Women And Society In The Roman World

By their social and material context as markers of graves, dedications and public signs of honour, inscriptions offer a distinct perspective on the social lives, occupations, family belonging, mobility, ethnicity, religious affiliations, public honour and legal status of Roman women ranging from slaves and freedwomen to women of the elite and the imperial family, both in Rome and in Italian and provincial towns. They thus shed light on women who are largely overlooked by the literary sources. The wide range of inscriptions and graffiti included in this book show women participating not only in their families and households but also in the social and professional life of their cities. Moreover, they offer us a glimpse of women's own voices. Marital ideals and problems, love and hate, friendship, birth and bereavement, joy and hardship all figure in inscriptions, revealing some of the richness and variety of life in the ancient world.

This book provides an invaluable introduction to the social, economic, and legal status of women in ancient Rome. Daily Life of Women in Ancient Rome is an invaluable introduction to the lives of women in the late Roman Republic and first three centuries of the Roman Empire. Arranged chronologically and thematically, it examines how Roman women were born, educated, married, and active in economic, social, public, and religious life, as well as how they were commemorated and honored after death. Though they were excluded from formal public and military offices, wealthy Roman women participated in public life as benefactors and in religious life as priestesses. The book also acknowledges the status and occupations of women taking part in public life as textile producers, retail workers, and agricultural laborers, as well as enslaved women. The book provides a thorough introduction to the social history of women in the Roman world and gives students and aspiring scholars references to current scholarship and to primary literary and documentary sources, including collected sources in translation.

The period of Egyptian history from its rule by the Macedonian Ptolemaic dynasty to its incorporation into the Roman and Byzantine empires has left a wealth of evidence for the lives of ordinary men and women. Texts (often personal letters) written on papyrus and other materials, objects of everyday use and funerary portraits have survived from the Graeco-Roman period of Egyptian history. But much of this unparalleled resource has been available only to specialists because of the difficulty of reading and interpreting it. Now eleven leading scholars in this field have collaborated to make available to students and other non-specialists a selection of over three hundred texts translated from Greek and Egyptian, as well as more than fifty illustrations, documenting the lives of women within this society, from queens to priestesses, property-owners to slave-girls, from birth through motherhood to death. Each item is accompanied by full explanatory notes and bibliographical references.

Roman law as a field of study is rapidly evolving to reflect new perspectives and approaches in research. Scholars who work on the subject are increasingly being asked to conduct research in an interdisciplinary manner whereby Roman law is not merely seen as a set of abstract concepts devoid of any background, but as a body of law which operated in a specific social, economic and cultural context. This context-based, 'law and society' approach to the study of Roman law is an exciting new field which legal historians must address. This interdisciplinary collection focuses on three larger themes which have emerged from these studies: Roman legal thought the interaction between legal theory and legal practice and the relationship between law and economics.

This sourcebook fully exploits the rich legal material of the imperial period, explaining the rights women held under Roman law, the restrictions to which they were subject, and legal regulations on marriage, divorce and widowhood.

"Noting that privileges granted to the aged generally took the form of exemptions from duties rather than positive benefits, Tim Parkin argues that the elderly were granted no privileged status or guaranteed social role. At the same time, they were permitted - and expected - to continue to participate actively in society for as long as they were able."--BOOK JACKET.

During the late Republic and early Empire, the new woman' made her appearance. This was a wife or widow of means who took part in life outside the walls of her house, including wider society, business and extra-marital affairs.

This volume approaches three key concepts in Roman history - gender, memory and identity - and demonstrates the significance of their interaction in all social levels and during all periods of Imperial Rome. When societies, as well as individuals, form their identities, remembrance and references to the past play a significant role. The aim of this volume is to cast light on the constructing and the maintaining of both public and private identities in the Roman Empire through memory, and to highlight, in particular, the role of gender in that process. While approaching this subject, the contributors to this volume scrutinise both the literature and material sources, pointing out how widespread the close relationship between gender, memory and identity was. A major aim of this volume as a whole is to point out the significance of the interaction between these three concepts in both the upper and lower levels of Roman society, and how it remained an important question through the period from Augustus right into Late Antiquity.