Married Life in Greco-Roman Antiquity

"Beyond the institution of marriage, its norms, and rules, what was life like for married couples in Greco-Roman antiquity? This volume explores a huge range of sources over seven centuries to uncover possible answers to this question. On tombstones, curse or oracular tablets, in contracts, petitions, letters, treatises, biographies, novels, and poems, throughout Egypt, Greece, and Rome, 107 couples express themselves or are given life by their contemporaries, and share their experiences of, and views on, marital relationships and their practical and emotional consequences. Renowned scholars and the next generation of experts explore seven centuries of source material to uncover the dynamics of the married life of metropolitan and provincial, famous and unknown, young and old couples. Men's and women's hopes, fears, traumas, prides, endeavours, and needs are analysed, and reveal an array of interactions and behaviour that enlighten us on gender roles, social expectations, and intimate dealings in antiquity. Known texts are revisited, new evidence is put forward, and novel interpretations and concepts are offered which highlight local and chronological specificities as well as transhistorical commonalities. The analysis of married life in Greco-Roman antiquity reveals the fundamental yearning to be included and loved, and how the tensions created by the sometimes contradictory demands of traditional ideals and individual realities can be resolved, furthering our knowledge of social and cultural mechanisms. Married Life in Greco-Roman Antiquity will provide valuable resources of interest to scholars and students of classical studies as well as social history, gender studies, family history, the history of emotions, and microhistory"

Ancient history · Art · Late Antiquity · History · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · ancient · Marriage · Sociology

• Familial lives in concordia

  Carmen María Ruiz-Vivas•The History of the Family•2025

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• Writing, Enslavement, and Power in the Roman Mediterranean, 100 BCE–300 CE

  Jeremiah Coogan, Candida R Moss et al.•Writing, Enslavement, and Power…•2025

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• The Affects of Manumission

  Open Access•Dan-El Padilla Peralta•Freed Persons in the Roman World•2024

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• The farmer wants a wife

  Open Access•Robert Cowan•Bulletin of the Institute of…•2023

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• Brevity

  Tom Geue•Writing, Enslavement, and Power…•2025

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• Despotics

  Joseph A Howley•Writing, Enslavement, and Power…•2025

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