Single Mothers and their Children in Ancient Rome. A Financial Perspective

Literary sources depict exemplary widows and highlight their influence on their children’s upbringing and education. Starting with a reconsideration of the famous case of Cornelia, mater Gracchorum, this paper seeks to move beyond the exemplarity of these representations and aims to discuss the extent to which widowed mothers could contribute to their children’s financial well-being in Roman society of the Middle and Late Republic and the Early Principate. Cast in a broader social and demographic framework, the examination of literary, epigraphical, and juridical testimonies suggests that single – or formerly single – mothers who protected their children’s interests were a relevant phenomenon in Ancient Rome, whose implications were far from limited to the private family sphere.