The five-volume History of Private Life is a comprehensive study created in the 1980s by a group of French, British and American scholars led by the renowned Annales School historians Philippe Ariès and Georges Duby. The five-volume book covers the entire history of the West from Antiquity to the end of the 20th century. The first volume contains the private life of Ancient Rome, medieval Europe, Byzantium: systems of social relationships that are strikingly different from those known to us. Analysis of the institutions of family and slavery, religion and lawmaking, everyday life and architecture allows us to deeply understand the transformations of both the way of private life and the European mentality, and also highlights the eternal conflict between the private and the public. Translation based on the updated edition of 1999. CONTENTS: Preface to the “History of Private Life” (Georges Duby) 5 Introduction (Paul Veyne) 10 Chapter 1. The Roman Empire (Paul Veyne) 17 From the womb to the will 22 Marriage 50 Slaves 69 Households and freedmen 91 Where public life was private 116 “Work” and leisure 142 Property 163 Censorship and utopia 189 Pleasure and excess 214 Tranquility 240 Chapter 2. Late Antiquity (Peter Brown) 269 Pagan elitism 271 New anthropology 287 Church 304 Monasticism 324 East and West: the flesh 337 Chapter 3. Private life and residential architecture in Roman Africa (Peon Teber) 355House : water, fire, color, light, empty space 356The nature of residential architecture of the ruling classes 367Spaces “private” and “public”: the constituent elements of domus 407Functioning of domus 460Chapter 4. Early Western European Middle Ages (Michel Rouch) 489Private life conquers the state and society 495Body and heart 534Violence and death 574The sacred and mystery 610Chapter 5. Byzantium in the X-XI centuries (Evelyn Patlajan) 647Private space 664Self and self-awareness 718Private faith 735Conclusion 743Bibliography 7441. Roman Empire 7442. Late Antiquity 7 553. Private life and residential architecture 759Roman Africa 7634. Early Western European Middle Ages 7675. Byzantium in the X-XI centuries 774 Information about the authors 778 Index 779