Thomas A. J. McGinn

Begins with the view that ancient society was structured by a 'spectrum of statuses' and applies this insight to the position of women, primarily that of widows, in three historical periods. This book analyses the evidence to assess the value of this generalization and, to evaluate the position of widows in the societies under examination.

The Roman household (familia) was in many respects dramatically different from the modern family. From the early Roman Empire (30 B. C. to about A. D. 250) there survive many legal sources that describe Roman households, often in the most intimate detail. The subject matter of these ancient sources includes marriage and divorce, the property aspects of marriage, the pattern of authority within households, the transmission of property between generations, and the supervision of Roman orphans. This casebook presents 235 representative texts drawn largely from Roman legal sources, especially Justinian's Digest. These cases and the discussion questions that follow provide a good introduction to the basic legal problems associated with the ordinary families of Roman citizens. The arrangement of materials conveys to students an understanding of the basic rules of Roman family law while also providing them with the means to question these rules and explore the broader legal principles that underlie them. Included cases invite the reader to wrestle with actual Roman legal problems, as well as to think about Roman solutions in relation to modern law. In the process, the reader should gain confidence in handling fundamental forms of legal thinking, which have persisted virtually unchanged from Roman times until the present. This volume also contains a glossary of technical terms, biographies of the jurists, basic bibliographies of useful secondary literature, and a detailed introduction to the scholarly topics associated with Roman family law. A course based on this casebook should be of interest to anyone who wishes to understand better Roman social history, either as part of a larger Classical Civilization curriculum or as a preparation for law school.

The Roman household (familia) was in many respects dramatically different from the modern family. From the early Roman Empire (30 BC to about AD 250) there survive many legal sources that describe Roman households, often in the most intimate detail. The subject matter of these ancient sources includes marriage and divorce, the property aspects of marriage, the pattern of authority within households, the transmission of property between generations, and the supervision of Roman orphans. This casebook presents 235 representative texts drawn largely from Roman legal sources, especially "Justinian's Digest". These cases and the discussion questions that follow provide a good introduction to the basic legal problems associated with the ordinary families of Roman citizens. The arrangement of materials conveys to students an understanding of the basic rules of Roman family law while also providing them with the means to question these rules and explore the broader legal principles that underlie them. Included cases invite the reader to wrestle with actual Roman legal problems, as well as to think about Roman solutions in relation to modern law. In the process, the reader should gain confidence in handling fundamental forms of legal thinking, which have persisted virtually unchanged from Roman times until the present. This volume also contains a glossary of technical terms, biographies of the jurists, basic bibliographies of useful secondary literature, and a detailed introduction to the scholarly topics associated with Roman family law.

This is a study of the legal rules affecting the practice of female prostitution at Rome approximately from 200 B. C. to A. D. 250. It examines the formation and precise content of the legal norms developed for prostitution and those engaged in this profession, with close attention to their social context. McGinn's unique study explores the "fit" between the law-system and the socio-economic reality while shedding light on important questions concerning marginal groups, marriage, sexual behavior, the family, slavery, and citizen status, particularly that of women.