A Roman Soap Opera: Justus’ Wife and Love Sickness
Authors
Danielle Gourevitch
Practical School of Higher Studies, Paris, F
Keywords:
Rome , Love sickness, Galen , Justus’ wife
Abstract
This paper presents a fiction rather than a story. Galen is called to visit Justus’ wife, ill with a mysterious disease. The narrative of love sickness that afflicts her allows the author to draw an interesting picture of the social status of Roman women, the issues of reproduction and maritalbe trayal, and to shed light on magic practices for obtaining or preventing love affairs.
