If you think that smacking a child is bad, then you would have found it confronting to live in ancient times.
Under Roman law, fathers had the right to inflict horrendous punishments on their children – from beating and starving them to killing them, although history shows us that few dads resorted to the latter.
‘Children in the Ancient World’ is the theme of this year’s 20th Annual Ancient History Day at The University of Queensland on Saturday, 30 August, and will include presentations about Greek, Roman and early Christian children, their parents and their communities.
UQ’s Dr Janette McWilliam said that while the ancients may have been tough on discipline, their attitude to breast-feeding was remarkably modern.
“They knew that ‘breast was best’: mother’s milk was regarded as vital for a child’s development,” she said.
“For them the issue wasn’t so much whether children should be breast fed, but who should do it – mothers or wet-nurses.
“But they were relaxed compared to us when it came to sexual or violent imagery exposure.
“Rooms of houses in Pompeii where children were present were decorated with images that today would be labelled pornographic.”
UQ has a strong teaching and research tradition in Roman social history, and the event brings together many Brisbane experts and the University of Sydney’s Associate Professor Lesley Beaumont, who specialises in the lives of children in classical Greece.
Ancient History Day is presented by the Friends of Antiquity and UQ’s discipline of Classics and Ancient History.
Speakers on Ancient History Day:
- Dr Janette McWilliam: The lives of Roman children in the late Republic and early Imperial periods
- Dr Jennifer Manley: Children in early Christian communities
- Emeritus Professor Bob Milns: Vignettes of children in Greek poets
- Associate Professor Lesley Beaumont (Sydney): Children in ancient Athens
- Dr Dorothy Watts: Children in Roman Britain
- Mr Don Barrett: Roman children at school
Ancient History Day is held at the Abel Smith Lecture Theatre, UQ St Lucia Campus.
For more information: http://www.friendsofantiquity.org.au. Registration may be made on the day.
Contact: Lesley Whitteker, 0417 496397
