wife and mother. Motherhood was considered the esteemed occupation. In Pompeii women often entered into a business partnership with their husbands. They were allowed to keep profits themselves. It was common for a widow to take over her husband's business. Wives of traders and craftsmen often ran the front of the shop while their husbands made the products or dealt with other aspects of the business. Women could own property and could decide how to administer it. Julia Felix is an example of an independent woman who inherited a large fortune in her own right. Tablets found at Herculaneum (a smaller city destroyed by the same eruption) show that women could buy sell and lease but were not allowed to become bankers. Women in Pompeii worked in, owned and operated many of the taverns, inns and bars, which often served as brothels a topic I will cove
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