Growing Up And Growing Old In Ancient Rome A Life Course Approach.pdf

GROWING UP AND GROWING OLD
IN ANCIENT ROME
Throughout history, every culture has had its own ideas on what growing up
and growing old means, with variations between chronological, biological
and social ageing, and with different emphases on the critical stages and
transitions from birth to death.
This volume is the first to highlight the role of age in determining
behaviour, and expectations of behaviour, across the life span of an inhabitant
of ancient Rome. Drawing on developments in the social sciences, as well as
ancient evidence, the authors focus on the period –AD200, looking at
childhood, the transition to adulthood, maturity, and old age. They explore
how both the individual and society were involved in, and reacted to, these
different stages, in terms of gender, wealth and status, and personal choice
and empowerment.
Original, lively and accessible, this study opens up the subject of age and
the Roman life course in a way that is tangible to the reader, and which
includes and draws on current controversies and debates in ancient history. It
will be important for anyone studying Roman life.
Mary Harlow is a lecturer in Roman history at the University of
Birmingham, where she holds a Leverhulme Special Research Fellowship
(2000/2001). Her research interests include gender, the Roman family and
dress in late antiquity. She is also an associate lecturer with the Open
University.
Ray Laurence is a lecturer in Roman history and archaeology at the
University of Reading. His previous books include Roman Pompeii: Space and
Society (Routledge 1994), and The Roads of Roman Italy: Mobility and Cultural
Change (Routledge 1999). He is also co-editor of Cultural Identity in the Roman
Empire (Routledge 1998, pb 2001) and Travel and Geography in the Roman
Empire (Routledge 2001).
GROWING UP AND
GROWING OLD IN
ANCIENT ROME
A life course approach
Mary Harlow and Ray Laurence
London and New York
First published 2002
by Routlege