Family and Familia in Roman Law and Life

For the social historian interested in gaining broad insights into the workings of Roman family law, Gardner's book offers many valuable conclusions ... The author's grasp of the complexities of her subject matter is impressive ... Gardner's analysis of cases cited in the Digest offers insight into social realities by giving brief glimpses of real families caught up in complicated legal and personal scenarios ... historians of the Roman family will definitely wish to keep the volume in their home libraries as a reference tool. * Marily B Skinner, University of Arizona, Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 10/02/99 * Jane F Gardner's new book makes a useful addition to the growing scholarship on the Roman family ... Gardner's full treatment of emancipation, adoption, and the mother-child bond fills a significant gap in the scholarship on Roman family life ... based on legal sources, of which Gardner has a detailed and reliable grasp * Richard Saller, American Historical Review, February 2000 * an authoritative work ... useful to both Roman law scholars and social historians * Beryl Rawson, Journal of Roman Studies, Vol 90 * the legal material studied is often difficult and complicated, and we owe Gardner thanks for working through it, teasing it out, and explicating it so well (even, at times, with humour). * Beryl Rawson, Journal of Roman Studies, Vol 90 * Each part is presented in a number of small bites, which makes the material more digestible and enhances the book's usefulness for reference. Technical terms are clearly defined, especially familia and 'family'. * Beryl Rawson, Journal of Roman Studies, Vol 90 * Gardner rescues Roman law from a narrow focus on legal rules and artificial compartmentalizing ... Her meticulous study shows how important an understanding of technical detail continues to be but it also shows how rewarding is the contextualization of such detail in Roman social attitudes and behaviour. * Beryl Rawson, Journal of Roman Studies, Vol 90 *