Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within

Description

Roman children often seem to be absent from the ancient sources. How did they spend their first years of life? Did they manage to find their way among the various educators, often slaves, who surrounded them from an early age? Was Roman education characterised by loving care or harsh discipline? What was it like to be a slave child? Were paedophilia and child labour accepted and considered 'normal'? This book focuses on all 'forgotten' Roman children: from child emperors to children in the slums of Rome, from young magistrates to little artisans, peasants and mineworkers. The author has managed to trace them down in a wide range of sources: literature and inscriptions, papyri, archaeological finds and ancient iconography. In Roman society, children were considered outsiders. But at the same time they carried within them all the hopes and expectations of the older generation, who wanted them to become full-fledged Romans.

Christian Laes is an Assistant Professor of Latin and Ancient History at the Universities of Brussels and Antwerp. He has published widely on the experience of life in Roman times and late antiquity, and more specifically on the subjects of childhood and youth. To date he has published four books as well as some twenty international contributions on the subject.

'Superb.' The Times Literary Supplement 'Very useful as a reference work ... it touches on nearly every question one might have about Roman childhood.' London Review of Books 'If you want to know all there is to know about children in classical (primarily non-Christian) Rome, Laes's learned, sensitive, and elegantly written book is the place to go.' David Konstan, Common Knowledge 'Laes has masterfully presented not only the social meaning of childhood in Roman antiquity, but also the grim realities of children's lives.' Ann-Cathrin Harders, The Journal of Roman Studies