Social Control in Late Antiquity: The Violence of Small Worlds

Late Antiquity saw power as a question of personal relationships, with fathers, husbands, teachers, abbots, and slave-owners asserting their will. The book explores the conflicting identities of women, slaves, and children and documents how they found opportunities for agency and recognition within a system built on the assertion of the rights of the powerful.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 394 pages
Publication date: 10 March 2022
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Late Antiquity was a time of small-scale communities, such as households, monasteries, and schools, where power was a question of personal relationships. Fathers, husbands, teachers, abbots, and slave-owners asserted their own will, seeing themselves as maintaining the social order and expecting law and government to reinforce their rule. However, 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, including law codes and inscriptions, 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.

The book explores the complex dynamics of power and authority in these communities, examining how individuals and groups negotiated their relationships with those in positions of power and how they sought to assert their own identities and interests. It also considers the impact of religious beliefs and practices on social control, as well as the role of law and government in maintaining order and enforcing norms.

Overall, "Social Control in Late Antiquity: The Violence of Small Worlds" provides a valuable insight into the complex and multifaceted world of late antiquity, offering a rich and detailed account of the social, political, and cultural dynamics of this period.

Weight: 636g
Dimension: 152 x 230 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781108742696
Edition number: New ed