These young women generally got enough of an education in poetry, literature, and basic philosophy to participate in the intellectual life of their class. Most studied with private tutors and generally did not leave the house to learn from philosophers as their brothers did. Not only were they generally getting married at the age young men went out to study, but it would also not do for them to be more learned than their husbands. Instead, a wife should be happy to learn from her husband and follow his interests. Some, however, felt that girls should study philosophy more seriously as their brothers did, since that was the path to virtue and would teach them how to be good wives.
When a woman exhibited particular intelligence, it was generally attributed to the influence of her father or a father-like figure.* Cornelia Africana’s extraordinary intelligence and virtue were said to come from her father’s teaching. Hortensia is said to have learned oratory from her father. Sulpicia was encouraged by her uncle** and the circle of poets he gathered about himself.
For a woman from a wealthy family to be educated in poetry and basic philosophy was a point of virtue and a marker of status at the height of Rome’s power. She should not, however, overshadow the men in her life.
*Just as particular virtue in a man was often attributed to the influence of his mother.
**Her father died when she was young, leaving her to be raised by her uncle, Messalla Corvinus.
Musonius Rufus 3, 4, 13a - Diotima
Plutarch, Life of Gaius Gracchus 19.1-3 - Diotima
Plutarch, Life of Tiberius Gracchus 1.2-2 - Diotima
Quintillian, Institutes of Oratory 1.1.6 - Diotima
Pliny the Younger, Letters, 4.19 - VRoma
Pomeroy, Sarah. Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. New York: Pantheon Books, 1995.