This is a volume of studies concerned with death and its impact on the social order. The first topic considered is gladiatorial combat; not merely popular entertainment, it was also an important element in Roman politics. The book then investigates the composition of the political elite in the late Republic and Principate (249 BC AD 235), showing that ideals of hereditary succession disguised high rates of social mobility. The final chapter ranges over aristocratic death rituals and tombs, funerals and ghost stories, to the search for immortality and the power of the Roman dead in...

The enormous size of the Roman empire and the length of time it endured call for an understanding of the institutions which sustained it. In this book, Keith Hopkins, who is both classicist and sociologist, uses various sociological concepts and methods to gain new insights into how traditional Roman institutions changed as the Romans acquired their empire. He examines the chain reactions resulting from increased wealth; various aspects of slavery, especially manumission and the cost of freedom; the curious phenomenon of the political power wielded by eunuchs at court; and in the final...

Evokes the sights and sounds of the ancient world with daring and imagination An intellectual tour-de-force that challenges us to see the history of Christianity through the eyes of those who actually lived it. Los Angeles Times
In this provocative, irresistibly entertaining book, Keith Hopkins takes readers back in time to explore the roots of Christianity in ancient Rome. Combining exacting scholarship with dazzling invention, Hopkins challenges our perceptions about religion, the historical Jesus, and the way history is written. He puts us in touch with what he calls...