Christianity and the Roman Family

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The Christian practise of infant baptism had a profound impact on the way children were viewed in Roman society, both while alive and post-mortem. Following the teachings of Augustine, Roman Christians believed a child became equal to any adult in the eyes of God once it was baptized.[17] Consequently, the child was believed to be awarded salvation, which influenced a disruption in how children were commemorated. In his epigraphic study of pagan and Christian dedications, classicist Brent Shaw concluded that families in Late Antiquity not only demonstrated a much higher percentage of dedications from two parents to a deceased child, but that the way families perceived a child’s death changed with Christianity.[18] Shaw notes that pagan families viewed the untimely death of a child as some cosmic injustice compared to their Christian counterparts who believed their children would experience life after death as a result of their baptism and holy life.[19] The moral qualities of innocence and modesty appear in Christian dedications to children and the references to monastic life suggest the significance of the church in the childhood experience at Rome in the post-conversion era.[20]

Moreover, Christianity altered the Roman social conceptions of marriage and divorce, fundamentally changing these phenomena throughout the empire. Christian ideology valued faithful family life amongst all of its followers by providing the model of Mary and Joseph for all Christians to subscribe to.[21] Monogamous marriage became the cornerstone of the Christian family, emphasizing an affective conjugal bond between husband and wife protected by a sense of fidelity.[22] This Christianized form of marriage spread quickly throughout the empire, replacing the existing norm of serial marriage practised commonly during the pagan era. Due to high rates of spousal mortality and divorce in the pre-Christian period, adults often had several marriages throughout the course of their life. Marriage became an institutionalized practise under Christianity. The church viewed marriages as a holy sacrament to be done in the presence of a priest, and therefore by the end of the 4th Century CE, marriage had become a more public act in Roman society.[23] Under Christian influence, a marriage essentially became viewed as a union for life not solely for the purpose of procreation, but for the affective bonds that came with a matrimonial alliance.[24] In fact, Christian doctrine espoused that virginity and sexual purity were favourable qualities even within a married couple, further stressing the disruption of pagan ideals of marriage. This resulted in a declining birth rate throughout the empire, however, the lack of children that came from Christian marriages were made up for by the lack of exposed children under Christian leadership.[25]

Christianity also significantly influenced Roman ideals surrounding divorce and remarriage, often contradicting the Augustan marriage legislation that had stood for centuries. Christian doctrine emphasized a widow’s mourning period and dissuaded a woman from remarrying as the union with her husband was supposed to be life-long.[26] Augustus had implemented legislation to shorten a widow’s mourning period in order to promote remarriage and procreation. Christian influence directly challenged this through the implementation of laws that stated a woman would have to cede any inherited usufruct she received from her husband to his children if she remarried.[27] Furthermore, the early church held a staunch stance against divorce and infidelity, and this was also reflected heavily in Roman legislation. For example, Constantine made all gifts and legacies from extramarital affairs invalid as to deter divorce and infidelity.[28] This rule was tightened under Justinian, further demonstrating how Christian influence had undermined the traditional Roman principle of freedom of contract in marriage. Christian influence did not immediately take effect within Roman marriages as there are letters, sermons, and ecclesiastical decrees that demonstrate a record of Christian men frequenting brothels or sleeping with slaves and Christian women initiating divorces from their husbands, however, the changing social norms had dramatically shifted away from these previously common behaviours as is evident in their condemnation in these early church records.[29]

Moreover, the pervasiveness of chastity, fidelity, and celibacy in Christian doctrine had a profound effect on sexual behaviour in Late Antiquity. Using the model of the Virgin Mary, the early church developed and promoted the idea of celibacy as a good virtue that was expected of both men and women.[30] The early church had a mandate to intervene in the institution of the Roman family to ensure the ideals of monogamy, chastity before marriage, and conjugal fidelity were being practised. Therefore, the attitudes surrounding sexual activity were modified to equate sexual behaviour with marriage and often times couples who abstained from sex were considered more pure by the Christianized society.[31]Sexual affairs still occurred frequently well into the Christian period, but the changing social attitudes towards sexual transgressions produced a stigma that was not present during the pagan era.

Another significant impact of Christianity on Roman family dynamics was the increased sense of importance given to the mother. Due to the pervasiveness of Mary in Christian teachings, a new sense of motherhood emerged in the post-conversion era where Roman mothers held greater influence over family matters and became known as what scholar Suzanne Dixon has termed as “the transmitters of traditional morality.”[32] Increased pietas towards the mother was a direct by-product of Christianity. A sense of duty and devotion to one’s father had been a longstanding Roman custom, but by the 5th Century CE, inscriptions indicate that mothers were shown this pietas on a revolutionary scale, largely due to the importance of the holy mother Mary in Christian doctrine.[33] Maternal traits surpassed the feminine virtue of beauty as the hallmark of femininity during the post-conversion era as seen on Roman coins of the Late Empire.[34] A by-product of this newfound sense of motherhood was a greater participation of mothers in the selection of partners for their children, and barring remarriage, significant influence over her child’s tutor.[35] Because Christianity targeted marginalized peoples, many women made up the early converts. These women often then attempted to apply moral Christian teachings to their marriages, which if successful, gave them the agency to inculcate their families with Christian doctrine and hold significant spiritual influence over their families. Even after the church instituted clerical officers as regional spiritual authorities, the early