You are cordially invited to our next CSPS AGIDO online talk which will be delivered by Petros Tsagklis (CSPS, University of Nottingham) on “At the Gates of Hades: Women’s Status and Social Roles in Roman Laconia: Evidence from the Eleutherolaconian Funerary Epigrams (2nd–3rd centuries CE)”.
The online talk will take place on Monday 11 May, 17:00 BST (19:00 Athens time) via MS Teams. The event is free and open to everybody, but you should register in advance via this link: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/2d646e90-a331-45cd-a8e5-f2f259cf36f1@67bda7ee-fd80-41ef-ac91-358418290a1e
The talk will also be livestreamed via https://vachosradio.gr/ (no registration required for the livestream)
The webinar series is kindly supported by the “Daughters of Penelope – Sparta” Association.
Abstract
This talk examines the social standing and roles of women in Roman Laconia during the second and third centuries CE, tracing the female life course from adolescence to old age through the analysis of funerary epigrams from the cities of the Free Laconians (Eleutherolakones). These poetic texts offer a valuable lens through which to explore the ideals and expectations that contemporary society placed on young maidens, newly married women, wives, and mothers, as well as the ways in which women themselves conformed to—or departed from—these norms.
The study of these epigrams is particularly revealing. Not only do they illuminate aspects of everyday life and the social position of women in a relatively understudied region of Roman Greece, but they also engage with a landscape that, in earlier periods, was marked by distinctive funerary practices and unusually prominent roles for women. To what extent did Laconia preserve these features under Roman rule? How were they articulated in commemorative discourse? And if they diminished or disappeared, what factors drove their transformation? By addressing these questions, the talk highlights the dynamic interplay between social norms and individual experience in Roman Laconia.
About the speaker
Petros Tsagklis is a graduate of the Department of History and Archaeology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He completed his MA in Ancient Mediterranean World: History and Archaeology at the University of Crete. He is currently pursuing his PhD at the University of Nottingham as a recipient of an AHRC M4C scholarship. His doctoral research focuses on the institutional structures and cultural identity of the League of the Free Laconians (Koinon of the Eleutherolakones). He is a member of the PGR Committee of the new CSPS Sparta and Peloponnese Early Career Scholars (SPECS) Global Network at the University of Nottingham, and a member of the Society for Laconian Studies at Athens.