The Single Life in the Roman and Later Roman World

Explores single men and women in the Roman world, their ways of life and their reasons for remaining unmarried.

Sabine R. Huebner (Edited by), Christian Laes (Edited by)

9781108470179, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 February 2019

434 pages, 9 b/w illus. 3 maps 16 tables
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.3 cm, 0.83 kg

Using a variety of historical sources and methodological approaches, this book presents the first large-scale study of single men and women in the Roman world, from the Roman Republic to Late Antiquity and covering virtually all periods of the ancient Mediterranean. It asks how singleness was defined and for what reasons people might find themselves unmarried. While marriage was generally favoured by philosophers and legislators, with the arguments against largely confined to genres like satire and comedy, the advent of Christianity brought about a more complex range of thinking regarding its desirability. Demographic, archaeological and socio-economic perspectives are considered, and in particular the relationship of singleness to the Roman household and family structures. The volume concludes by introducing a number of comparative perspectives, drawn from the early Islamic world and from other parts of Europe down to and including the nineteenth century, in order to highlight possibilities for the Roman world.

Introduction
1. What's in a single? Roman Antiquity and a comparative world approach Christian Laes
Part I. Demographic, Archaeological, and Socio-Economic Approaches: 2. Single men and women in pagan society – the case of Roman Egypt Sabine Huebner
3. Looking for singles in the archaeological record of Roman Egypt Anna Boozer
4. Between coercion and compulsion? The impact of occupations and economic interests on the relational status of slaves and freedmen Wim Broekaert
Part II. Being Single in the Roman World: 5. Singles, sex, and status in the Augustan marriage legislation Judith Evans Grubbs
6. 'Singleness' in Cicero and Catullus Harri Kiiskinen
7. Tracing Roman ideas on female singleness – Virgil's Aeneid Elina Pyy
8. Single as a Lena. The depiction of procuresses in Roman Augustan literature Mina Petrova
Part III. Singles in Judaism: 9. (Why) was Jesus single? John W. Martens
10. Contesting the Jerusalem Temple – James, Nazirite vows and celibacy Kevin Funderburk
Part IV. Late Antique Christianity – The Rise of the Ideal of Being Single: 11. Singles and singleness in the Christian epigraphic evidence from Rome (c. 300–500 CE) Thomas Goessens
12. Different ways of life: being single in the fourth century CE Raffaela Cribiore
13. Single life in Late Antiquity? Virgins between the earthly and the heavenly family Ville Vuolanto
14. Being a bachelor in Late Antiquity – desire and social norms in the experience of Augustine Geoffrey Nathan
15. Single people in early Byzantine literature Stephanos Efthymiadis
16. 'Listen to my mistreatment' – support networks for widows and divorcées in the Coptic record Jennifer Cromwell
Part V. Comparative Voices: 17. Celibacy and sexual abstinence in early Islam Mohammed Hocine Benkheira
18. To marry or not to marry in fifteenth and sixteenth-century cities, cases Antwerp and Bruges Julie De Groot
19. Singleness in nineteenth-century Italy – permanent celibacy and solitariness between coercion and free choice Matteo Manfredini.

Subject Areas: Islamic law [LAFS], Roman law [LAFR], Sociology: customs & traditions [JHBT], Sociology: family & relationships [JHBK], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1], European history [HBJD]