Children, Memory, and Family Identity in Roman Culture [Hardcover]

Investigations into the daily life of Roman families show that children were key actors in the process of the construction of social memory: they were the pivotal point of the transmission of family tradition and values in both elite and non-elite families. This collection of essays draws together the perspectives of various disciplines to provide a multifaceted picture of the Roman family based on a wide range of evidence drawn from the 1st century BCE to Late Antiquity and the Christian period. The contributors define the notion of memory, discuss the role of children in the transmission of social memory and social identities, and also deal with threats to familial memory, in the cases of children deliberately or accidentally excluded from tradition, long believed to be invisible, such as those born at home to slaves, or outcast because of illness or their unusual status, for example as the offspring of an incestuous relationship.

Introduction,Veronique Dasen and Thomas Spath
I. Family Identities and Traditions
1. Ancestors as Models: Memory and the Construction of Gentilician Identity,Catherine Baroin
2. Roman Patchwork Families: Surrogate Parenting, Socialization and the Shaping of Tradition,Ann-Cathrin Harders
3. Children and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge,Francesca Prescendi
4. Women and Children in Ancient Landscape,Michel E. Fuchs
5. Wax and Plaster Memories: Children in Elite and Non-Elite Strategies,Veronique Dasen
6. Cicero, Tullia, and Marcus: Gender-Specific Concerns for Family Tradition?,Thomas Spath
7. Children and the Memory of Parents in the Late Roman World,Ville Vuolanto
II. Children on the Margins?
8. Degrees of Freedom, Vernae and Junian Latins in the Roman Familia,Beryl Rawson
9. Modestia vs licentia: Seneca on Childhood and Status in the Roman Family,Francesca Mencacci
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