Cicero, Tullia, and Marcus: Gender-Specific Concerns for Family Tradition?

Späth, Thomas (2010). Cicero, Tullia, and Marcus: Gender-Specific Concerns for Family Tradition? In: Dasen, Véronique; Späth, Thomas (eds.) Children, Memory, & Family Identity in Roman Culture (pp. 147-172). Oxford: Oxford University Press

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A fair number of Cicero's letters reveal his concern for his daughter Tullia and his son Marcus. Recent scholarship has read these letters as evidence for a ‘natural’ emotional attachment of a father to his children, in reaction to Philippe Ariès's opposite claim. This chapter considers whether Cicero's letters can be analysed only as expressions of paternal affection. The fact that the pater familias Cicero occupies a political position simultaneously in his nuclear family, his domus, and the Senate, results in a concern for his prestige within the social field of the aristocracy. And this concern is necessarily conferred upon his support of the education and the social and political career of his children. The chapter traces the gender-specific differences between Cicero's treatment of Tullia and Marcus, shows the social construction of parental affection, and contributes to a further understanding of the different functions of daughters and sons in the social force field of family memory.

Item Type:

Book Section (Book Chapter)

Division/Institute:

06 Faculty of Humanities > Other Institutions > Walter Benjamin Kolleg (WBKolleg) > Center for Global Studies (CGS)
06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of History and Archaeology > Institute of History
06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of History and Archaeology > Institute of History > Ancient History and Reception History of the Ancient World

UniBE Contributor:

Späth, Thomas

Subjects:

900 History
900 History > 930 History of ancient world (to ca. 499)

ISBN:

978-0-19-958257-0

Publisher:

Oxford University Press

Language:

English

Submitter:

Thomas Späth

Date Deposited:

04 Oct 2013 14:19

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:05

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Cicero, education, family tradition, father–daughter relationship, father–son relationship, gender, marriage, mother–daughter relationship, parental affection, women's agency

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.5967

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/5967 (FactScience: 210855)

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