Social Control in Late Antiquity: The Violence of Small Worlds

Kate Cooper (Editor), Jamie Wood (Editor)

Research output: Book/ReportBook

Abstract

This collection explores the small-scale communities of late antiquity – households, monasteries, and schools – where power was a question of personal relationships. When fathers, husbands, teachers, abbots, and slave-owners asserted their own will, they saw themselves as maintaining the social order, and expected law and government to reinforce their rule. Naturally, the members of these communities had their own ideas, and teaching them to ‘obey their betters’ was not always a straightforward business. Drawing on a wide variety of sources from across the late Roman Mediterranean, from law codes and inscriptions to monastic rules and hagiography, the book considers the sometimes conflicting identities of women, slaves, and children and documents how they found opportunities for agency and recognition within a system built on the unremitting assertion of the rights of the powerful.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationCambridge, England
PublisherCambridge University Press
Number of pages380
ISBN (Electronic)9781108783491
ISBN (Print)9781108479394
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2020

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