THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD IN LATE ANTIQUITYbecame a serious option even for the rich. Jerome’s successful efforts to pro-
mote an extreme ascetic ethos among the daughters of the Roman aristocracy
in the late fourth century are well known, and caused resentment in the parts
of their circle that were still pagan. The promotion of ascetic lifestyles, includ-
ing the dedication of daughters to lives of virginity, destabilized existing family
structures and divided loyalties.^52 A common form of renunciation for this
class occurred when a married couple who had produced one or two children
to ensure the family inheritance, decided subsequently to abstain from sexual
relations and sell their property for the benefi t of the church. For Paulinus,
who became bishop of Nola in Campania, and who took this step with his
wife in the early fi fth century, we have a good deal of detailed evidence in his
own letters and other contemporary sources; but the most sensational case
was undoubtedly that of the Younger Melania (so-called to distinguish her
from her equally pious grandmother of the same name) and her husband Pini-
anus, chosen for her by her parents in an arranged marriage when she was 13.
Melania and Pinianus sold their colossal estates c. AD 410, against the wishes
of her father, Valerius Publicola, when she was only 20 and he 24. Melania and
Pinianus had properties literally all over the Roman world; when they acquired
several islands, they gave them to holy men. Likewise, they purchased monas-
teries of monks and virgins and gave them as a gift to those who lived there,
furnishing each place with a suffi cient amount of gold. They presented their
numerous and expensive silk clothes at the altars of churches and monasteries.
They broke up their silver, of which they had a great deal, and made altars and
ecclesiastical treasures from it, and many other offerings to God.^53 According
to her biographer, Melania made it clear that she did not wish to marry or have
sexual relations, but had been forced to give way and had given birth to two
children; when both died in infancy, her ascetic wishes fi nally prevailed. She
owned estates in Spain, Africa, Mauretania, Britain, Numidia, Aquitaine and
Gaul, several of them having hundreds of slaves, and her estate near Thagaste
in North Africa is said to have been bigger than the town itself. Clearly the
literal adoption of asceticism at the top ranks of society caused a sharp break
with existing social practice, and a considerable disruption of family and inher-
itance. How far individual renunciation really redistributed wealth towards
the poorer classes is less easy to judge (Chapter 3). Yet the development of
Christian almsgiving and social welfare is also one of the major features of the
period, and it took the form not merely of alms distribution, but also of the
building and maintenance of charitable establishments such as hospitals and
old people’s homes. Christian charity, which in some senses replaced classi-
cal euergetism (civic endowments) – though the latter still continued in some
cases – had very different objects and mechanisms.
Changes in family life and sexual practice are among the hardest things to
judge with any accuracy. In the ancient world, from which we mostly lack
personal sources such as private letters or diaries,^54 quite apart from any kind
of statistics, the problem is doubly diffi cult. The goings-on in Merovingian
royal circles, recorded, for example, by Gregory of Tours, make it clear that