Description
Book SynopsisThis book examines the daily lives of Roman women by focusing on the mundane and less celebrated aspects of daily life - family and household, work and leisure, worship and social obligations - of women of different social ranks. Using a variety of sources, including literary texts, letters, inscriptions, coins, tableware, furniture, and the fine arts, from the late Republic to the high Imperial period, Eve D'Ambra shows how these sources serve as objects of social analysis, rather than simply as documents that recreate how life was lived. She also demonstrates how texts and material objects take part in shaping realities and what they can tell us about the texture of lives and social attitudes, if not emotions of women in Roman antiquity.
Trade Review'While the book is intended to serve as an introduction, it provides detailed and concise information with avenues for more in-depth studies and will make an excellent textbook for any college course on women in Rome.' Bryn Mawr Classical Review
'This book offers a good introduction to a large topic for an audience with no prior knowledge and it provides valuable background material for the Cambridge Latin Course.' Journal of Classics Teaching
'D'Ambra has succeeded in writing an accomplished guidebook full of interesting details and concrete examples that make aspects of a Roman woman's life easily understandable. The book is written in clear language, which makes it also accessible to readers not familiar with the use of academic jargon.' Arctos
Table of Contents1. Gender and status; 2. Marriage and family; 3. Women's work; 4. Public life; Glossary; Roman authors; Selected bibliography.
