| Being a Roman Citizen Contributor(s): Gardner, Jane F. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0415001544 ISBN-13: 9780415001540 Publisher: Routledge OUR PRICE: $152.00 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: April 1993 Annotation: This is a book about Roman law for Roman historians. It reveals that the rules stated baldly in legal textbooks had a real and active function in maintaining the fabric of Roman society. Besides legal texts and literary sources, the book makes use of epigraphic material, including recent finds from Popleii which show law in action in the commercial life of Puteoli. The rights and duties of Roman citizens in private life were affected by certain basic differences in their formal status. Women, ex-slaves, adults with living fathers, convicted criminals, play-actors--even the blind, deaf and dumb, and the mentally ill--although all citizens, were far from having equal legal rights and capacities. The book examines in detail what the particular legal disabilities were which affected each group and also what the practical implications of these were for the conduct of daily life. It also considers whether and how they may be related to the distinctively Roman institution of "patria potestas," and to direct personal participation and interaction, which was a legal requirement for most transactions with legal consequences for persons and property. In "Being a Roman Citizen," Jane F. Gardner sheds light on Roman citizenship and challenges common assumptions about the reasons for discrimination between individuals and about the social attitudes implied. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Ancient - General |
| Dewey: 340.59 |
| LCCN: 92029382 |
| Physical Information: 0.75" H x 5.5" W x 8.5" (1.04 lbs) 252 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - Ancient (To 499 A.D.) - Religious Orientation - Islamic |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The status of citizen was increasingly the right of the majority in the Roman empire and brought important privileges and exemption from certain forms of punishment. However, not all Roman citizens were equal; for example bastards, freed persons, women, the physically and mentally handicapped, under-25s, ex-criminals and soldiers were subject to restrictions and curtailments on their capacity to act. Being a Roman Citizen examines these forms of limitation and discrimination and thereby throws into sharper focus Roman conceptions of citizenship and society. |