THE ANCIENT ROMAN FAMILY

Catalog description

This course will examine family life in ancient Rome. It will survey the stages of life, beginning with ideas about conception and then looking at birth, childhood, education, marriage, divorce, old age, and death. Students will examine models of the family in Roman law and compare evidence of actual practice drawn from other literary and archaeological sources. The course will also examine aspects of life in the city of Rome, including housing and urban economic processes, looking at how distinctions of gender and age could complicate or amplify distinctions based on wealth. It will also look at the role of Roman religion in defining Roman stages of life, from birth through models of the afterlife. The goal is to present a wide-ranging portrait of life in ancient Rome, apart from the more usual focus on wars and politics. (Cross-listed with HIST 8886 ).