History of Private Life, Volume I: From Pagan Rome to Byzantium

Paul Veyne, Phillippe Aris, Georges Duby, Arthur Goldhammer

ISBN 10: 0674399757 / ISBN 13: 9780674399754

Published by Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1987

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: History of Private Life, Volume I: From Pagan Rome to Byzantium
• Publisher: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
• Publication Date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674399757
• ISBN 13: 9780674399754
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: acceptable

About this title

Synopsis

First of the widely celebrated and sumptuously illustrated series, this book reveals in intimate detail what life was really like in the ancient world. Behind the vast panorama of the pagan Roman empire, the reader discovers the intimate daily lives of citizens and slaves—from concepts of manhood and sexuality to marriage and the family, the roles of women, chastity and contraception, techniques of childbirth, homosexuality, religion, the meaning of virtue, and the separation of private and public spaces.

The emergence of Christianity in the West and the triumph of Christian morality with its emphasis on abstinence, celibacy, and austerity is startlingly contrasted with the profane and undisciplined private life of the Byzantine Empire. Using illuminating motifs, the authors weave a rich, colorful fabric ornamented with the results of new research and the broad interpretations that only masters of the subject can provide.

About the Authors

Georges Duby, a member of the Académie Française, is Professor of Medieval History at the Collège de France.

Paul Veyne is Professor at the Collège de France.

Arthur Goldhammer received the French-American Translation Prize in 1990 for his translation of A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution.