Interdisciplinary approaches in Roman Family Studies: heuristic potential and possible limitations

Ivanova Elena Sergeevna Master's Degree Student, Department of History of the Ancient World and the Middle Ages, N.I.Lobachevsky National Research University 603159, Russia, Nizhegorodskaya oblast', g. Nizhnii Novgorod, ul. Sergeya Akimova, 28, of. 1 selenai.ei95@gmail.com Other publications by this author

The subject field of our research is the study of the family in the context of the Roman military community. It should be noted that the institution of the family is characterized by many signs, such as the community of life, the presence of emotional attachment, the desire for the birth and upbringing of children, etc. In addition, each family is a separate microcosm with its own special structure, distribution of roles and traditions, which are determined by the social status, property status, ethnic origin of the family, etc. In this regard, to create work within the framework of family research, it is necessary to use an interdisciplinary approach and apply the methods of new directions in historical science such as gender history (and archaeology), the history of childhood, historical demography, the history of emotions and, of course, historical anthropology. Among the studies on gender archaeology, our attention was attracted by an article by the British archaeologist Penelope Alison ^[1].

The aim of the researcher was to determine the spheres of activity of women in the Roman military camp on the basis of preserved artifacts. However, the realization of this goal was complicated by the fact that the same subject in different contexts may relate to different genders. For example, for the bearer of Roman culture, jewelry was considered part of women's everyday life, while men from the eastern provinces of the empire themselves wore earrings and beads. Since both of them could live on the territory of one camp, it is difficult to associate such finds with a specific gender. In addition, difficulties are caused by subjects related to certain occupations. So, in the civilian environment, wool spinning was exclusively a women's business. In the military camp, young male slaves could also do this. In this regard, spinning wheels cease to be markers of a woman's presence in the community. To overcome the described difficulties, P. Alison carefully correlates the artifact and the exact place of its discovery and creates maps-diagrams of forts with their marks. Based on this spatial analysis, the researcher was able to classify the finds into groups: male and presumably male, female and presumably female, children's and presumably children's. Despite the extremely cautious classification of the finds, P. Alison comes to unexpectedly bold conclusions that women made up a significant part of the military community and that, contrary to popular belief, the wives of ordinary soldiers lived with their husbands in barracks inside the camp walls, and not outside in ditches ^{[1, p. 17-19]}.Although P. Alison's conclusions seem very controversial, her method of spatial analysis of finds is quite productive and has already allowed other researchers to determine some social roles of women in the Roman military community ^[2-4].

However, it is worth noting that in order to create a more complete picture of the social life of a woman in a military camp, the classification of finds should be expanded, since Roman society, consisting of free citizens, peregrines, freedmen and slaves, is too complicated to be divided only by gender. Regarding our work, there are also some practical limitations related to the inaccessibility of archaeological reports, as well as the fact that the quality of publications varies from a detailed description of each room of all camp buildings with all the finds to a simple enumeration of building types.

 Another area that has influenced family research is historical demography. Within its framework, Tim Parkin's monograph "Demography and Roman Society" became fundamental for the history of Ancient Rome ^[5]. In this paper, the researcher suggests using mortality tables developed by Ainsley Cole and Paul Demeny to study the structure of ancient society ^[6]. The essence of such tables is as follows. An estimated 100,000 people were born in one community in one year. We track how many of them live to a certain age, dividing their life path into stages: up to a year, from a year to five years, then up to 10, etc. At the end of each period, the deceased are counted and the number of survivors is correlated. Thus, we can restore the age structure of society.

However, the mortality tables are based on some assumptions. Firstly, the birth rate is recognized as equal to the death rate; secondly, changes in the population that have occurred as a result of migrations, wars, epidemics and famine are not taken into account, since it is believed that such changes are leveled over the course of several generations. The third assumption concerns the possibility of using tables created for societies of the XIX-XX centuries, for the population of Ancient Rome. This possibility is justified by the assumption that age-related mortality patterns do not depend on time and space. The specific figures may differ, but in general, the following trend can be identified: a high mortality rate in infancy, a sharp decrease in mortality in adolescence and a newly increasing mortality in old age. The following indicators are considered characteristic of the Roman Empire: 30% of those born die before they reach one year; another 21% — before 5 years; half of those who reach 10 years will live to 50 years, 1/3 - to 60; 1/6 — to 70 years ^{[7, p. 23-25]}.

It should be noted that this statistic is taken into account in most works on Roman family history, it supports the hypothesis about the prevalence of the nuclear family type in the empire ^{[8, p. 73-91]}, and in particular it is often referred to when studying Roman childhood ^{[9, 10]}. As for military families, using mortality tables in conjunction with other demographic indicators, such as the age of marriage, which for various reasons ^[11] was significantly higher for soldiers than for civilians, the researchers assumed that there were a large number of children left without fathers and in need of a guardian in the military community, which should be a colleague of the parent ^{[11, p. 423]}.

Despite the abstractness of the conclusions obtained when using mortality tables, the methods of historical demography are a necessary tool in the study of the ancient family. First of all, they allow you to overcome the limitations that arise due to the state of the source database. The fact is that for ancient history there is not a single source that would make it possible to compile accurate demographic statistics for at least one region in a specific period of time. Epitaphs tell us about the practices of commemoration of certain social groups who lived in the same locality; census data from Egypt are too few to be representative; it is not always possible to determine the sex and age of skeletal remains ^{[5, p. 4-66]}, etc. Thus, the only method for creating an average demographic picture of ancient society is the compilation of mortality tables.

However, problems arise not only when trying to trace general trends. When we turn to the study of the accidental and the singular, we again have to resort to the methods of related disciplines. We are talking about the history of emotions and the application of its achievements when working with the ancient epistolary heritage. For the study of family relations, one of the most valuable sources are letters on papyri, which, according to the American researcher Rafaella Kribiore, allow "eavesdropping on spontaneous conversation from antiquity" ^{[12, p. 149]}. However, the frequent use of standard speech phrases by the authors of letters causes some researchers ^{[13, p. 291]} to doubt the possibility of finding expressions of individual thoughts and sincere feelings in this source. Moreover, Peter Parsons suggests that speech stereotypes in letters are related to the fact that people of antiquity thought cliches ^{[14, p. 8]}.

On the other hand, German researcher Kristina Kreinecker believes that the manifestations of author's emotions in letters can be found precisely in verbal formulas ^{[15, p. 454]}. Moreover, K. Kreineker calls the letter itself an expression of emotion, which hides the desire to maintain contact with family members or friends, as well as to emphasize the close connection between the sender and the addressee ^{[15, p. 454]}. A similar meaning is given to letters by Krisi Kotsifu ^{[16, p. 394]}, who notes that the very fact of receiving the letter was important, since the addressee appreciated the time and efforts of the author spent on composing the text, and Roger Bagnall ^{[17, p. 14]}, according to whom, for people of antiquity, separated by a long distance it was enough to know about each other's well-being.

Indeed, formulas with prayers for health and well-being, as well as requests to greet mutual acquaintances are the most common. And if suddenly the author for some reason did not greet a loved one, then reproaches could come from the latter. For example, Elin ends a letter to her daughter with the following phrase: "When my little Geraida wrote to her father, she did not greet me, and I do not know why" (P. Giss. 78), and Artemia, in a letter to her husband, informs him: "Your children greet you, and Allia sends you a lot of threats, because you often wrote and greeted everyone except her" (P. Grenf. I. 53). The spoiled Theon also sends threats to his father: "If you do not agree to take me with you to Alexandria, then I will not write you a letter, I will not talk to you and I will not wish you health, but if you still go to Alexandria without me, I will not shake your hand and I will not continue I wish you health" (P. Oxy. I. 119).

In addition, K. Kreineker urges to pay attention to individual words that are used in sentences that are similar in purpose of narration ^{[15, p. 456]}. So, for suggestions, requests the researcher selects the next synonymous number: , , and .  Then K. Kreinecker explains that most often found in the official petitions, thereby indicating the existence of social distance between author and addressee; and common in all types of documents; the verb appears in the letters of correspondents that have established trust relationships. Moreover, K. Kreineker notes, in rare cases, in order to emphasize the existence of a strong emotional connection, the authors use the formula ^{[15, p. 456]}. Let us give for example the following excerpts from Apollonia 's letter to her mother Termotuta: "I sincerely ask and implore you ( ), take care of yourself, as well as the little girl, so that you can survive the winter, and that we find you in good health. <...> I ask () you, if you hear something about the Termout, then send me a message. I ask () you, it's not so difficult, if you find someone who is going on the road, send me news about your health and the health of the little girl. I sincerely ask you and implore you ( ), if possible, to visit the girl three times a day" (P. Col. VIII. 215). So, we see that an emotionally stronger phrase is used for a request related to worries about the health of a mother and daughter. This and other examples allow K. Kreineker to conclude that the choice of a verbal formula was determined by the general content of the letter.

Thus, using the methods of historians of emotions, we get the opportunity to read letters between the lines and thereby "discern" individual feelings and emotions behind standard expressions. It is with this reading that it becomes possible to penetrate into the sphere of interpersonal relations of the family.

So, using the example of three disciplines, we see that interdisciplinary synthesis allows us to overcome the limitations set by the source base, build new hypotheses, and ultimately it is only with the help of a set of methods that it is possible to create a complete study on the family history of Roman servicemen.

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