However, marital ties could be severed at short notice when they were no longer useful to one or other party.
Marriage was the grease and glue of society, used to facilitate political and personal ties between families. Clearly, the message this young girl was expected to internalise was of her own future role as a mother – the achievement for which Roman women were most valued.ģ Roman fathers, not mothers, usually got custody of their children after a divorceĭivorce was quick, easy and common in ancient Rome. But in contrast to the much-critiqued dimensions of a modern Barbie, Crepereia’s doll had wide child-bearing hips and a rounded stomach. The doll even came with a little box of clothes and ornaments for Crepereia to dress her in. Among her grave goods was an ivory doll with jointed legs and arms that could be moved and bent, much like the plastic figurines that some little girls play with today. In the late 19th century, a sarcophagus was discovered belonging to a girl named Crepereia Tryphaena, who lived in second century Rome. These same toys might be buried with her if she were to die before reaching marriageable age. On the eve of her wedding, a girl would be expected to put away childish things – including her toys. The law decreed that they could be married at as young as 12, thus capitalising on their most fertile, child-bearing years at a time when infant mortality rates were high. 2 Growing up, Roman girls played with their own version of Barbie dollsĬhildhood was over quickly for Roman girls.
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