The contribution focuses on some female figures, known through some Ostian
inscriptions, who were able to connect their own name, as well as that of their male
counterparts, to many areas of civic life through the construction, enlargement or
restuaration of public buildings, the offering spectacles and the creation of foundations
- XV -
for the public good. These women show us the level of wealth they had attained and,
on the other side, by the choice of the type of munificence, they reflect the choices of
the matronae of the Roman aristocracy and of the imperial domus.
