Beyond the institution of marriage, its norms, and rules, what was life like for married couples in Greco-Roman antiquity? This volume explores a huge range of sources over seven centuries to uncover possible answers to this question.

1 Life Within an Ancient Knot: The Extraordinary within the Confines of the Ordinary 2 Mind the Gap: Evidence (?) for Non-Elite Couples in the Hellenistic Period 3 From Ideal to Reality: Married Couples on Hellenistic Inscribed Grave Epigrams 4 Vilicus and Vilica in the De Agri Cultura: The Elder Cato's Script for a Farming Couple 5 Literary Models and Social Challenges: Marital Love According to Ovid in the Tristia and Epistulae Ex Ponto 6 For Better or for Worse: Conjugal Relationships of Writers and Intellectuals under the Challenges of the Empire 7 Worth Her Weight: Worthy Women, Coupling, and Eating in Petronius' Satyrica 8 Reading Plutarch's Marriage Precepts 9 Looking Ordinary: Ideals and Ideologies in the Iconography of Married Couples in Roman Society 10 Material Aspects of Marriage: Economic Transactions between Spouses in Roman Egypt 11 'For I Have No Other Sun But You': Emotions and Married Life in Greek Papyri