Guest posts (Society)

Obesity is not just a problem in modern society. This problem was especially noticeable in the heyday of Roman power. Unfortunately, prosperity has led some to health ruin. And it wasn’t just men, among whom even Roman rulers were representative of the big belly (e.g. Vitellius ).

Marriages in ancient Rome are a complicated matter, to say the least. For many reasons – suffice it to say that Roman law recognized two forms of marriage, with one of them (in manum, i.e. the woman passed directly under the authority of her husband) divided into three more subcategories. But what in this matter was the merit of the plebeians pushed almost to the end of the fifth century BCE to the background, and who made them finally come out from under the social lampshade after years of disappearing into the shadows?

One of the works by Lucian of Samosata, The Dance, is devoted entirely to this entertainment. Nothing more joyful, and yet not well perceived by everyone. Already at the outset, an accusation was made against the dances and the dance itself¹.

In the Greco-Roman and Jewish worlds, women had very limited rights. Roman jurists knew this. Papinianus stated directly: In many provisions of our law, the position of woman is worse than of man.