Sociological Studies In Roman History

This is a book for Roman historians which will also be of interest to sociologists.

Collected essays by Cambridge sociologist Keith Hopkins - one of the most radical, innovative and influential Roman historians of his generation.

The enormous size of the Roman empire and the length of time it endured call for an understanding of the institutions which sustained it. In this book, Keith Hopkins, who is both classicist and sociologist, uses various sociological concepts and methods to gain new insights into how traditional Roman institutions changed as the Romans acquired their empire. He examines the chain reactions resulting from increased wealth; various aspects of slavery, especially manumission and the cost of freedom; the curious phenomenon of the political power wielded by eunuchs at court; and in the final chapter he discusses the Roman emperor's divinity and the circulation of untrue stories, which were a currency of the political system. Professor Hopkins has developed an exciting approach to social questions in antiquity and his book should be of interest to all students of ancient history and of historical sociology.

This Sourcebook contains a comprehensive collection of sources on the topic of the social history of the Roman world during the late Republic and the first two centuries AD. Designed to form the basis for courses in Roman social history, this excellent resource covers original translations from sources such as inscriptions, papyri, and legal texts. Topics include: social inequality and class games, gladiators and attitudes to violence the role of slaves in Roman society economy and taxation the Roman legal system the Roman family and gender roles. Including extensive explanatory notes, maps and bibliographies, this Sourcebook is the ideal resource for all students and teachers embarking on a course in Roman social history.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1906 Edition.

Although the relationship of Greco-Roman historians with their readerships has attracted much scholarly attention, classicists principally focus on individual historians, while there has been no collective work on the matter. The editors of this volume aspire to fill this gap and gather papers which offer an overall view of the Greco-Roman readership and of its interaction with ancient historians. The authors of this book endeavor to define the physiognomy of the audience of history in the Roman Era both by exploring the narrative arrangement of ancient historical prose and by using sources in which Greco-Roman intellectuals address the issue of the readership of history. Ancient historians shaped their accounts taking into consideration their readers’ tastes, and this is evident on many different levels, such as the way a historian fashions his authorial image, addresses his readers, or uses certain compositional strategies to elicit the readers’ affective and cognitive responses to his messages. The papers of this volume analyze these narrative aspects and contextualize them within their socio-political environment in order to reveal the ways ancient readerships interacted with and affected Greco-Roman historical prose.

These essays on various aspects of family life in ancient Rome offer an especially timely and provocative new characterization of how this most elementary component of Roman society was structured. Recognizing that a traditional nuclear model is necessary for a basic understanding of Roman family organization, Keith R. Bradley argues that a broader, more extensive context must be established if this structure is to be fully appreciated. Examining the roles of slaves, servants, and other surrogates in the upbringing and socialization of children, and concentrating on the parts played by wet-nurses and male childerminders, his book molds an entirely new framework for the study of the Roman family. He investigates the extent of serial marriage, especially among the upper-classes, and the effects of the widespread familial dislocation that resulted, and for the first time considers the prevalence of child labor in the Roman world, contrasting the experiences of upper-class and lower-class children. Bringing these themes together in a lively final section through a fresh, thorough examination of Cicero's correspondence, Bradley portrays the life of an actual Roman family. A seminal contribution to Roman social history, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in how the family worked and lived in classical times.

"Noting that privileges granted to the aged generally took the form of exemptions from duties rather than positive benefits, Tim Parkin argues that the elderly were granted no privileged status or guaranteed social role. At the same time, they were permitted - and expected - to continue to participate actively in society for as long as they were able."--BOOK JACKET.