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 introduc…