Life, Death, and Entertainment in the
Roman Empire
Good Resource Book
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 Professor of Classics and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor,
University of Michigan. D. J. Mattingly is Reader in Archaeology and Head
of the Archaeology Division, University of Leicester.
Personal Review: Life, Death, and Entertainment in the Roman
Empire
Sound familiar? Does what goes around -- come around
again? Are the malls the 21st century version of
the Roman baths? Are the Nascar racetracks the 21st
century version of the chariot races? Are our
football stadiums the 21st century version of the
Colosseum? This book does not present its themes
in these terms, but one cannot help but think about
these things as one reads it -- in tandem with reading
the Roman writers who satirized or caught in verse the
goings-on in their own times: Catullus, Martial,
Petronius, Juvenal.
Besides the "Introduction" by David S. Porter, there
are 3 large Parts to the division of the book. Part
I is titled: "Social Structures and Demography". Within
this section are informative and highly interesting essays
on "The Roman Family," "Elite Male Identity in the Roman

Empire," and "Roman Demography." Part II is titled:
"Religion." There is only one essay in this Part --
"Roman Religion: Ideas and Action." Part III is titled:
"Bread and Circuses" [the famous phrase used to describe
how the rulers and the "elite" kept the masses under their
control -- by giving them doles of food or by providing
them with mass entertainments to keep their minds off
the fact of their gruelling lives and that they did
not lead the "good life" that the "elites" were leading --
sound familiar?]. In this Part are the essays: "Feeding
the City: The Organization, Operation,and Scale of the
Supply System for Rome," "Amusing the Masses: Buildings
for Entertainment and Leisure in the Roman World," and
"Entertainers in the Roman World." Since our modern
era also seems to be so much into shallow entertainment
and pleasures, perhaps the titles of the subsections of
this last chapter will be intriguing: Actors and Athletes.
Chariot Racing.[the factions and their fans sound like
ancient Roman predecessors to the WWF and Nascar
fanatics...] Gladiators, Beast Hunts, and Executions.
[well, we haven't "progressed" in our tastes and
"sophistication" that far yet...but, who knows? ...]
All in all, this is a very interesting, insightful,
intriguing -- as well as provoking book. The

section that interested me the most was the one
on the Roman emphasis and hang-up on male identity -
what was considered manly, and what was not. It isn't,
as if that is one of the main obsessions in our own
times in the U.S. of A. , of course. And what are
all the "manly" types contributing to the betterment,
stability, and nobility of our present society and culture?
It gives one pause, for reflection.
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