The Romans loved a conspiracy theory, and rumors of women-led cover-ups pepper their history. This motif took hold most robustly in the peculiar conditions of the early Roman Empire, as the male aristocrats who’d once ruled the Roman Republic became concerned that women were co-opting power that was rightfully male.

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The long dominance of the classical education system threaded these clichés throughout Western thought and provided a blueprint for anxious characterizations of female power.