Popular Culture in the Ancient World

This book adopts a new approach to the classical world by focusing on ancient popular culture.

Lucy Grig (Edited by)

9781107074897, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 November 2016

378 pages, 6 b/w illus.
25.3 x 18.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.83 kg

Popular Culture in the Ancient World is the first book to provide an interdisciplinary study of the subject. Traditionally neglected by classical scholars, popular culture provides a new window through which we can view the ancient world. An international group of scholars tackles a fascinating range of subjects and objects - from dice oracles to dressing up, from toys to theological speculation. Diverse comparative and theoretical approaches are used alongside many different ancient sources to provide a wide-ranging and rigorous approach to ancient popular culture. After a substantive introduction, the book moves from classical Greece through the Roman Empire to end in the late antique world. It enriches our understanding of the ancient world as well as our conception of the legacy of the ancient world in our own.

1. Introduction: approaching popular culture in the ancient world Lucy Grig
Part I. Classical Greece: 2. The popular culture of the Athenian institutions: 'authorized' popular culture and 'unauthorized' elite culture in classical Athens Mirko Canevaro
3. Humouring the masses: the theatre audience and highs and lows of Aristophanic comedy James Robson
Part II. Rome: 4. Popular public opinion in a nutshell: nicknames and non-elite political culture in the Late Republic Cristina Rosillo-López
5. Plebeian culture in the city of Rome, from the Late Republic to the Early Empire Cyril Courrier
6. Pollio's paradox: popular invective and the transition to Empire Tom Hawkins
7. The music of power and the power of music: studying popular auditory culture in ancient Rome Alexandre Vincent
Part III. The Roman Empire: Greece, Rome and Beyond: 8. The intellectual life of the Roman non-elite Jerry Toner
9. Divination and popular culture Victoria Jennings
10. Children's cultures in Roman Egypt April Pudsey
Part IV. Late Antiquity: 11. Interpreting the Kalends of January in late antiquity: a case study for late antique popular culture? Lucy Grig
12. Popular Christianity and lived religion in late antique Rome: seeing magic in the catacombs Nicola Denzey Lewis
13. Popular theology in late antiquity Jaclyn Maxwell
14. Communication and plebeian sociability in late antiquity: the view from North Africa in the age of Augustine Julio Cesar Magalhães de Oliveira.

Subject Areas: Popular culture [JFCA], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC]