Roman Marriage: Iusti Coniuges from the Time of Cicero to the Time of Ulpian (Clarendon Paperbacks) [Paperback]

Susan Treggiari (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0198149395 | ISBN-13: 978-0198149392 | Publication Date: July 1, 1993

This book explores the practicalities, cultural assumptions, and affective possibilities of marriage during the later Republic and the Principate. It offers a fresh look at the interaction of law and reality within Roman marriage, and builds on the accumulation of legal scholarship in the field, as well as on the latest insights into Roman society. Treggiari demonstrates that marriage affected a Roman woman's social status, and that while the socio-legal effect on a man was far less striking, marriage did enable a man to father legitimate children, the main object of the institution. The study also addresses the influences on the choice of partner, behavioral norms, and motives for divorce.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Magisterial....A study of fundamental importance that is required reading for anyone who teachers or writes on Roman society and for historians of the family in other ages as well....A superb culmination of recent advances in knowledge and an obvious point of departure for future work on this theme."--American Historical Review

"Treggiari, with her superb command of the literary and legal sources, now offers us a grand vision of attitudes towards marriage in law and practice among the upper classes....A book that all teaching Roman social history will want....A most impressive achievement."--Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"She handles with expert assurance all the sources....Indeed, it is her close and continuous use of this mind of Roman legal thought that gives her work its special character and value....This is a major contribution, indispensable to any collection dealing with ancient history, classical literature, or the social sciences."--Choice

"It is a book that in the present age cannot be surpassed."--The Historian

"A significant advance has now been achieved with the appearance of Treggiari's masterly study. Treggiari is also thoroughly conversant with the vast array of literary evidence. On points of detail, whether of major or minor significance, the book tends toward the encyclopaedic and will serve many as a work of reference more than as a book to read from cover to cover.There is much to fascinate as well as to enlighten."--Journal of Roman Studies

About the Author

Susan Treggiari is at Stanford University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 600 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (July 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198149395
• ISBN-13: 978-0198149392
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,457,656 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An informative overview of Roman marriage, May 14, 2000

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"mman33" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Roman Marriage: Iusti Coniuges from the Time of Cicero to the Time of Ulpian (Clarendon Paperbacks) (Paperback)

This book explores the Roman marriage customs and laws from the late Republic period to the third century into the Empire. As the author uses many Latin sources, this book tends to get tedious to read. Despite the dense prose, the author demonstrates that the Romans predicated marriage on consent and the idea that it helped procreate. The story unfolds to tell about the tenuous marriage laws. In fact, in "Manus," a woman usually could never recover her dowry, but on other legal bonds, the laws allowed her to keep part of her dowry. The contemporary connotations abound; For instance, the author recognizes that adultery precipitated some spouses to sue for divorce. Also, women usually married self-sufficient, older men. Not surprisingly, this book gets bogged down into gender stereotypes, including the "double standard" laws about adultery that usually favored men. Roman Marriage is a good book into the obfuscated laws regarding marriage in the Roman Empire.