Explores single men and women in the Roman world, their ways of life and their reasons for remaining unmarried.

Introduction; 1. What's in a single? Roman Antiquity and a comparative world approach Christian Laes; Part I. Demographic, Archaeological, and Socio-Economic Approaches: 2. Single men and women in pagan society - the case of Roman Egypt Sabine Huebner; 3. Looking for singles in the archaeological record of Roman Egypt Anna Boozer; 4. Between coercion and compulsion? The impact of occupations and economic interests on the relational status of slaves and freedmen Wim Broekaert; Part II. Being Single in the Roman World: 5. Singles, sex, and status in the Augustan marriage legislation Judith Evans Grubbs; 6. 'Singleness' in Cicero and Catullus Harri Kiiskinen; 7. Tracing Roman ideas on female singleness - Virgil's Aeneid Elina Pyy; 8. Single as a Lena. The depiction of procuresses in Roman Augustan literature Mina Petrova; Part III. Singles in Judaism: 9. (Why) was Jesus single? John W. Martens; 10. Contesting the Jerusalem Temple - James, Nazirite vows and celibacy Kevin Funderburk; Part IV. Late Antique Christianity - The Rise of the Ideal of Being Single: 11. Singles and singleness in the Christian epigraphic evidence from Rome (c. 300-500 CE) Thomas Goessens; 12. Different ways of life: being single in the fourth century CE Raffaela Cribiore; 13. Single life in Late Antiquity? Virgins between the earthly and the heavenly family Ville Vuolanto; 14. Being a bachelor in Late Antiquity - desire and social norms in the experience of Augustine Geoffrey Nathan; 15. Single people in early Byzantine literature Stephanos Efthymiadis; 16. 'Listen to my mistreatment' - support networks for widows and divorcées in the Coptic record Jennifer Cromwell; Part V. Comparative Voices: 17. Celibacy and sexual abstinence in early Islam Mohammed Hocine Benkheira; 18. To marry or not to marry in fifteenth and sixteenth-century cities, cases Antwerp and Bruges Julie De Groot; 19. Singleness in nineteenth-century Italy - permanent celibacy and solitariness between coercion and free choice Matteo Manfredini.