Kategoria BISAC: History >> Ancient - Rome

Never before available in paperback, J. M. C. Toynbee's study is the most comprehensive book on Roman burial practices. Ranging throughout the Roman world from Rome to Pompeii, Britain to Jerusalem--Toynbee's book examines funeral practices from a wide variety of perspectives. First, Toynbee examines Roman beliefs about death and the afterlife, revealing that few Romans believed in the Elysian Fields of poetic invention. She then describes the rituals associated with burial and mourning: commemorative meals at the gravesite were common, with some tombs having built-in kitchens and rooms...

Although the Roman empire was one of the longest lasting in history, it was never ideologically conceived by its rulers or inhabitants as a territory within fixed limits. Yet Roman armies clearly reached certain points--which today we call frontiers--where they simply stopped advancing and annexing new territories. In Frontiers of the Roman Empire, C. R. Whittaker examines the Roman frontiers both in terms of what they meant to the Romans and in their military, economic, and social function.

Observing that frontiers are rarely, if ever, static, Whittaker argues that the very...

In Everyday Life in Ancient Rome, Lionel Casson offers a lively introduction to the society of the times. Instead of following the standard procedure of social history, he presents a series of vignettes focusing on the -ways of life- of various members of that society, from the slave to the emperor. The book opens with a description of the historical context and includes examination of topics such as the family, religion, urban and rural life, and leisure activities. This revised edition of Casson's engaging work, originally published in 1975 as Daily Life in Ancient Rome,...

This authoritative history of Latin literature offers a comprehensive survey of the thousand-year period from the origins of Latin as a written language to the early Middle Ages. At once a reference work, a bibliographic guide, a literary study, and a reader's handbook, Latin Literature: A History is the first work of its kind to appear in English in nearly four decades. From the first examples of written Latin through Gregory of Tours in the sixth century and the Venerable Bede in the seventh, Latin Literature offers a wide-ranging panorama of all major Latin authors....

Although the Romans lived in a society very different from ours, they were like us in fearing crime and in hoping to control it by means of the law. Ordinary citizens wanted protection from muggers in the streets or thieves at the public baths. They demanded laws to punish officials who abused power or embezzled public monies. Even emperors, who feared plotters and wanted to repress subversive ideas and doctrines, looked to the law for protection.

In the first book in English to focus on the substantive criminal law of ancient Rome, O. F. Robinson offers a lively study of an...

Stephen L. Dyson examines rural communities as functioning, largely autonomous societies. Dyson traces the major outlines of community development from the end of the war with Hannibal to the early Middle Ages. He shows how local communities responded to changes in the greater Roman society while still retaining their distinctive identity. He examines the -typical- Roman community during the High Empire and explores the life cycle of rural inhabitants, showing how individuals- the aristocrats, the free poor, and the slaves- developed in relation to society as a whole.

The Roman Gaze: Vision, Power, and the Body uses the concept of -the gaze- to examine literary, visual, and material evidence that reveals the contribution of ancient Rome to the development of Western culture. Contributors draw upon a wide range of theoretical methods, using visual and body theory from various fields and period specializations. Topics include violence and gender in Senecan theater, literary representations of erotic love within a hierarchical and violent Rome, and the differing appeal of artistic depictions designed for visual consumption by both genders. Boldly...

Focusing primarily on Rome and other cities of central Italy, James C. Anderson, jr., describes the training, career path, and social status of both architects and builders. He explains how the construction industry was organized--from marble and timber suppliers to bricklayers and carpenters. He examines the political, legal, and economic factors that determined what would be built, and where. And he shows how the various types of public and private Roman buildings relate to the urban space as a whole.

Drawing on ancient literary sources as well as on contemporary scholarship,...

Life in Rome was relentlessly public, and oratory was at its heart. Orations were dramatic spectacles in which the speaker deployed an arsenal of rhetorical tricks and strategies aimed at arousing the emotions of the audience, and spectators responded vigorously and vocally with massed chants of praise or condemnation. Unfortunately, many aspects of these performances have been lost. In the first in-depth study of oratorical gestures and crowd acclamations as methods of communication at public spectacles, Gregory Aldrete sets out to recreate these vital missing components and to recapture...

Classical authors such as Cicero and Plutarch would have us believe that the elderly were revered, active citizens of ancient Rome. But upon closer inspection, it appears that older people may not have enjoyed as respected or as powerful a place in Roman society as has been supposed.

In this highly original work, Tim Parkin considers the many issues related to aging and the aged in the classical Roman world. Drawing on both his expertise in demography and his knowledge of ancient history and literature, he coaxes new insights from a variety of sources, including legal documents on...

The phenomenal success of the recent film Gladiator ensures that ancient Rome will continue to inspire moviemakers and attract audiences as it has done since the dawn of cinema. Indeed, the creators of popular culture have so often appropriated elements of Roman history and society for films and television programs, novels and comic books, advertising and computer games that most people's knowledge of ancient Rome derives from these representations. In Imperial Projections, scholars from a variety of fields--classics, history, film studies, and gender theory--provide an...

While the remains of its massive aqueducts serve as tangible reminders of Rome's efforts to control its supply of drinking water, there are scant physical reminders that other waters sometimes raged out of control. In fact, floods were simply a part of life in ancient Rome, where proximity to the Tiber left a substantial part of the city vulnerable to the river's occasional transgressions.

Here, in the first book-length treatment of the impact of floods on an ancient city, Gregory S. Aldrete draws upon a diverse range of scientific and cultural data to develop a rich and detailed...

This volume reports the findings of a Canadian archaeological team under the direction of the authors at San Giovanni di Ruoti in the highlands of southern Italy. The excavations, which took place over a seven-year period, have revealed a series of three Roman villas which span the period from the beginning of the first century AD to the middle of the sixth century. Of these villas, the third is particularly important since it provides the best evidence to date for the development of a villa in the transitional period between the end of the Roman Empire in the West and the beginning of the...

In 587 a.d., two monks set off on an extraordinary journey that would take them in an arc across the entire Byzantine world, from the shores of the Bosphorus to the sand dunes of Egypt. On the way John Moschos and his pupil Sophronius the Sophist stayed in caves, monasteries, and remote hermitages, collecting the wisdom of the stylites and the desert fathers before their fragile world finally shattered under the great eruption of Islam. More than a thousand years later, using Moschos's writings as his guide, William Dalrymple sets off to retrace their footsteps and composes "an evensong...

This fifth volume in The Centers of Civilization Series is intended to serve at least three purposes: to account historically for that great flowering which occurred in the Augustan Age; to describe the city in its physical and cultural development as it reached its peak: and to make the rediscovery of ancient Rome an easier process for those who today wander among the majestic ruins which remain in the midst of a modern city.

Rome was the center of the many forms of human achievement, the total of which we call Roman civilization. Many of these came into being and were developed in the...