ebook img

Death in Ancient Rome PDF

302 Pages·2007·18.75 MB·English
Save to my drive
Quick download
Download
Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.

Preview Death in Ancient Rome

CATHARINE EDWARDS . ·. ..: ; .~, .......... . -~~ ' . ' .~ -~,· · . .. - ' - ---·· For the lloma11s,t he man11ero f a person's death ,vas the 1nost telling i11clicationo f_t heir true character. l)eath revealecl the trt1e patriot, the gent1ine . philoso1,her, eve11p, erh,1ps the great artist-and cert,1inly the faithft1IC hristia,,. Catharine Ed1,1•ards dra,vs 011t he 1na1l)a' nd richly varied accot1nts of de,1tl1i n th·e ,vriti11gso f Ro1nan historians, poets and philosophers, inclucling Cicero, Lt1cretit1sV, irgil, Seneca, Petronius, ·racitt1s,T ertt1llian and Augustine, to in,•estigate the complex significa11ceo f dying in tl1c Ron1an ,v,1rl,I. [)e,1th i11t he Ro111a1,v1o rld ,vas largely t1nderstood a11do ften literally vie,vecla s a spectacle. Those deaths th,1t figt1redi n recorded history ,vere aln1ost i11variably viole11t-n1t1r<lers,c xect1tions,s t1icides,-and yet the n1ost ,1,ln1iretlf ig,,res ,net tl1cir ends ,vith exe,nplar)' cal1n, their last ,vords set do,v11f or f'Osterity. Fro,n 11,,blet leatl1s in civil ,,,,tr, 1nortal combat bet,veen gl,1cliators,r 1oliticale xect1tio11a nd st1icide, to the cleathly <li1111oefr Don1iti,t11t,h e l1arro,ving deaths of ,,,<1111esnt1 ch ,1st l1e n1ythical Lt1cretia a11cNl ero's n1otl1erA grif'f'i11a,a s ,veil as i11sta11ceosf Christian • 111,1rtyrtl,11Ent,i ,var,1se 11gaginglye xf1lores the ct1ltt1re of tleatl1 i11l l,1n1anl iteratt1re a11dh istory. DEATH IN ANCIENT ROME DEATHIN ANCIENT ROME CATHARINE EDWARDS YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW HAVEN AND LONDON Copyright © 2007 Catharine Edwards All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. For information about this and other Yale University Press publications please contact: u.s. Office: [email protected] yalebooks.com Europe Office: [email protected] www.yalebooks.co.uk Set in Minion and Trump Medieval by Carnegie Book.Production, Lancaster Printed in Great Britain by St Edmundsbury Press Ltd, Bury St Edmunds Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Edwards, Catharine. Death in ancient Rome / Catharine Edwards. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-300-11208-5 1. Death--Social aspects-Rome. 2. Rome-History. 3. Rome-Social life and customs. 4. Civilization, Ancient. 1. Title. HQ1073.5.R66E38 2007 306.90937-dc22 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library 10987654321 For Bernard CONTENTS List of illustrations ix Acknowledgements xi Introduction: Dying a Roman death 1 1 Dying for Rome? Tue glorious death of a commander 19 2 Death as spectacle: looking at death in the arena 46 3 Fighting the fear of death 78 4 Defiance, complicity and the politics of self-destruction 113 5 Dying in character: Stoicism and the Roman death scene 144 6 Tasting death 161 7 A feminine ending? 179 8 Laughing at death? Christian martyrdom 207 Notes 221 Abbreviations 264 Bibliography 268 Index 283

Description:
For the Romans, the manner of a person’s death was the most telling indication of their true character. Death revealed the true patriot, the genuine philosopher, even, perhaps, the great artist—and certainly the faithful Christian. Catharine Edwards draws on the many and richly varied accounts o
See more

The list of books you might like

Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.