Religion and the Romans provides a short, modern introduction to religion in the Roman world. It deals with the public and private nature of religion at Rome itself, and looks at the native cults of the empire, with special reference to Gaul, as well as considering how the exotic cults such as those of Isis and Mithras were viewed. Finally, a fresh look is taken at the conflict of Christianity with the inhabitants and authorities of the empire, from Nero to Constantine and beyond.

This lively and accessible book will prove invaluable to students of the classical world providing a...

Histories of the late Republic and biographies of Cicero have
previously tended to treat political and cultural developments as
essentially separate. In Cicero and the End of the Roman Republic,
Thomas Wiedemann takes a fresh approach, looking at Cicero's literary
works in the context of his public life, and of contemporary political
and social issues.

Wiedemann explores Cicero's role in the
creation of a new and effective 'Roman' cultural identity demanded by
the process of Italian unification and the consequent collapse of the
old Republican party...

This
introduction to the Mycenaean world brings together the latest research on
its history and on the real Bronze Age cities that lie behind the Homeric
legends. Economy and society, technology and trade, burials and buildings,
warfare and religion are all explored to reveal the character and
achievements of this brilliant forerunner of Classical Greece.

Athens and Sparta were the two leading powers in the Classical Greek world. They represented entirely different systems of social organization: oligarchic conservatism at Sparta versus radical democracy at Athens. There was continuing ideological rivalry, culminating in the Peloponnesian War, a central event in Greek history. This text focuses on the image of rival societies, as Athens and Sparta have been perceived, by contemporaries, by later Greeks, during the Roman period and beyond. The topics covered include education, land-holding, the division of the sexes, the buildings of Athens,...

No area
of Greek life was wholly untouched by religion, and a basic knowledge of
this aspect of life is essential to anyone seeking a proper understanding of
the classical world. In this engaging survey Robert Garland brings out the
unique quality of Greek religion - its practical and worldly approach to
man's relationship with the divine -
and shows how religious ritual was integral to the daily routine of both
public and private life.

This concise and informative introduction to the Attic orators, a volume in the well established Classical World series, is aimed at the late school and undergraduate student. It includes valuable comments on the orators' styles and a chronologically arranged catalogue of speeches.

Politicians of the Roman Republic employed techniques ranging from persuasive oratory through extravagant entertainment and bribery to lethal violence to get their way. Rivalries were fought out on the streets of Rome and in the popular assemblies as much as in the Senate House. This book looks at the Roman political system of 200-50 BC: how it worked, the influence of the ordinary Romans, the voter and political persuasion. A central theme is the topography of the city of Rome - how did political rivalries transform the appearance of the city?

What happened if you fell sick in the classical world? This book looks at beliefs about the inside of the body and its functioning held in Greek and Roman society. It looks at the precarious position of the doctor in a culture where there was no set training and no form of qualification to prove the value of his treatments, and asks how a patient would respond to the different types of healing on offer. It discusses the medical practitioners, their ethical codes, and relationships with other areas of healing, such as religion. As well as covering the 'big names' of ancient medicine, such...

The "De Rerum Natura" of Lucretius (?97-55 BC) is at first sight something of an oddity: a scientific treatise dealing with atomic physics, human biology and the nature of the cosmos, it is at the same time a poem of great power and intensity, one of the most important and influential literary works of its era. This book seeks to resolve the apparent contradiction by locating Lucretius' poem in the context of a very ancient tradition of didactic (or 'teaching') epic. It explores some of the ways in which Lucretius, in this attempt to convince the reader of the truth of his philosophical...

In this book Jason Konig offers for the first time an accessible yet comprehensive account of the multi-faceted Greek literature of the Roman Empire, focusing especially on the first three centuries AD. He covers in turn the Greek novels of this period, the satirical writing of Lucian, rhetoric, philosophy, scientific and miscellanistic writing, geography and history, biography and poetry, providing a vivid introduction to key texts, with extensive quotation in translation. The challenges and pleasures these texts offer to their readers have come to be newly appreciated in the classical...