Children and childhood in Roman Italy

About this book

"Children and Childhood in Roman Italy argues that in Roman society children were, in principle and often in practice, welcome, valued, and visible. There is no evidence directly from children themselves, but we can reconstruct attitudes to them, and their own experiences, from a wide variety of material - art and architecture, artefacts, funerary dedications, Roman law, literature, and public and private ritual. There are distinctively Roman aspects to the treatment of children and to children's experiences. Education at many levels was important. The commemoration of children who died young has no parallel, in earlier or later societies, before the twentieth century."--Jacket.