What was daily life like for a working woman in the Roman Empire? This book examines Roman commemorative inscriptions from the first and second centuries AD to determine ways in which slaves, freed slaves and unprivileged freeborn citizens used work to frame their identities. In the minutiae of the epitaphs and dedications she identifies the "language" of the inscriptions, through which the voiceless classes of Ancient Rome spoke. The inscriptions indicate the significance of work - as a source of community, a way to reframe the conditions of legal status, an assertion of activity against upper-class passivity, and a standard of assessment based on economic achievement rather than birth.
- ISBN10 080612413X
- ISBN13 9780806124131
- Publish Date 30 May 1992
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 12 August 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University of Oklahoma Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 256
- Language English