The commemoration of children in Rome and Italy in the Early Empire
Abstract
What would life have been like for a child growing up in Rome or
in any part of Italy during the first three centuries AD? The answer
to such a question is not straightforward. How does one determine
that someone was a 'child'? Was this child male or female? To what
social class did this child belong? 'What position did his or her
parents hold in the community? Were his or her parents alive? A
series of equally complex questions must therefore be addressed
before the first, seemingly simple question can be approached. The
reconstruction of Roman childhood can be an arduous task because,
although it is known that children were very visible in both public
and private life, the remaining material that records the existence
of children during this time was often not created with children in
mind. Nor was it produced for the purpose of describing the
characteristics of Roman childhood. There IS no material In
existence created by children themselves such as diaries , poems,
stories, letters or paintings that · give any indications of how
children themselves perceived their world. Children appear in
literary texts, papyri, art, funerary inscriptions and the law code.
This type of evidence was created by adults, not for ch~ldren , but
for themselves and hence also reflects adult preoccupations and
concerns.