Alcuni aspetti della vita familiare nella Sardegna tardoantica (IV-VI sec. d.C.)

Piergiorgio Floris

2024-01-01

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Abstract

The essay evaluates certain aspects of family life in Sardinia in the period between the 4th and 6th centuries A.D. with particular reference to the family of Roman tradition, through the funerary inscriptions of the time and the coeval production of imperial legislation. The basic idea that the Roman family must have been a fairly homogeneous reality, especially in the western Mediterranean regions, also gives rise to the possibility of using passages from writers of the time such as Augustine, although they do not deal with the island. Among the topics taken into consideration are the pre-eminence of the nuclear family that emerges from the epigraphs as well as the legislative transformations concerning aspects such as betrothal, marriage and divorce. On these and other issues such as the spread of celibacy and asceticism, the possible influence of Christianity is then discussed. Finally, literary sources make it possible to examine the internal balances within the family, which is outlined as a strongly hierarchical reality, centred on the dimensions of domination and obedience and in which violence, used as an educational tool but also unmotivated, must have been very common.