Female farm managers are hidden in plain sight in ancient Roman texts, mentioned in laws, literature and grave inscriptions across five centuries. Modern historians have generally assumed they were housekeepers, in charge of domestic tasks and household meals, and segregated from the productive business of the farm.
My new paper, published in the Journal of Roman Archaeology, challenges this assumption.
In fact, there is evidence to suggest that many Roman female farm managers supervised wine production and other processes vital to farming and profits.
In his description of the vilica’s duties, Columella includes the extraction of the juice from grapes during the harvest; adding flavourings and preservatives such as salt, wormwood, fennel or boiled grape-juice; and overseeing successful fermentation into wine.
According to Columella, the vilica also managed the processing of other farm products to make them long-lasting and profitable, such as turning inedible olives into olive oil for sale.
From archaeology we know that production of wine or oil, using huge machines in substantial buildings, could reach 50,000 to 100,000 litres per year, or even more. The vilica was therefore responsible for overseeing large-scale work essential to the operation of the estate.
Another aristocratic landowner and writer, Cato the Elder, living two centuries before Columella, lists both the female and the male farm manager as essential staff for a vineyard or olive farm.
He devotes only one small section to outlining the female farm manager’s tasks, but a close look shows these are not predominantly domestic. Cato includes keeping poultry and processing of seasonal farm products.
This combined body of evidence suggests we should expand outdated understandings of the roles that Roman women played in farm production, the dominant sector of ancient economies.
No vilica has left us an account of her work in her own words. But by paying careful attention to the evidence, we can hear an echo of her voice.