Death in Ancient Rome

302 Pages·2007·18.75 MB·English

by  Catharine Edwards

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