On the Margin

This reader features fifty extracts that shed light on minority and marginalized groups in ancient Rome. It opens with a section on the family—a topic central to Roman life but strangely marginalized in Roman literature—that covers family love, married love, children, marital discord and divorce, and women. The book then reaches out to those groups on the margin of Roman society: slaves, freedmen, foreigners, convicts, gladiators, and Christians. Each of the readings includes a brief introduction, followed by an extract selected from Cicero, Pliny, Petronius, Seneca, and other authors and inscriptions, all of which are made readily accessible by glosses. Each passage is followed by questions designed to stimulate discussion and reflection on these largely under-examined aspects of Roman life.