Restless Youth in Ancient Rome

Emiel Eyben

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2003
• eBook ISBN: 9781134950638
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

Restless Youth in Ancient Rome presents an inclusive portrayal of the perceptions the Romans had of youth and of the role of this age group in a wide variety of domains - philosphy, literature, education, the law, the army, politics, leisure, amorous pursuits and family life. Emiel Eyben considers the involved farrago of thoughts, feelings and behaviour of youth throughout the period and shows how youth itself put its stamp on its environment.

NOTES

jR in the notes refers to my book De jonge Romein volgens de literaire bronnen der periode ca. 200 v. Chr. tot ca. 500 n. Chr., Brussels: Paleis der Academiën, 1977.

INTRODUCTION

1 Cf. C.N. Degler (1975) 5–6: The definition of history is a changing thing: there is nothing sacred about its content. Today fields of history once central to the subject—like constitutional history—are quite peripheral, while urban history, or black history, once barely known, have pushed to the fore. The definition, or, more accurately, the content of history, will change as we ask where the women [or the youths] have been.’

2 Cf. E. Eyben (1991) 225–55.

3 Cf. D.M. Halperin (1990) 2: ‘Within the last two decades, especially, political movements originating outside the academy have so transformed life within it that a classical scholar who studies ancient Greek sexual practices, including paederasty (the ‘unspeakable’ vice) …can expect not only to be tolerated by the profession but to be materially rewarded by it as well.’

4 All other books on Roman youth are from a recent date. Cf. J.-P. Néraudau (1979), who deals mainly with youth from the period before 200 BC; L.Giuliano (1979), who studies some aspects of republican youth; M. Kleijwegt (1991), whose mainly epigraphical study—which appeared when the text of this book was substantially complete—focuses on some aspects of youth (especially politics) in the cities of the Graeco-Roman world under the Empire. For a bibliography on child and youth in antiquity, cf. M.Karras/ J.Wiesehöfer (1981).

5 Cf. G.R.Lambert (1982) 56 n. 7: ‘Rather full quotations have often been given for the reason stated by A.O.Lovejoy in his now virtually classic statement of what is involved in the study of history of ideas (The Great Chain of Being, 1936, p. ix): “…In my own reading I have often been exasperated by finding précis or para phrases where I desiderated the actual language of the authors whose ideas were under consideration: and my rule has therefore been to give the words of relevant texts as fully as was consistent with reasonable brevity”.’

I YOUTH AS A DISTINCT AGE OF MAN

1 Cf. jR 62–128. An earlier version of this chapter appeared as E. Eyben (1987).

2 J.H.Van den Bergh (1956); Ph. Ariès (1960).

3 F.Musgrove (1968) 13ff. (‘Making adolescents’); 33ff. (The invention of the adolescent’). These views influenced classical scholars such as H.W.Pleket (1979) 173–92 and M.Kleijwegt (1991), who founded their thesis mainly on epigraphical material. On this inspiring—but in my eyes incorrect—point of view, cf. E.Eyben (1981a) 328–50.

4 A.Kriekemans (1967) 298.

5 Cf. jR. 65ff.; E.Eyben (1981b) 133–40; (1981a) 328–50.

6 Cf. jR. 5–40. On age qualifiction in (Roman) antiquity, cf. F.Boll (1950) 156–224; E.Eyben (1973b) 150–90; D.Slu anski (1974) 103– 21, 267–96, 345–69, 437–51, 563–78; W.Suder (1978) 5–9.

7 Varro, in Censorinus, 14, 2. Cf. jR 21ff.; D.Slu anski (1973) 103–9. Important also is Isidore of Seville, Orig., 11, 2, 2ff. (a division of the human life-span based on the number seven; youth lasts from 14 until 28). Cf. jR 25ff.

8 Cf. pp. 42ff. Therefore iuventus during the Republic almost always refers to young people as a class rather than to an age.

9 Cf. B.Axelson (1948) 7ff. In late antiquity, however, Church Fathers such as Ambrose and—especially—Augustine apparently distinguish adulescens (from 15 until 30) and iuvenis (from 30 until 45). Cf. jR 35–7. Important also is the fact that Plautus and Terence always use adulescens (or adulescentia) and that poets from Catullus on (almost) always use iuvenis (or iuventus).

10 Cf. H.Harmon (1978) 1596–8; G.Amiotti (1981) 131–40; E.Eyben (1985) 412ff.; T.E. J.Wiedemann (1989) 114–17.

11 Cf. W.W.Fowler (1896) 317–19; E.Eyben (1986) 331–2.

12 Cf. pp. 19ff.

13 Cf. pp. 21–2.

14 On the Lex [P]laetoria and the minor aetas, cf. S.Solazzi (1912); E.Weiss (1931) 578–82; A.Berger (1932) 1860–89; G.Wesener (1974) 571–81; S.di Salvo (1979); E.Eyben (1981a) 329–31; (1985) 426–8; J.- P.Néraudau (1979) 106ff.; L.Giuliano (1979) 73ff. Cf. B.Perrin (1966) 1455–65 (the ...

Table of contents

• COVER PAGE
• TITLE PAGE
• COPYRIGHT PAGE
• INTRODUCTION
• I. YOUTH AS A DISTINCT AGE OF MAN
• II. YOUTH AND THE ESTABLISHED ORDER
• III. THE LEISURE ACTIVITIES OF YOUTH
• IV. YOUTHFUL THINKING
• V. THE EMOTIONAL LIFE OF THE YOUNG ROMAN
• CONCLUSION
• NOTES
• BIBLIOGRAPHY