DIXON, S., — The Roman mother.

Routledge, London/New York, 1990. 1st paperback ed. XIV,286,(8)p. ills.(B&W photographs). Paperback. Spine with reading trace. ‘Literary and epigraphic evidence tells us something about Roman stereotypes and ideals of motherhood, but not much about actual behaviour. Dixon lays stress on trying to establish and identify these stereotypes, but also attempts to explore the relationship between ideals, norms and behaviour, drawing on additional material from legal texts and art. The need for caution is obvious and frequently acknowledged, and it is usually fairly successfully exercised. Dixon has profited from wide reading in modern work, sociological anthropological, psychological and historical, relating to the family. One is as a means of making explicit the contingent and non-universal nature of contemporary assumptions on such matters as the nature of the family and the rôle expected of the mother. Another is to suggest questions to which the ancient material may be subjected, and to supply material for factual comparison and contrast. (…) Not surprisingly, the study is most successful when concerned with material which is in itself overtly laudatory and prescriptive, particularly in chapter 4, ‘The Official Encouragement of Maternity’ (…) and the section of chapter 5 on the maternal rôle in the education and development of the young child. There is also much useful material on the actual personnel involved in child rearing in the Roman household (…) both in default of a mother’s presence through death or divorce, and as a part of the normal running of upper-class households in particular (…) with a matron living and present. Good use is made here of epigraphic evidence, fully listed in the notes. (…) This book is a very useful addition to the growing library of work on the roman family.’ (JANE F. GARDNER in The Classical Review (New Series), 1989, pp.105-107).