Chapter 4 Lacking Fecunditas: Overcoming Involuntary Childlessness
In: Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at RomeSearch for other papers by Angela Hug in
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Abstract
Not all marriages produce children. This chapter examines alternative methods of family building and assesses their usefulness in fulfilling the expectations attached to fecunditas in Roman society. Three methods are considered: adoption, ‘substitute’ children (e.g., alumni or the children of friends), and divorce and remarriage. Throughout, the analysis considers the gendered experience of fecunditas: what was a solution for one spouse might not resolve the same issue for the other. The chapter reassesses the success or failure of these efforts by childless individuals to become parents in light of the important role fecunditas held in Roman society. In particular, examining adoption through the framework of fecunditas developed in previous chapters casts doubt on the frequent scholarly assumption that adoption should be seen as a straightforward and unproblematic method of resolving involuntary childlessness.