Abstract
The emergence of the concept of modern childhood is looked at over a period of about 2,500 years over two chapters. This chapter looks at the first part of that period, beginning with the Classical Period, then moving on to Asian philosophies and beliefs and their influence beyond Europe, then the Romans as a wider source of influence in Europe. The Early Middle Ages and High Middle Ages follow, with a brief insight into the Mongol Empire that at one time brought Asian and European cultures closer together as the ‘Golden Horde’ swept across the Eurasian landmass. The Children’s Crusades, Medieval children and the effect of the Black Death on European populations complete examination then introduce the Modern Period through the emergence of mercantile capitalism and the Reformation. The influence of the age of exploration and opening up of the New World draws this chapter to a close and the changing world of children is examined as it moves on to the next period.
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Notes
- 1.
Nothing written by Socrates survives so that whilst much is attributed to him, all of ‘his’ work is either the work of Plato, Xenophon or a later interpreter.
- 2.
This very brief description of children in Ancient Greece has been drawn together from the four texts listed where Plato and Socrates are not used. The fourth book was written for children as an educational text and provides much of the substance for this ‘thumbnail sketch’.
- 3.
Helots farmed land owned by Spartans to remove the burden of sustaining Sparta from citizens of the city-state. This left them free to commit themselves to the art of war. Helots accompanied Spartans in battles and provide support as archers who Spartans thought of as not true warriors. They also set up camps and performed other work for the Spartans during campaigns.
- 4.
Perioeci, or perioikoi, were the members of a self-governing group of free but non-citizen inhabitants of the Perioikis (Περίοικις) territory that belonged to the Lacedaemonian State within Sparta. They were the only people allowed to travel to other cities, which Spartans could not without permission. They had the right to own land and belonged to the army without being part of the aristocratic warrior class. They could neither participate in political decisions nor marry Spartans.
- 5.
Literally it is ‘of a son’ but has become a generic term much like the use of ‘he’, ‘him’ and ‘his’ that have been used as generic for children, even where the gender is known, for many years and, indeed, ‘man’ for the human species.
- 6.
The brief recount of children in the Roman Republic and Empire has been drawn together from seven texts: Albasi (1991), Dixon (2001), Evans (1991), Rawson (1991, 2005), Schulz (1943) and Wiedemann (1989). In fact, most of them are primarily concerned with patria potestas, whereby as head of the family a father had power over his wife, slaves, house and other personal and family property including the power to sell a child into slavery as well as holding power over life and death known as ius vitae ac necis in the early Empire. Although most titles infer direct reference, little is said about children themselves leaving a very selective précis the most appropriate means of examining all that may be salient for this work.
- 7.
The Latins are estimated to have settled in the wider area of Rome around 1000 BC. The Greeks were settling southern Italy, founding cities like Cumae and Tarentum, brought their form of civilisation to the country and it was from them that the Romans learned basic skills such as reading and writing with even religion derived from Greek mythology (i.e. Jupiter is Zeus, Venus is Aphrodite, etc.). The Etruscans to the north of Rome in Etruria (modern Tuscany) were primarily an urban society. Their substantial wealth came from seaborne trade. Although the Romans considered Etruscans to be decadent and weak they were highly influential in formation of Roman society. Although a distinct society the Etruscans owed much of their culture to the Greeks. Around 650–600 BC the Etruscans crossed the Tiber and occupied Latium (part of modern Lazio). Latium is considered to be the cradle of the Roman Empire and Rome. The Islamic Turks considered themselves proper heirs to the Byzantine Empire until the demise of the Ottoman Empire in the early twentieth century. However, the heirs to the Eastern Orthodoxy who became the Tsars of Russia (tsar, or czar, derives from the Latin caesar) held a view that Moscow was the rightful successor to Rome and Constantinople. The notion of the Russian Empire as the ‘Third Rome’ continued until the Russian Revolution in 1917 thus extending the possibility another 460 or so years.
- 8.
The migration included the Ostrogoths, Visgoths, Huns, Vandals, Franks, Alans, Suebi and other Germanic, Persian (Iranian) and Slavic groups.
- 9.
Trying to condense China’s history into appropriate form for this work, thus covering approximately 5,000 years with comparatively little reference to children appears a Sisyphus task, therefore a single book, John King Fairbank’s China: a new history (1992) has been used for this and later chapters except where any direct reference to other authors may be required.
- 10.
This naturally depended on the nature of the offence and who was trying a child. However, for crimes such as arson, burglary, theft, murder or treason the only punishment was death and forfeit of property to the king. The Church advocated mutilation, as this gave the guilty person a chance to make amends for a crime in this world and thus save his soul. Children were occasionally mutilated or put to death for the most serious crimes.
- 11.
There are many versions of the story of the Mongols and Genghis Khan. This brief examination uses spelling as per Marshall (1993), and uses a combination of that work with Weatherford (2004), rather than a more exhaustive examination of a large number of books. The purpose here is an example rather than an ‘exact’ history.
- 12.
Pleas for help from the Byzantine Emperors began in about the 1060s although the first actions against the Islamic forces were against the Moors by Iberian Christians in what is now Spain. Pleas made during the 1070s after the fall of most of Anatolia (modern Turkey) except for the area around Constantinople and another small part of western Anatolia. The first Crusade was preached in 1095 after the first successful reoccupation of Toledo by the Iberians.
- 13.
Pleas from Byzantine Emperors who were threatened by the Seljuks originally fell on deaf ears. When in 1074 Emperor Michael VII appealed to Pope Gregory VII and again in 1095 Emperor Alexios I Komnenos appealed to Pope Urban II the position changed and may have adopted a stance similar to 1063 when Pope Alexander II, had blessed Iberian Christians’ for their wars against Muslim Moors.
- 14.
Some authors avoid giving an exact date and rely on estimates made at the time of her execution in 1431 (e.g. Warner 1983) whereas others accept 6 January 1412 on the basis of a letter written by Lord Perceval de Boullainvilliers in 1429.
- 15.
See note 11.
- 16.
The exact numbers are contentious. To give two examples of the range of estimates, Stéphane Barry and Norbert Gualde (2006:45), say “between one-third and two-thirds” whereas Gottfried (1983: 257), claims the lower number of “between 25 and 45 percent”. Demographic historians note a considerable amount of geographic variation. On the whole the balance is probably in the range of in Mediterranean Europe, Italy, the South of France and Spain where the plague reoccurred during four consecutive years and was probably close to 80–75 % of the population whereas in England, Germany and the Lowlands where the space between outbreaks was longer it was probably closer to 20 %.
- 17.
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Milne, B. (2013). The Emergence of Childhood – From the Ancient World Until the Dawn of the Enlightenment. In: The History and Theory of Children’s Citizenship in Contemporary Societies. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6521-4_4
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