Children and Bullying/Harassment in Greco-Roman Antiquity

Abstract

Fully recognizing all the possible limitations and even objections to a historical inquiry into bullying and harassment in Antiquity, this article tackles the subject by strictly limiting the situations to be studied. It only takes into account those instances in which children or adolescents are both the agents and the victims of bullying and harassing behavior. It only looks at the interaction between children of free status. First, I study children in a stage of life in which they were largely subjected to the authority of parents and other educators. After this, the focus is on young girls, whose coming of age put them in a peculiar situation regarding harassment. Finally, student life is given due attention. In conclusion, I point out how a careful consideration of these fragments not only informs us about aspects of everyday life of young people in antiquity, but also about ancient concepts of personhood.