Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome

by Donald G . Kyle (Author)

• New

  Hardcover
  1998

  $143.02

  Spectacles in Death in Ancient Rome is a provocative, detailed and sometimes controversial work which raises fundamental questions about the role of ritualized violence in Roman and other societies.

• New

  Paperback
  2000

  $58.89

  The elaborate and inventive slaughter of humans and animals in the arena fed an insatiable desire for violent spectacle among the Roman people. Donald G. Kyle combines the words of ancient authors with current scholarly research and cross-cultural perspectives, as he explores
  * the origins and historical development of the games
  * who the victims were and why they were chosen
  * how the Romans disposed of the thousands of resulting corpses
  * the complex religious and ritual aspects of institutionalised violence
  * the particularly savage treatment given to defiant Christians.
  This lively and original work provides compelling, sometimes controversial, perspectives on the bloody entertainments of ancient Rome, which continue to fascinate us to this day.