It takes the average reader 5 hours and 44 minutes to read Birthing Romans by Anna Bonnell Freidin
Assuming a reading speed of 250 words per minute. Learn more
""Here I lie, a matron... I was wife to Fortunatus, my father was Veturius. Unlucky woman, born twenty-seven years ago and married for sixteen - one bed, one marriage - I died after six births, just one child remains." This epitaph of a Roman woman named Veturia, who died in the 3rd century BCE, starkly captures the relentless cycle of birthing, rearing, and burying children that defined the lives of ancient Mediterranean women. In this book, Anna Bonnell Freidin asks: how would Veturia and her family have understood such losses, child after child? What kinds of strategies might she have employed to protect herself and her infants, to equip them for better futures? How would she, her family, and any caretakers have worked to mitigate the dangers of pregnancy and birth? Put more generally, how did Romans approach the risks of childbearing? Freidin demonstrates how the perceptions of these fears and risks not only affected the ways individuals cared for their bodies, but also influenced Roman culture on a much greater scale. Freidin explores this against the backdrop of the Julian laws, which were introduced in 18BC by Rome's first emperor, Augustus, and were meant to guard against the perceived risk that women - and elites generally - might avoid childbearing. They formed part of an ideology of family values, central to imperial messaging for the next three hundred years. From elite medical treatments to birth charms to metaphorical language used by ancient authors to describe birth, Freidin marshals a wide range of evidence and theoretical frameworks to explore both the construction and distribution of risk in a deeply patriarchal, imperialist culture, one in which an ideology of fertility and control confronted the unpredictability of the environment and which, in turn, shaped Roman views of risk as they expanded their empire. Mistakes, misfortunes, and interventions in the reproductive process were seen to have far-reaching consequences, reverberating for generations, altering the course of people's lives, their family history, and even the fate of an empire"--
Birthing Romans by Anna Bonnell Freidin is 336 pages long, and a total of 86,016 words.
This makes it 113% the length of the average book. It also has 105% more words than the average book.
The average oral reading speed is 183 words per minute. This means it takes 7 hours and 50 minutes to read Birthing Romans aloud.
Birthing Romans is suitable for students ages 12 and up.
Note that there may be other factors that effect this rating besides length that are not factored in on this page. This may include things like complex language or sensitive topics not suitable for students of certain ages.
When deciding what to show young students always use your best judgement and consult a professional.
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