books 2009: Women in Late Antiquity, by Gillian Clark

[supercheesegirl]

Full title: Women in Late Antiquity: Pagan and Christian Lifestyles. Historical nonfiction.

This book rocked. Clark looks at all kinds of sources in order to examine how women lived in late antiquity (200 AD or so to 600 AD or so). She looks at the laws and how the laws changed and tries to extrapolate what the law meant for how women were treated and how they were expected to behave. She also looks at medical texts to see how women's bodies were understood and treated, and at religious and philosophical texts to see what women's place in the world was considered to be and how women interacted in their spiritual lives.

Although it didn't have quite enough information on my particular research topic (the unnamed concubine of St. Augustine of Hippo in Roman north Africa in the late 300s, or even just concubines in general or women in Roman north Africa or the provinces in general), it still got the closest of any book I've found yet. This is an excellent sourcebook, full of information and interesting facts, all related in a readable and understandable style.

Comments

[indigoruadh.livejournal.com]

I read this book for one of my first classes at Div School! It was nice to be reminded of it. It was one of the better reads for that class. Much more sane than Tertullian. That guy had issues.