Birthing Romans

Childbearing and Its Risks in Imperial Rome

Anna Bonnell Freidin

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Hardback

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English

Princeton University Press
28 August 2024

Ancient history: to c 500 CE; Social & cultural history; History of medicine; History of science

How Romans coped with the anxieties and risks of childbirth

Across the vast expanse of the Roman Empire, anxieties about childbirth tied individuals to one another, to the highest levels of imperial politics, even to the movements of the stars. Birthing Romans sheds critical light on the diverse ways pregnancy and childbirth were understood, experienced, and managed in ancient Rome during the first three centuries of the Common Era.

In this beautifully written book, Anna Bonnell Freidin asks how inhabitants of the Roman Empire-especially women and girls-understood their bodies and constructed communities of care to mitigate and make sense of the risks of pregnancy and childbirth. Drawing on medical texts, legal documents, poetry, amulets, funerary art, and more, she shows how these communities were deeply human yet never just human. Freidin demonstrates how patients and caregivers took their place alongside divine and material agencies to guard against the risks inherent to childbearing. She vividly illustrates how these efforts and vital networks offer a new window onto Romans' anxieties about order, hierarchy, and the individual's place in the empire and cosmos.

Unearthing a risky world that is both familiar and not our own, Birthing Romans reveals how mistakes, misfortunes, and interventions in childbearing were seen to have far-reaching consequences, reverberating across generations and altering the course of people's lives, their family histories, and even the fate of an empire.

By: Anna Bonnell Freidin
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9780691226279
ISBN 10: 069122627X
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 28 August 2024
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , General/trade , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Anna Bonnell Freidin is assistant professor of history at the University of Michigan.

Reviews for Birthing Romans: Childbearing and Its Risks in Imperial Rome

""An important contribution to understanding the cycle of pregnancy, birth – and death – in which Roman women lived. The world of Veturia, and of her invisible sisters throughout the Roman empire, comes alive in its pages.""---Helen King, Times Literary Supplement ""Birthing Romans is a compelling and powerful book""---Gaia Gianni, American Journal of Philology