The Fall of the Roman Household [Paperback]

This text argues that Christianising the household became a central survival strategy for the Roman Empire.This 2007 text argues that the Roman Christians of the last century of the Western empire found a way to re-invent the Roman family as a social institution to weather the political, military, and social upheaval of two centuries of invasion and civil war.This 2007 text argues that the Roman Christians of the last century of the Western empire found a way to re-invent the Roman family as a social institution to weather the political, military, and social upheaval of two centuries of invasion and civil war.Edward Gibbon laid the fall of the Roman Empire at Christianity's door, suggesting that 'pusillanimous youth preferred the penance of the monastic to the dangers of a military life ... whole legions were buried in these religious sanctuaries'. This surprising study suggests that, far from seeing Christianity as the cause of the fall of the Roman Empire, we should understand the Christianisation of the household as a central Roman survival strategy. By establishing new 'ground rules' for marriage and family life, the Roman Christians of the last century of the Western empire found a way to re-invent the Roman family as a social institution to weather the political, military, and social upheaval of two centuries of invasion and civil war. In doing so, these men and women - both clergy and lay - found themselves changing both what it meant to be Roman, and what it meant to be Christian.1. 'The battle of this life'; 2. 'The obscurity of eloquence'; 3. Household and empire; 4. 'Such trustful partnership': the marriage bond in Latin conduct literature; 5. The invisible enemy; Appendix. Ad Gregoriam in palatio: an English translation. Kate Cooper's The Fall of the Roman Household is an ambitious and valuable study of the cultural debates among clergy and lay cities regarding the role of marriage and the household in an evolving Christian world. The Fall of the Roman HlÃ$