This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
The module will introduce students to the study of the Roman Family and through the study of the Roman family develop their skills in Roman social history. The module will begin by examining ancient definitions of the family and family formation through marriage, alongside the definition of both the nature of patriarchy and the role of the pater familias, and the nature of the Roman household. This initial section (to week 4) will lead to the first piece of assessment on how Roman historians have defined the nature of these social institutions in short piece of assessed work (2000 words maximum). The second section of the module will examine the development of the subject and academic approaches to the family and review how appropriate these are to the study of the Roman family, including that based on the study of demography, the life course and approaches to the study of childhood and gerontology (to week 6). The final section of the module will be focussed on the family as a key social institution subject to cultural, political and legal constraints placed upon family members. The second and third sections of the module form the basis of the second piece of written assessment (3000 words maximum) that will be based on the problem-solving of an essay question.
There will be three contact hours per week consisting of a one hour lecture and a two hour seminar.
Also available at Level 6 under code CL682
100% coursework
Indicative Reading List
Primary Sources
There are several source collections that serve this module:
• J. Gardner and T. Weidemann The Roman Household: A Sourcebook London: Routledge
• T. Parkin and A. Pomeroy 2007 Roman Social History, A Sourcebook London: Routledge
• J-A. Shelton 1998 As the Romans Did Oxford
• J. Evans Grubbs 2002 Women and the Law in the Roman Empire: A Sourcebook on Marriage, Divorce and Widowhood, London.
Secondary Sources – Key Texts
• K. Bradley 1991 Discovering the Roman Family Oxford
• S. Dixon 1992 The Roman Family Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP
• S. Dixon 2002 Reading Roman Women London: Duckworth.
• M. Harlow and R. Laurence (2002) Growing Up and Growing Old in Ancient Rome: A Life Course Approach London: Routledge.
Secondary Sources – Development of the Discipline
Since the 1980s there have been a number of international conferences on the Roman Family and related subjects. The publications of various papers from these have been very influential on the discipline. These are key texts to document the development of the subject over the last 3 decades:
• Rawson, B. (ed) 1986 The Family in Ancient Rome: New Perspectives Ithaca, NY.
• --------- (ed) 1991 Marriage, Divorce and Children in Ancient Rome
• Rawson, B. and Weaver (eds) 1997 The Roman Family in Italy: Status, Sentiment and Space Oxford.
• Dixon, S. (ed) 2001 Childhood, Class and Kin in the Roman World, London.
• George, M. (ed) 2005 The Roman Family in the Empire. Rome Italy and Beyond. Oxford.
• Mustakallio, K. et al (edd.) 2005 Hoping for Continuity. Childhood, Education and Death in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Rome.
• Harlow, M. and Laurence, R. (edd.) 2007 Age and Ageing in the Roman Empire, Portsmouth RI.
• Harlow, M. and Laurence, R. (edd.) 2009 The Cultural History of Childhood and the Family Volume 1: Antiquity, Oxford.
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
SLO 1. Develop a knowledge of the information on which to base conclusions with regard to the nature of the Roman Family (200 BC to AD 200), including an understanding of the development of the family as a social institution over time. (PLO 12.A.1-4)
SLO 2. Develop the skills of close reading, academic debate and independent research on the subject of the Roman family, whilst at the same time being aware of the partial and even conflicting nature of the surviving information from antiquity. (PLO 12.B.1-8)
SLO 3. Be able to read and critically evaluate primary and secondary sources in order to produce written and oral analysis. (PLO 12.C.1-6)
SLO 4. Develop study, time management, IT and communication skills. (PLO 12.D.1-7)
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