Old Age Reframed: Legal Dimensions of a Shifting Social Perception in Late Antiquity

Starting Point

This project investigates the transformations that the establishment of Christianity brought about, between the 4th and 6th centuries, in the perception and treatment of old age in the legal sources. It draws on legislative sources in both Latin and Greek, alongside documentary evidence, primarily papyri, with particular attention to changes in family and inheritance law, as well as to the mechanisms of exemption and assistance that developed in this period as a possible reflection of an evolving Christian sensibility. In addition to this, inscriptions and early canon law will be used as complementary sources to reconstruct the shifting historical context.

Within the Roman family, social security in old age traditionally rested on two pillars: filial obligation — primarily moral rather than strictly legal — and inheritance. It was only with the consolidation of Christian communities that alternative forms of support and community belonging were gradually made available. Elderly individuals could retire to monasteries or nursing homes (gerocomeia), sometimes transferring land or money in exchange for lifelong care (adelphaton) — practices that were progressively regulated by late antique emperors and bishops. Monastic and parish settings created quasi‑familial networks in which elders exercised authority and advanced age was often associated with spiritual wisdom, influencing in turn the perception of the role of the paterfamilias within the traditional family.

At the same time, old age continued to serve as grounds for granting or requesting exemptions from municipal obligations (munera, leitourgiai). However, from the 4th century on, the dismantling of the municipal system and the disappearance of magistrates and curiales in favour of a more centralised system, in which civic leadership came to be shared with new community figures, notably bishops, altered the age-based rules governing the granting of exemptions, reshaping the age-based criteria for exemption in ways that had no precedent in the classical period

Approach

This subproject examines how these changes affected the social and legal position of older men and women, and how the idea of old age and attitudes toward it were more broadly redefined. In order to do this, the project aims to distinguish between, on the one hand, the emergence and codification of new norms and regulations and, on the other, the development of new legal practices. The goal is to answer four sets of research questions: How were older people and old age‑related statuses categorised in late antique legal texts? Which ideas about ageing, family, and authority underlie late antique social and legal norms and practices? What specific rules triggered by the attainment of old age — or in relation to ageing — were issued between Constantine and Justinian (e.g. regarding property, inheritance, exemptions, or institutional care)? Which individual examples illustrate how these norms were applied, negotiated, or contested in practice?