“A Companion to Families in the Greek and Roman Worlds is a stimulating and valuable resource for the future of classical scholarship.”  (Reference Reviews, 2011)

List of Illustrations viii

List of Tables xi

Notes on Contributors xii

Acknowledgments xvii

Introduction: Families in the Greek and Roman Worlds 1
Beryl Rawson

PART I HOUSES AND HOUSEHOLDS 13

1 Family and Household, Ancient History and Archeology: A Case Study from Roman Egypt 15
Lisa Nevett

2 Space and Social Relationships in the Greek Oikos of the Classical and Hellenistic Periods 32
Monika Trümper

3 Space and Social Relations in the Roman West 53
Jens–Arne Dickmann

4 Household Composition in the Ancient Mediterranean – What Do We Really Know? 73
Sabine R. Huebner

5 The Royal Families of Argead Macedon and the Hellenistic World 92
Daniel Ogden

6 Monogamy and Polygyny 108
Walter Scheidel

7 The Roman Family as Productive Unit 116
Richard Saller

8 The Families of Roman Slaves and Freedmen 129
Henrik Mouritsen

9 Foreign Families in Roman Italy 145
David Noy

10 Soldiers’ Families in the Early Roman Empire 161
Penelope Allison

11 The Household as a Venue for Religious Conversion: The Case of Christianity 183
Kate Cooper

12 What We Do and Don’t Know About Early Christian Families 198
Carolyn Osiek

PART II KINSHIP, MARRIAGE, PARENTS, AND CHILDREN 215

13 Consubstantiality, Incest, and Kinship in Ancient Greece 217
Jérôme Wilgaux

14 Marriage in Ancient Athens 231
Cheryl A. Cox

15 From Ceremonial to Sexualities: A Survey of Scholarship on Roman Marriage 245
Suzanne Dixon

16 Other People’s Children 262
Mark Golden

17 The Roman Life Course and the Family 276
Tim Parkin

18 Childbirth and Infancy in Greek and Roman Antiquity 291
Véronique Dasen

19 Grieving for Lost Children, Pagan and Christian 315
Christian Laes

PART III THE LEGAL SIDE 331

20 Greek Law and the Family 333
Eva Cantarella

21 Adoption and Heirship in Greece and Rome 346
Hugh Lindsay

22 Roman “Horror” of Intestacy? 361
Jane F. Gardner

23 Promoting pietas through Roman Law 377
Judith Evans Grubbs

PART IV CITY AND COUNTRY 393

24 Greek Cities and Families 395
Sara Saba

25 A Walk with the Dead: A Funerary Cityscape of Ancient Rome 408
Christopher Johanson

26 The Family and the Roman Countryside 431
Stephen L. Dyson

PART V RITUAL, COMMEMORATION, VALUES 445

27 Families and Religion in Classical Greece 447
Janett E. Morgan

28 Picturing Greek Families 465
Ada Cohen

29 Celebrating the Saturnalia: Religious Ritual and Roman Domestic Life 488
Fanny Dolansky

30 Ethos: The Socialization of Children in Education and Beyond 504
Teresa Morgan

31 Picturing the Roman Family 521
Janet Huskinson

32 Devotional Visuality in Family Funerary Monuments in the Roman World 542
Janet H. Tulloch

Glossary 564

References 567

Index 624

Beryl Rawson is Professor Emerita and Adjunct Professor in Classics at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. She is the author of The Politics of Friendship: Pompey and Cicero (1978) and Children and Childhood in Roman Italy (2003), and the editor of The Family in Ancient Rome: New Perspectives (1986), Marriage, Divorce and Children in Ancient Rome (1991), and The Roman Family in Italy (with Paul Weaver, 1997).

Recent decades have witnessed a dramatic surge of interest in the study of families in the ancient Mediterranean world. Social history has only recently extended its scope to include women, children, slaves, and foreigners, giving birth to a new definition of ‘the family’ that recognizes the great diversity of family forms in classical antiquity. A Companion to Families in the Greek and Roman Worlds draws from both established and current scholarship to offer a broad and interdisciplinary overview of the field, engage in contemporary debates, and pose stimulating questions about future development in the study of families.

Employing new methodologies and relying on textual and visual evidence from a variety of disciplines, such as archaeology, art, law, and early Christianity, this international team of contributors presents important new insights into life in ancient Greece and Rome and serves to broaden our understanding of the social structures of classical antiquity.