Marriage, divorce, and children in ancient Rome

The family has played a central role in most societies, and the complexity and variety of that role has engaged the minds of scholars from a wide range of disciplines. Recent studies of ancient Rome have shown that the sentimental ideal of a core nuclear family was strong throughout the period, but that the reality was often different. This book looks in detail at many aspects of the composition and inner workings of the Roman family and provides an illuminating case-study of the sentimental ideal vis-à-vis everyday reality. The areas of study covered are adult-child relationships (Beryl Rawson), the frequency of divorce (Susan Treggiari), divorce and adoption as familial strategies (Mireille Corbier), remarriage and the structure of the upper-class Roman family (K. R. Bradley), the sentimental ideal of the Roman family (Suzanne Dixon), fathers and sons (Emiel Eyben), familial authority and obedience (Richard Saller), children of freedmen (P. R. C. Weaver), and the impact of domestic architecture with reference to Pompeii and Herculaneum (Andrew Wallace-Hadrill).

Author Notes

Beryl Rawson is at Australian National University, Canberra.

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

This collection closely resembles The Family in Ancient Rome: New Perspectives (CH, Jun'86), also edited by Beryl Rawson (Australian National University). Because of the evident social bias of most surviving sources, the "Roman family" of Rawson's volume is, in the main, an upper-class family; save for one chapter on the children of ex-slaves, lower-class households are almost lost from view. The other essays concentrate on familiar aspects of upper-class family life: the somewhat attenuated character of Roman marriage, the problematic relationship between Roman parents (especially fathers) and their children, and the structure of households. The essays are of uniformly high quality, but the subject matter just now an extremely popular one already yields diminishing returns. Significantly new approaches or interpretations are not in evidence, and little effort is made to break down constrictions that the sources impose. Still, the collection will be quite useful to all students of Roman social history or comparative family history at the upper-division undergraduate level and above. Latin phrases are regularly translated or glossed.-B. W. Frier, University of Michigan

Preface	p. v
List of Contributors	p. x
List of Plates	p. xi
Introduction BERYL RAWSON	p. 1
1 Adult-Child Relationships in Roman Society BERYL RAWSON	p. 7
Conclusion	p. 28
2 Divorce Roman Style: How Easy andhow Frequent was it?SUSAN TREGGIARI	p. 31
3 Divorce and Adoption as Roman Familial Strategies (Le Divorce et l'adoption 'en plus')	p. 47
Conclusion	p. 76
4 Remarriage and the Structure of the Upper-Class Roman Family	p. 79
5 The Sentimental Ideal of the Roman Family	p. 99
6 Fathers and Sons	p. 114
Conclusion	p. 142
7 Corporal Punishment, Authority, and Obedience in the Roman Household	p. 144
Conclusion	p. 164
8 Children of Freedmen (and Freedwomen) P. R. C. WEAVER	p. 166
Conclusions	p. 189
9 Houses and Households Sampling Pompeii and Herculaneum ANDREW WALLACE-HADRILL	p. 191
Conclusions	p. 225
Abbreviations and Bibliography	p. 229
Index of Names and Subjects	p. 245

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Author Notes

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