The Family in Roman Egypt

A Comparative Approach to Intergenerational Solidarity and Conflict

Sabine R. Huebner

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9781107011137
• eBook ISBN:
  9781107240056
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

This study captures the dynamics of the everyday family life of the common people in Roman Egypt, a social strata that constituted the vast majority of any pre-modern society but rarely figures in ancient sources or in modern scholarship. The documentary papyri and, above all, the private letters and the census returns provide us with a wealth of information on these people not available for any other region of the ancient Mediterranean. The book discusses such things as family composition and household size, and the differences between urban and rural families, exploring what can be ascribed to cultural patterns, economic considerations and/or individual preferences by setting the family in Roman Egypt into context with other pre-modern societies where families adopted such strategies to deal with similar exigencies of their daily lives.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Preface
• Map
• Chapter 1 Intergenerational solidarity and family support networks in cross-cultural perspective
• Chapter 2 Household structures, marriage patterns, and inheritance strategies
• Chapter 3 Balancing benefits and obligations Parental love and filial piety over the life course
• Chapter 4 Widowhood, remarriage, and residence patterns
• Chapter 5 Growing old in the household
• Chapter 6 The patriarchal household and the incoming daughter-in-law
• Chapter 7 Childless old age The worst of all fates?
• Chapter 8 Conclusions
• Bibliography
• Index of sources
• Index