija Danković presented the entire life path of a particular woman, whose grave was found in Viminacium, and whose name was Aurelia Teodota. This story is partly fictitious and partly based on the archaeological record, but in any case, it is very plausible, when it comes to this particular person. At the same time, it is a story about many customs related to the growing up of a girl in Roman culture, from the moment of birth to her maidenhood and the period of betrothal. By getting married, the girl leaves the world of childhood, by sacrificing her doll, and enters a new life as an adult woman with the status of a matron – the mistress of the house and a respectable woman, who has fulfilled herself as a mother. As such, she represented the ideal of female virtue in Roman culture. What makes the epitaph on the grave of Aurelia Theodota special is that her husband, who erected the monument, called his deceased wife the epithet “rarisimae femina”, i.e. a woman who is rarely met, which leads us to think that Aurelia really did achieve the social ideal of his time.