Children and Everyday Life in the Roman and Late Antique World

Children and Everyday Life in the Roman and Late Antique World explores what it meant to be a child in the Roman world - what were children’s concerns, interests and beliefs - and whether we can find traces of children’s own cultures. By combining different theoretical approaches and source materials, the contributors explore the environments in which children lived, their experience of everyday life, and what the limits were for their agency. The volume brings together scholars of archaeology and material culture, classicists, ancient historians, theologians, and scholars of early Christianity and Judaism, all of whom have long been involved in the study of the social and cultural history of children.

The topics discussed include children's living environments; clothing; childhood care; social relations; leisure and play; health and disability; upbringing and schooling; and children's experiences of death. While the main focus of the volume is on Late Antiquity its coverage begins with the early Roman Empire, and extends to the early ninth century CE. The result is the first book-length scrutiny of the agency and experience of pre-modern children.

Christian Laes is an Associate Professor of Ancient History at the University of Antwerp (Belgium) and an Adjunct Professor in Ancient History at the History Department of the University of Tampere (Finland). He has studied the social and cultural history of Rome and Late Antiquity, paying particular attention to the human life course: childhood; youth; family; slavery; old age; sexuality; and disabilities. His monographs and over seventy contributions have been published by international publishers and journals.

Ville Vuolanto is Research Fellow at the University of Oslo (Norway) and Adjunct Professor in General History at the University of Tampere (Finland). He has published a number of articles on the history of the family and childhood in the Roman and early medieval periods. His latest book publication is Children and Asceticism in Late Antiquity: Continuity, Family Dynamics and the Rise of Christianity (Ashgate, 2015).