Table Of ContentCHILDREN AND CHILDHOOD
IN ROMAN ITALY
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Children and Childhood
in Roman Italy
BERYL RAWSON
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
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ISBN 0-19-924034-5
for Allan
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
IDEAS for this book began many years ago in a doctoral thesis
(under the name of Wilkinson) supervised by Lily Ross Taylor.
To her I owe my earliest academic debt in this field. Many debts
have been accumulated since, as my work developed into various
areas of 'the Roman family', other areas of Roman history, and
into academic administration. I record only a few of such debts
here, but other friends and colleagues will know of their help and
my appreciation of it.
The Australian National University has supported me for
many years, with space and resources, especially in Classics and
in History, and—thanks largely to the efforts of my colleague
Robert Barnes—excellent library holdings. The Australian
Research Council has provided a series of research grants, which
enabled me to benefit greatly from the assistance and friendship
of Edyth Binkowski. From Art History, Michael Greenhalgh
provided expertise and encouragement in compiling a digitized
catalogue of monuments representing children in Roman
Italy.
I thank the museums recorded in the List of Figures for their
assistance with photographs and permissions. In addition, invalu-
able help in tracking down and viewing some of these items came
from Maria Pia Malvezzi (Secretary of the British School at
Rome) and Bill Edeson. Oxford University Press editors, espe-
cially Hilary O'Shea, have been generous and supportive in the
protracted period of my bringing this project to completion, and
I am grateful for their high level of professional expertise. The
readers to whom OUP referred my project provided careful and
helpful comments. One of these, Thomas Wiedemann, waived
anonymity in order to provide advice to me in his own name. I
regret that he is not with us to see the final result.
Christine Treadwell's support and expert word-processing
skills were invaluable in getting the finished text ready for the
publisher under difficult circumstances. Paul Johns rescued me
often from computer trauma.
Acknowledgements vii
Over the years I have received valuable stimulation from a
number of conferences. The three Roman Family conferences in
Canberra between 1981 and 1994 brought together colleagues
from many countries who debated a range of issues with energy
and stimulating insights. I owe a debt to all who attended and
especially those authors whose contributions appear as chapters in
the three volumes which arose out of the conferences. A celebra-
tory conference in my name in Sydney in 1999 enabled me to hear
and then read many colleagues' perspectives on fields of research
connected with my interests. I particularly thank the conveners of
that conference, Suzanne Dixon and Kathryn Welch, and
Suzanne as the editor of the subsequent volume, Childhood, Class
and Kin in the Roman World. In the later stages of my writing, the
'Roman Crossings' conference in Sydney (1999) provided a forum
for discussion of the material culture of Rome, the physical con-
text in which children grew up: I was especially grateful for the
presence of two of the most influential scholars in this field, Peter
Wiseman and Andrew Wallace-Hadrill. In 2000 the conference
in Fort Worth on 'the family' in the Roman and early Christian
worlds, convened by David Balch and Carolyn Osiek, broadened
my perspective and understanding. Since then, I have enjoyed a
stimulating correspondence with Christian Laes.
Individual colleagues who have communicated with me over
many years and whose scholarship and stimulation have been
especially valuable include Richard Sailer, Brent Shaw, Jane
Gardner, Mark Golden, Susan Treggiari, and Mireille Corbier.
Also in this group, and who particularly kept me going and
encouraged me to complete the project, are Keith Bradley, John
Crook, Tim Parkin, and Paul Weaver.
In sadness I acknowledge Magda and Allan, who did not live
to see the book in printed form. Magda, a Hungarian migrant to
Australia, identified with the material and encouraged my work
over many years of friendship. There are no words to express my
debt to Allan—my husband, my best friend, and my best critic,
for whomfunus acerbum was all too real an experience and who
succumbed himself a few months before the text went off to the
publisher.
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CONTENTS
List of Figures x
Abbreviations xiii
Introduction 1
Part I: Representations of Children in Roman Italy
1. Representations 17
Part II: The Life Course
2. Welcoming a New Child 95
3. Rearing 114
4. Ages and Stages 134
5. Education 146
6. Relationships 210
7. Public Life 269
8. Death, Burial, and Commemoration 336
Chronological Guide 364
Glossary 367
References 369
Index of Sources 395
General Inde x 409
Description:Images of children in Roman society abound: an infant's first bath, learning to walk, playing with pets and toys, going to school, and--all too often--dying prematurely. Children and Childhood in Roman Italy argues that in Roman society children were, in principle and often in practice, welcome, val
