From pagan Rome to Byzantium

First of the widely celebrated and sumptuously illustrated series, this book reveals in intimate detail what life was really like in the ancient world. Behind the vast panorama of the pagan Roman empire, the reader discovers the intimate daily lives of citizens and slaves--from concepts of manhood and sexuality to marriage and the family, the roles of women, chastity and contraception, techniques of childbirth, homosexuality, religion, the meaning of virtue, and the separation of private and public spaces. The emergence of Christianity in the West and the triumph of Christian morality with its emphasis on abstinence, celibacy, and austerity is startlingly contrasted with the profane and undisciplined private life of the Byzantine Empire. Using illuminating motifs, the authors weave a rich, colorful fabric ornamented with the results of new research and the broad interpretations that only masters of the subject can provide.

Translation of De l'Empire romain à l'an mil / Peter Brown [and others].

Introduction / Paul Veyne -- The Roman Empire / Paul Veyne ; Introduction ; From mother's womb to last will and testament ; Marriage ; Slavery ; The household and its freed slaves ; Where public life was private ; "Work" and leisure ; Patrimony ; Public opinion and utopia ; Pleasures and excesses ; Tranquilizers -- Late antiquity / Peter Brown ; Introduction ; The "wellborn" few ; Person and group in Judaism and Early Christianity ; Church and leadership ; The challenge of the desert ; East and West: The new marital morality -- Private life and domestic architecture in Roman Africa / Yvon Thébert ; The Roman home: foreword by Paul Veyne ; some theoretical considerations ; The domestic architecture of the ruling class ; "Private" and "public" spaces: the components of the domus ; How the domus worked ; Conclusion -- The early middle ages in the west / Michel Rouche ; Introduction / Paul Veyne ; Historical introduction ; Private life conquers state and society ; Body and heart ; Violence and death ; Sacred and secret ; Conclusion-- Byzantium in the tenth and eleventh centuries / Evelyne Patlagean ; The Byzantine Empire ; Private space ; Self and others ; The inner life ; Private bel…