Childhood and Family in Ancient Rome

The expected learning outcomes, articulated according to the Dublin Descriptors, are as follows:

Knowledge and understanding (DD1)

·       To acquire knowledge of historical theories and models for interpreting educational and training events;

·       to acquire knowledge of theories useful for interpreting relational dynamics (particularly parent-child relationships) in Roman times and their evolution to the present day.

Applying knowledge and understanding (DD2)

·       To acquire knowledge of and be able to analyse sources (literary, legal, epigraphic, and archaeological) concerning childhood in the Roman world;

·       to connect the theoretical and methodological content acquired with the interpretation of past, present, and future events and processes;

·       to be able to apply historical research methodology to achieve educational objectives.

Making judgements (DD3)

·       To assess the relevance of the theories studied to the situations encountered and to the actions undertaken and/or observed;

·       starting from the observation of case studies from the past, to be able to propose, formulate, and substantiate suggestions for change and transformation in today’s educational context.

Communication skills (DD4)

·       To be able to communicate the rationale behind one’s actions;

·       to be able to justify objectives, procedures, and methodologies both orally and in writing.

Learning skills (DD5)

·      To be able to identify unexpected research findings and their possible methodological developments and potential impact.

·       The sources on childhood in the Roman world

·       pregnancy and abortion

·       birth and early moments of life

·       born “different”: disability in the Roman world

·       child abandonment

·       child feeding

·       the premature death

·       games for children

·       family education

·       the first level of education

·       the grammar and literature school

·       education in Augustus’ time

·       the child and the city

·       legal inability of the child

·       the Augustan law on children

·       children in Christian thought

1. C. Fayer, La vita familiare dei Romani antichi. Dalla nascita al matrimonio, Roma 2016.
2. F. Paolucci, L. Camin (a cura di), A misura di bambino. Crescere nell’antica Roma. Catalogo della mostra (Firenze, 23 novembre 2021-24 aprile 2022), Firenze 2021.
3. C. Laes, Disabilities and the disabled in the Roman world. A social and cultural history, Cambridge 2018, pp. 23-36 e 133-148.
4. C. Soraci, Contrapposizione tra potestates in materia di allattamento: la testimonianza del P.Lond. III 951 verso, «ZPE», 220, 2021, 226-232.
5. C. Soraci, La durata dell’allattamento nel mondo romano, in S. Lentini, S.A. Scandurra (a cura di), Quamdiu cras, cur non hodie? Studi in onore di Antonia Criscenti Grassi, Aracne, Roma 2021, 527-538.
6. F. Elia, L’alienatio liberorum in età imperiale: problemi sociali e interventi normativi, «QC», IV-V, 1992-93, pp. 361-402. 
7. P. Porena, Il lavoro infantile, in A. Marcone (a cura di), Storia del lavoro in Italia. L’età romana. Liberi, semiliberi e schiavi in una società premoderna, Roma 2016, pp. 663-685. 

Additional material for further and optional study will be made available through the Studium platform.

Alternatively, instead of the texts listed above, the student may study one of the following volumes:

-        B. Rawson, Children and childhood in Roman Italy, Oxford 2003. (pp. 434)

-        M. Carroll, Infancy and Earliest Childhood in the Roman World. ‘A Fragment of Time’, Oxford 2018. (pp. 317)