Unfaithful spouses, divorce and remarriage, rebellious children, aging parents--today's headlines are filled with issues said to be responsible for a "breakdown" of the traditional family. But are any of these problems truly new? What can we learn from the ways in which societies dealt with them in the past? Suzanne Dixon sets the current debate about the family against a broader context in The Roman Family, the first book to bring together what historians, anthropologists, and philologists have learned about the family in ancient Rome. Dixon begins by reviewing the controversies regarding the family in general and the Roman family in particular. After considering the problems of evidence, she explores what the Roman concept of "family" really meant and how Roman families functioned. Turning to the legal status of the Roman family, she shows how previous studies, which relied exclusively on legal evidence, fell short of describing the reality of Roman life. (Many relations not recognized by law--the slave family, for instance, or the marriage of imperial soldiers--were tolerated socially and eventually gained some legal recognition.) Other topics include love and other aspects of the institution of marriage, the role of the children in the family, how families adjusted to new members, and how they dealt with aging and death.
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Editorial Reviews
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One of the very best volumes in the Ancient Society and History series... The material is well presented and skillfully analyzed so as to expose the 'true' rather than the theoretical.
(Greece and Rome. )
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
good introduction,
By TammyJo Eckhart "TammyJo Eckhart" (Bloomington, Indiana United States) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE)
This review is from: The Roman Family (Ancient Society and History) (Paperback)
Dixon has provided us with a great introduction to that basis institution of Rome, at least in the view of the Romans themselves: the family. Her interpretations of the evidence may stir disagreement at times, but her logic and use of evidence is solid for the most part. I reader needs a good background in basic Roman law and history to find this book truly useful however.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Everybody has personal experience of the family, so it seems almost wilful to take up time defining a word in such common use, but it is not just academic pedantry. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Twelve Tables, Valerius Maximus, Early Modern, Appius Claudius, Aulus Gellius, Roman Egypt, Aemilius Paulus, Carvilius Ruga, Septimius Severus New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Everybody has personal experience of the family, so it seems almost wilful to take up time defining a word in such common use, but it is not just academic pedantry. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Twelve Tables, Valerius Maximus, Early Modern, Appius Claudius, Aulus Gellius, Roman Egypt, Aemilius Paulus, Carvilius Ruga, Septimius Severus New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 95
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- Greece and Rome (Metropolitan Museum of Art Series) by Joan R. Mertens on 4 pages
- THE SUBVERSIVE FAMILY by Ferdinand Mount in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Family in Italy from Antiquity to the Present by Professor David I. Kertzer in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Family in Ancient Rome: New Perspectives by Beryl Rawson in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Marriage, Divorce, and Children in Ancient Rome (OUP/Humanities Research Centre of the Australian National University) by Beryl Rawson in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 95 books this book cites
- When Children Became People: The Birth of Childhood in Early Christianity by O. M. Bakke on 9 pages
- Christianity and Society: The Social World of Early Christianity (Recent Studies in Early Christianity) by Everett Ferguson on 7 pages
- Constructing Early Christian Families: Family as Social Reality and Metaphor by Halvor Moxnes on 6 pages
- Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible: The Social and Literary Context by David Instone-Brewer on 5 pages
- From Monastery to Hospital: Christian Monasticism and the Transformation of Health Care in Late Antiquity by Andrew T. Crislip on 5 pages
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