Women's health and midwifery practices

Since Instant Classics launched, we’ve loved getting your questions and ideas for topics. So for our New Year’s Day episode, Mary and Charlotte respond to some of those which have tickled their curiosity too. 

Where did the Romans stash their cash? What was a trip to the doctor like for women? Why do some people still try to speak (rather than just read) Latin? Was there a Jewish community in Roman Britain? And are there any feminist role models in the pantheon of ancient gods? 

While it is easier to answer some of these questions than others, each gives an insight to an area of the classical world we haven’t yet examined - and reminds us that however close we think we are to the ancient Romans or Greeks, huge parts of their lives and the way they thought about the world are lost to us. Just when we think we have a handle on them, they elude our grasp once again. 

Charlotte and Mary’s reading suggestions

Jean Andreau, Banking and Business in the Roman World (Cambridge UP, 1999) is a short guide to what Roman “bankers” got up to.

For valuables stored in the Temple of Castor, see Juvenal, Satires 14, 260ff 

The Mildenhall Treasure, now in the British Museum: 

For a translation of Soranus’ On Gynecology (the qualities of a midwife are discussed near the start of Book1)

Hippocrates’ words of wisdom on midwives

Hippocrates on the medical dangers of being a virgin

For a good online article of Roman midwives, with images of their tombstones: 

An article on learning to speak Latin via the Oxford Latinitas Project

For teaching Latin in the 1920s by the so-call “Direct Method”

Article on a possible Jewish tombstone in Roman Scotland (Warren, M., 2023, Invisibility, erasure, and a Jewish tombstone in Roman Britain. Journal for Ancient Judaism, 14 (1). pp. 1-20.) Plus – the tombstone in question with its decoration of palm fronds (or menorahs?)

Mary discusses kosher garum in her book Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town (Profile, 2009)

@instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube@insta_classics for Xemail: instantclassicspod@gmail.com

Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci

Producer: Jonty Claypole 

Executive Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford

Video Editor: Jak Ford

Theme music: Casey Gibson

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices