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Family Life in the Castra
#1
This is something that has roused my curiosity.

We know that each fort had a praetorium, or the commandants residence, and that he lived there with his family; wife, children, slaves, guests and so on.

How did his family 'live' in the middle of the fort? Was the wife pretty much confined to the house (as some suggest was the case with the ancient roman/greek woman in the cities) or were they allowed the freedom to walk around the fort and to the vicus as they saw fit?

Would the children be able to wander around also, into barracks and so on, or would they also be 'confined' to the house?

What kind of relationship would the commandants family have with the soldiers? Would she be allowed to stroll in the fort and beyond its walls? Would the soldiers take orders from his wife, give way, etc, or would the site of her outside the house be quite unusual?
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#2
Possibly depend on the woman, and the husband I imagine.
Look at the various relationships of wifes with the likes of Germanicus,
and possibly some would have been inspired by her.......

I recall a story of a comanndants wife marshalling the troops on the German frontier, when a supposed military disaster occured.
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
Byron Angel
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#3
Hehe, I was just thinking how boring it must have been for the wife of the praefectus castrorum of MEDIOBOGDUM (Hardknott).

On the cold, windy and wet summit of a mountain guarding a pass in the middle of nowhere. One woman surrounded by 500 men :!: Suppose her husband would be a very very jealous man lol...
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#4
:lol:
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
Byron Angel
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#5
In Vindolanda it have been found a letter of an officer's wife inviting to a friend for his birthday (Tab. Vindol. II.291):

Claudia Severa to her Lepidina greetings. On the third day before the Ides of September, sister, for the day of the celebration of my birthday, I give you a warm invitation to make sure that you come to us, to make the day more enjoyable for me by your arrival, if you are present(?). Give my greetings to your Cerialis. My Aelius and my little son send him(?) their greetings. I shall expect you sister. Farewell, sister, my dearest soul, as I hope to prosper, and hail.


It shows that live was ''normal'' in a Roman fort.
Mateo González Vázquez

LEGIO VIIII HISPANA 8) <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_cool.gif" alt="8)" title="Cool" />8)

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.legioviiii.es">www.legioviiii.es
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#6
I don't really think this would be much comparable to a military post in modern times (the stereotypical 'colonel's wife and daughter' on the Indian Frontier comes to mind). Roman forts were tied into an extensive local economy that supported them. Soldiers had common-law wives and families, and there is still the question of centurions' wives (has that one ever been answered, BTW?). Certainly not as stimulating as the high society of Rome or the urbane elegants of Alexandria or Antioch, but hardly a lonely existence. The most exposed and isolated postings don't look like the places you'd take a wife along to, anyway, but if she came, she wouldn't have come alone. A man in the position of a prefect would have bodyservants and household staff. Supervising a household that size is a management position all of its own, so she probably wouldn't be too bored. As to the men, in a traditional society, sex with the wife or daughter of an aristocrat is not really a credible ambition for a non-elite man. The risk of seduction or rape would be greatly reduced by social taboo. The big risks, I suspect, would be disease, lousy food and unfamiliar climates, not lecherous soldiers and roving barbarians.

Edit: I just caught a little side note in Pliny again that mentions how auxiliary prefects in Germany sent their entire cohorts eiderdown-hunting to fill their personal coffers. Sounds like there might have been some fun to be had as the lady of the manor after all if you can use the troops as your personal staff Tongue
Der Kessel ist voll Bärks!

Volker Bach
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#7
Depends on where one was posted I would say. I dont really see too much familiarness with all th e soldiers and officers family in any case as there was a social order that would have been followed.
Animals die, friends die, and I shall die, but one thing never dies, and that is the reputation we leave behind after our death.
No man loses Honour who had any in the first place. - Syrus
Octavianvs ( Johnn C. ) MODERATOR ROMAN ARMY TALK
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#8
Yes, social class was important. The wife of an auxiliary commander was an aristocrat, of the equestrian order like her husband (possibly even a senator's daughter). Sure, there would be plenty of other women around, wives of soldiers and other local women, her own slaves, etc. And she might very well get to know all the troops quite well, and be easy in their presence. But there would still not be another woman of her class around, someone she could truly socialize with and talk to on an equal basis. She wouldn't invite a lower-class woman over for tea, for example, nor sit in her peristyle idly chatting with a centurion. That's why Claudia is begging Lepidina to come visit!

For other details of interaction and such, yeah, it would depend heavily on the people involved. "Now, my dear, we're only posted in this dump for three years, so I want you to stay in the house and let the slaves run things. Too many dirty soldiers and barbarians around." "Yeah, right, Gaius!"

Matthew
Matthew Amt (Quintus)
Legio XX, USA
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.larp.com/legioxx/">http://www.larp.com/legioxx/
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#9
Thanks for all the replies guys.

I do suppose it would have a lot to do with the people involved and so on. I just wondered if it would be 'formal' or down to their own discretion.
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#10
Look at that Tacitus' quote I think that it's the source that Caesar recall:

Meanwhile a rumour had spread that our army was cut off, and that a furious German host was marching on Gaul. And had not Agrippina prevented the bridge over the Rhine from being destroyed, some in their cowardice would have dared that base act. A woman of heroic spirit, she assumed during those days the duties of a general, and distributed clothes or medicine among the soldiers, as they were destitute or wounded. According to Caius Plinius, the historian of the German wars, she stood at the extremity of the bridge, and bestowed praise and thanks on the returning legions. This made a deep impression on the mind of Tiberius. "Such zeal," he thought, "could not be guileless; it was not against a foreign foe that she was thus courting the soldiers. Generals had nothing left them when a woman went among the companies, attended the standards, ventured on bribery, as though it showed but slight ambition to parade her son in a common soldier's uniform, and wish him to be called Caesar Caligula. Agrippina had now more power with the armies than officers, than generals. A woman had quelled a mutiny which the sovereign's name could not check." All this was inflamed and aggravated by Sejanus, who, with his thorough comprehension of the character of Tiberius, sowed for a distant future hatreds which the emperor might treasure up and might exhibit when fully matured.

[Annals, I.69]
Mateo González Vázquez

LEGIO VIIII HISPANA 8) <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_cool.gif" alt="8)" title="Cool" />8)

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.legioviiii.es">www.legioviiii.es
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#11
Thanks Mateo.

I guess other general's wives could have taken the same role in day to day situations, just shows that it wasn't something women would NEVER do, but that some actually bothered to be active and 'patriotic'.

It makes me wonder how caligula actually turned out as he did. Having the illustrious Germanicus as a father and Agrippina the Elder as his mother.

Hmmn....
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#12
I believe it was for about the first year he was very good emperor then he fell very ill, the people feared for his return to health and when he did though he was the caligula we all are familiar with.
Animals die, friends die, and I shall die, but one thing never dies, and that is the reputation we leave behind after our death.
No man loses Honour who had any in the first place. - Syrus
Octavianvs ( Johnn C. ) MODERATOR ROMAN ARMY TALK
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