Life, Death, and Entertainment in the Roman Empire

by David Stone Potter (editor), David J. Mattingly (editor)

Life, Death, and Entertainment gives those who have a general interest in Roman antiquity a starting point informed by the latest developments in scholarship for understanding the extraordinary range of Roman society. Family structure, gender identity, food supply, religion, and entertainment are all crucial to an understanding of the Roman world. As views of Roman history have broadened in recent decades to encompass a wider range of topics, the need has grown for a single volume that can offer a starting point for these diverse subjects, for readers of all backgrounds.
This collection fills such a need by uniting a series of general introductions on each of these topics for the non-specialist. Each essay brings readers into contact with broadly ranging evidence, as well as with a wide variety of approaches that are needed to study basic questions about the Roman world.
Essays explore the Roman family, gender definition, demography, Roman food supply, Roman religion, and the wide variety of public entertainments throughout the empire. The volume brings together an unparalleled range of methodologies and topics. It will enable the modern reader to understand the Roman world in all its complexity. The general reader will welcome this approachable and timely text.
Contributors to the volume include Greg Aldrete, Hazel Dodge, Bruce W. Frier, Maud Gleason, Ann Hanson, David Mattingly, and David Potter.
D. S. Potter is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Greek and Latin, University of Michigan. D. J. Mattingly is Professor of Roman Archaeology, University of Leicester.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Ancient

353 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 1999

About the author

David Potter is the author of Constantine the Emperor and The Victor’s Crown: A History of Ancient Sport from Homer to Byzantium. He is the Francis W. Kelsey Collegiate Professor of Greek and Roman History and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the University of Michigan.

Reviews

[hh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some articles were better than others. I found myself questioning the scholarship on some of them - the standout example being the last article about Roman entertainments. This article, unfortunately, made the mistake of bringing in a metaphor that involved flat out wrong information about the spread of baseball to Latin America. Sigh. I hope the guy's Roman scholarship isn't as sloppy as his American sports scholarship. Overall book was fine - intelligent and general enough to be accessible to non-specialists. But I wish there had been more about death and entertainments in this book, the family stuff wasn't really speaking to my interests.

[Les · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great resource on a wide range of sociological topics, I found the description of the organization of Roman games and theater particularly fascinating. When imagining battling gladiators, crashing chariots, or the staging of pantomime or the plays of Plautus or Terence, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that these productions required tremendous organization across vast distances. The essays on the establishment of acting and athletic guilds, the logistics of acquiring animals for the games and the structure of gladiatorial contestants are particularly incisive. Those essays on family life in imperial Rome went over well-trod ground.