Roman Childhood

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Roman Childhood Adolescence
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Roman Infancy

• Because of high infant/child mortality rates,
  women had to bear many children to ensure a good
  chance that one or two would survive to adulthood
  (to inherit the domus, to further the familia
  with their own children).

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Position of Children

• Roamed throughout the domus, confined to certain
  areas depending on time of day.
• In the care of slaves nurses, pedagogi.
• Romans presented children as in need of molding
  and control.
• Wore special clothing (toga praetexta) and
  jewelry (apotropaic amulets, rings, etc.)

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The Stage of Childhood

• Marked by particular (gendered) rituals, codes of
  behavior (status determined), personnel and
  emotions.
• Age of childhood birth to puberty (legally
  defined as age 12 for girls and 14 for boys).
• All children were under the potestas of their
  paterfamilias until his death.

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Latin Words for Children

• infans birth to 7 years old. Romans had no word
  for baby per se - infans used until age 7.
  Cicero spoke of his son when he was an infant as
  his filiolo (sonlet, little son). Catullus
  speaks of a parvulus (little tiny one) Suetonius
  gives us pupus/a (doll).

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Latin Words for Children

• liberi freeborn legitimate children (any age)
• progeni/filii offspring, sons and daughters
• (any age)
• pueri young male and female children (not
  youths).
• puella diminuative arose from puera, used for
  both young children (7-12) and young women
  between puberty marriage also a term of
  affection for ones married lover (Catullus
  vale, puella!)

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Birth

• Birth was surrounded by rituals to ensure health
  and good luck.
• Midwife checks the baby for any deformities.
• Sublatus ceremony father formally acknowledge
  the newborn by picking it up (tollere liberos).
• If he did not pick it up, it would be exposed
  (perhaps to die, perhaps to be picked up by
  another family to raise).

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Protective Deities

• Diespater - birth
• Mena and Lucina - menstruation childbirth
• Opis - placing the baby on the earth
• Vaticanus - the first cry
• Levana - to lift the baby from the earth
• Cunina - to guard the cradle
• Rumina - for breastfeeding (wet-nurses common)
• This list reflects anxiety about a dangerous
  process and the need for protection of the child
  mother.

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Naming Ceremony (Purification Rite)

• Non-blood sacrifice, party with gifts.
• Girls were named on the 8th day after birth
  (feminine versions of their fathers names-
  Claudia, Tullia, Agrippina).
• Boys were named on the 9th day after birth (his
  own praenomen, the nomen cognomen of his
  father).
• Children (just boys?) were given bullae, signs of
  free birth and protective amulets.
• Parents registered births within 30 days (Temple
  of Saturn).

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Body Control - Shaping

• Swaddling in different ways according to gender
• Breast area bound more tightly around girls
• Pelvic area left loose around girls
• Feet bound broad at the end, narrow in the
  middle
• Knees straightened
• Arms bond to the sides
• Head bound separately
• Swaddling released gradually between 40th-60th
  day postpartum.

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Childhood Games

• Those children who survived infancy had a variety
  of games to play.
• Knucklebones (astragali of bronze, glass, or
  onyx) were thrown like dice, with each side
  having a different value.
• Marbles, Board games, Dolls, pet animals, sports,
  sandcastles, miniature chariots, etc.

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End of Early Childhood

• The end of infantia (infancy) was marked by the
  loss of baby teeth (legally the 7th birthday).
• Boys now began participating in public arena by
  beginning their education outside of the domus.
• It is estimated that 50 of children who survived
  infancy would die before the age of 10.

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Socialization

• Until the age of puberty, socialization took
  place at home for girls, and at home and school
  for boys.
• Caregivers slaves/nurses, pedagogues, the
  childs extended family.
• There is evidence for affection between
  caregivers and children.

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Mark of Childhood

• Roman citizens, as children, were subject to
  physical punishment.
• Slave caregivers/teachers could beat their free
  charges.
• Equivalence of slaves and children in this
  respect.

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Gendered Play

• Females were encouraged to identify themselves
  with their future roles as wives/mothers (dolls
  are not baby dolls, but young women).
• Males were encouraged to model their games after
  their future occupations (war, politics,
  oratory).

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Character Forecasting

• Romans believed you could see the man/woman in
  the child Horaces satire portraying his sons
  characters as revealed in how they played with
  their knucklebones one too generous, the other,
  too miserly

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Symbolic Moments in Childhood

• Sarcophagi reliefs show us how certain moments in
  childhood were thought to be symbolic for the
  movement from infancy to puberty/adulthood.
• Sentimentality parents loved the child
• Practicality the loss of the child means the
  loss of the productive adult

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Education

• Both boys and girls were educated
• Elementary school basic reading, writing,
  arithmetic. Memorization of Roman legends, laws,
  poetry. Self-control of body and emotions.
• Girls educated at home in both the skills above
  and those that would make them successful wives
  and mothers (running the domus, working wool,
  etc.).

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Higher Education

• Grammar School taught by a grammaticus, learned
  Greek and Latin grammar (upper class only).
• Rhetoric School a rhetor taught the art of
  rhetoric, of speaking and writing formally in the
  most effective and persuasive way. The study and
  analysis of oratorical texts. Training of the
  body and voice.

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Male Transition to Adulthood

• Male between 14-19, boys celebrated their formal
  coming of age, usually on March 17, the festival
  of Liber and Libera.
• Dedicated his childhood clothes to the household
  gods (along with his bulla)
• Put on the new white toga virilis (toga of
  manhood), symbolizing his new status as full
  citizen.
• Registered himself at the Tabularium.
• Attended large banquet given for families and
  friends.

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Female Transition to Adulthood

• The transition from childhood to adult was marked
  by marriage.
• Considered marriageable after age 12, but age of
  actual marriage varied from 15-20 depending on
  class and circumstance.
• Adolescent girls would have been carefully
  protected and watched, to ensure chastity.

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Latin Words of Female Transition

• puella
• virgo virgin, maiden heavy chaperoning
• uxor wife
• mater mother

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Betrothal

• Among the elite, could happen in infancy.
• Parents selected husband, negotiated dowry.
• Bride expected to be chaste, modest, domestically
  capable.
• Groom good character, good looks, good health.
• Betrothal party optional the male sponsus often
  gave his sponsa a ring.

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Marriage

• Night before wedding girls may have dedicated
  their clothing and toys in a ritual. Brides
  donned and slept in a tunica recta and a yellow
  hairnet, both woven by themselves.
• On the wedding day, they wore belts woven from
  ewes wool to symbolize fertility, tied with
  special knot.
• Dress marked the final transition from virgo to
  uxor.
• Hairstyle sex crines, flower garland around
  head.
• Flammeum bridal veil covered head, face, body.

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