Hortense, a Roman orator who lived in the 1st century BC, went down in history as one of the first lawyers, thanks to her oration delivered before the triumvirs in 42 BC when the senators attempted to heavily tax the rich Roman matrons to finance a war.
Her figure will be the protagonist of the historical re-enactment at the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum, "The first voice. Ortensia and the legacy of her oratory", on Friday 8 March at 3.30 pm in the Curia Iulia, the ancient seat of the meetings of the Roman Senate on the occasion of the Day international women's rights event and for them, like other events organized on the day in state cultural venues, will have free entry.
"It will be an opportunity to enhance Roman culture and place women's rights at the centre" explains Alfonsina Russo, director of the Colosseum Archaeological Park, which promotes the event with the Ministry of Culture, Italian Museums, and the presidency of the Culture Commission, Science and Education of the Chamber of Deputies with the patronage of the Culture Department of Rome Capital.
Re-enactments like this "which combine history and archeology activities, carried out thanks to the fabric of associations, spread awareness of our past, of memory, of roots and identity" adds Russo.
In this context "we have unanimously approved the framework law proposal in the Chamber to protect and regulate historical re-enactments - observes Federico Mollicone, president of the Chamber's Culture commission - and we have linked it to the fund for historical re-enactments of 5 million euros , which did not yet have a reference law, and in the same law the delegation to the government to write the code of intangible assets proposed by UNESCO was also approved".
Since "we doubled the fund - he recalls - the funded historical re-enactments have also doubled. There are around 1500 national events, of which a mapping has been carried out from north to south. They are dedicated to the most diverse periods, between the Late and Early Middle Ages, jousts, poles, Renaissance events, parades, religious anniversaries. We go as far as the Napoleonic events and those of the First and Second World Wars".
The re-enactments constitute an "active policy for cultural places, they support slow tourism and the local economy, they also allow villages to enhance their identity".
In the re-enactment of Ortensia produced by the IDS - Entrepreneurs of Dreams Association, directed by Yuri Napoli, with Maria Rita Leonardi (Gruppo Storico Romano) the actress Beatrice Rincicotti plays the protagonist.
Reservations are already active and you can also follow the event live on Facebook and on the Archaeological Park page.
"Ortensia (who was the daughter of the orator and lawyer Quintus Hortensius Ortalus,
ed) pronounced his oration with great courage in defense of the women who had been subjected to an unfair tax - recalls the director of the Colosseum archaeological park - Among the ancient sources that speak about it, there is also Quintilian, who however, being a traditionalist, he explained her success by treating her as if she had only limited herself to lending her voice to her father.
Ortensia represents the affirmation of women despite everything, even in the Roman world, which kept them quite relegated". Among the other historical re-enactments of the Colosseum Archaeological Park, always following a rigorous philological path, there was that of the gladiatorial games in October and those for the Ides of March and Christmas in Rome are being prepared.
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