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1 - Present but not Accounted For

Women and the Roman Army in the Twenty-First Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2024

Lee L. Brice
Affiliation:
Western Illinois University
Elizabeth M. Greene
Affiliation:
University of Western Ontario
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Summary

Traditional study of Roman military communities has ignored or erased women and their families from daily military life. Archaeological and documentary evidence reveal the inescapable fact that residents of extended military communities interacted inside and outside Roman forts through habitation, commercial endeavors, and social obligations. As a result of having been segregated by historians into external communities women have been acknowledged as existing, but otherwise ignored. Not only have their social and economic contributions been disregarded, but even their identities have been overlooked. This chapter reviews the basic reasons historians have removed women from our conception of life in military contexts and then discusses the evidence for the presence and contributions of military women. The chapter closes with discussion of how the volume is organized. As becomes clear, the presence of women, children, and families within the forts and in the extramural settlements of the Roman army is beyond doubt, thanks to the diligent and sometimes contentious work of scholars over the last thirty years.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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