Women in Roman Britain

New Edition

by Lindsay Allason-Jones

What was life really like for women in Roman Britain? This new edition chronicles the latest discoveries – tombstones, writing tablets, curse tablets, burials and artefacts – to build up a vivid picture of the lives, habits and thoughts of women in Britain over four centuries.

Diversity of backgrounds, traditions and tastes lies at the heart of the book – displaying the cosmopolitan nature of Romano-British society. The author explores women’s social status, their health and religion, marriage and childbirth, family life and homes, dress, jewellery and hairstyles, and their pastimes.

The Roman Conquest transformed Celtic Britain from an isolated rural backwater into a province of a huge and cosmopolitan empire. How did women such as Regina, a woman of the Catuvellaunian tribe, adapt to life as the wife of a standard-maker from Syria? What was life like for the aristocratic Julia Lucilla from Rome, wife of a high-ranking army officer whose career took them both to a bleak and lonely outpost on Hadrian’s Wall? By piecing together a wide range of evidence such as inscriptions, written sources and many finds from archaeological investigations, Lindsay Allason-Jones recreates the life of women from humble camp-followers and farmers’ daughters to high-born ladies during this fascinating period of British history.

Info: 200pp; b&w illus throughout
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