{"id":586,"date":"2016-03-17T09:20:27","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T09:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/classicalstudies\/?p=586"},"modified":"2016-03-17T09:20:27","modified_gmt":"2016-03-17T09:20:27","slug":"call-for-papers-married-to-the-military-soldiers-families-in-the-ancient-world-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/classicalstudies\/?p=586","title":{"rendered":"Call for papers: Married to the military – soldiers’ families in the ancient world and beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"

Offers of papers are invited for\u00a0this\u00a0two-day international conference to be held at The Open University in London<\/strong> (1-11 Hawley Crescent, Camden, London NW1 8NP) on 11th and 12th November 2016<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Hector<\/a>In societies where the threat of armed conflict was an ever-present element of the political and social experience, the impact of war was acutely felt by the immediate families of those whose role it was to train for and engage in combat. This conference aims to explore the roles and experiences of military families (defined here as the nuclear family of soldier, partner and children) in the ancient world and to situate these within the wider context of the history of such families. We therefore welcome offers of papers on any aspect of military families in the ancient world as well as comparative studies which consider more recent historical contexts.<\/p>\n

The conference aims to commemorate Remembrance Day with a detailed discussion of a subject that is rarely broached in historical and cultural studies. It is true that there has been some headway made in understanding the role of women and children in Roman military forts, especially on the north-west frontier, but there has been very little joined-up thinking on the military family as a general phenomenon in antiquity and how it sits within the history of military families as a whole. The Greek model of standing armies who spent long periods of time away from home in combat \u2013 leaving behind wives and children \u2013 contrasts, for example, with the Roman practice of establishing permanent garrisons with \u2018camp followers\u2019 attached to military bases. The experiences of partners whose husbands were fighting a defensive war at home might differ considerably from those left behind or even joining their partners as they fought in territory far from home.<\/p>\n

Possible themes for discussion might include:<\/p>\n