GREEN 'She and her household were baptized' 87
death of her husband. On this detail the text is unclear, and it is just as
likely, perhaps more so, that she was divorced.^40 Husband and wife in theempire were not a single economic unit, and whatever she brought into the
marriage, including the dowry itself, was hers to reclaim should the mar-
riage dissolve. Divorces brought with them no expectation of alimony, and
this underscores the woman's relative independence vis-a-vis material
holdings. Children, if they were considered legitimate, typically but not
always went to the father; of course, Luke's account of Lydia and her
household mentions no children. Involvement in the purple trade reflects
the wealth needed to deal with material of this luxury,^41 and Luke's attri-
bution to Lydia of a house of no mean proportions supports the portrait of
Lydia as a woman of some means. This is not to say, however, that Lydia
was a person of status, since, in a society where the currency of status was
not money but honor, Lydia would still be marked as a woman (and thus
of lower status by accident of gender), as a single woman (who, thus, would
not have enjoyed whatever benefit might have accrued to her on account
of her husband), and, perhaps, as a laborer.^42 Adding to Lydia's ambiguous
- The suggestion that Lydia is divorced is advanced in D.C. Barker, 'Census
Returns and Household Structures', New Docs 4 (1987) §21.87-93; and summarized in
Blue, 'Acts and the House Church', pp. 184-85. Barker notes that property owned by
the paterfamilias was almost always bequeathed to the children, not his surviving wife,
with the wife given the right to occupy the house. On the following brief summary of
issues related to economics and children, cf. Suzanne Dixon, 'Family Finances:
Terentia and Tullia', in Rawson (ed.), The Family in Ancient Rome, pp. 93-120; JA.
Crook, 'Women in Roman Succession', in Rawson (ed.), The Family in Ancient Rome,
pp. 58-82; Beryl Rawson, 'The Roman Family', in Rawson (ed.), The Family in
Ancient Rome, pp. 1-57 (19, 32-37). - Cf. David W.J. Gill, 'Acts and the Urban Elites', in David WJ. Gill and Conrad
Gempf (eds.), The Book of Acts in Its Graeco-Roman Setting (AICS, 2; Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1994), pp. 105-18 (114-15); Gladas Hamel, Poverty and Charity in Roman
Palestine, First Three Centuries CE. (NES, 23; Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1990), pp. 81,87-91. - Richter Reimer, Women in the Acts of the Apostles, pp. 98-109 argues that as
a dealer, Lydia would also have been involved in production, but on this point she rests
her case, surprisingly, on no primary sources. Whether Reimer is correct on this matter,
it remains significant that Lydia is in no way characterized as a person who enjoyed the
status of landed wealth. Having noted that purple was a badge of wealth, luxury, and
prestige, Frederick W. Danker goes on to observe that purple cloth could be achieved
through a combination of dyes from a variety of animals, vegetables, and minerals
resulting in a less costly product. Hence, 'from the text of Acts 16.14 it is not possible
to determine that Lydia limited her sale to luxury items or to a specific clientele'