The Topography of Violence in the Greco-Roman World

by: Riess, W. Fagan, G.G.

Description
What soldiers do on the battlefield or boxers do in the ring would be treated as criminal acts if carried out in an everyday setting. Perpetrators of violence in the classical world knew this and chose their venues and targets with care: killing Julius Caesar at a meeting of the Senate was deliberate. That location asserted Senatorial superiority over a perceived tyrant, and so proclaimed the pure republican principles of the assassins.

The contributors to The Topography of Violence in the Greco-Roman World take on a task not yet addressed in classical scholarship: they examine how topography shaped the perception and interpretation of violence in Greek and Roman antiquity. After an introduction explaining the “spatial turn” in the theoretical study of violence, “paired” chapters review political assassination, the battlefield, violence against women and slaves, and violence at Greek and Roman dinner parties. No other book either adopts the spatial theoretical framework or pairs the examination of different classes of violence in classical antiquity in this way.

Both undergraduate and graduate students of classics, history, and political science will benefit from the collection, as will specialists in those disciplines. The papers are original and stimulating, and they are accessible to the educated general reader with some grounding in classical history.
“A must for libraries in all colleges that are delivering degrees in classics, classical civilization and ancient history. . . . Readily accessible to a wide-ranging audience from specialists to undergraduates and general nonspecialist readers.”
—Kate Gilliver, Cardiff University

Werner Riess is Chair of Ancient History at the University of Hamburg. Garrett G. Fagan is Professor of Ancient History at Pennsylvania State University.
Praise / Awards
"Fills a research gap with an overview of the most salient forms of physical violence, their function and mechanisms in classical Greek and Roman worlds...a thankfully welcome anthology."
-- H-Soz-u-Kult
"This book should be the standard introduction to violence in classical antiquity."
--Bryn Mawr Classical Review
"This work is undoubtedly of value to anyone interested in the topic or in any of the Greek and Roman topics dealt with and we may hope will spur further such treatments into the topography of violence in the ancient world."
--Classics for All
"We need more scholarly works like this volume that shift from the traditional analysis of sources to the means by which the events were generated, performed and interpreted in Ancient societies."
--Latomus

Contents
Introduction 1

Werner Riess
Part 1. The Greek World
1 Xenophon and the Muleteer: Hubris, Retaliation, and the
Purposes of Shame 19

David D. Phillips
2 The Spartan Krypteia 60

Matthew Trundle

3 Where to Kill in Classical Athens: Assassinations,
Executions, and the Athenian Public Space 77

Werner Riess
4 The Crime That Dare Not Speak Its Name:
Violence against Women in the Athenian Courts 113

Rosanna Omitowoju
5 Violence against Slaves in Classical Greece 136

Peter Hunt
6 The Greek Battlefield: Classical Sparta and the
Spectacle of Hoplite Warfare 162

Ellen Millender
7 Violence at the Symposion 195

Oswyn Murray

Revised Pages

The Topography of Violence in the Greco-Roman World
Werner Riess and Garrett G. Fagan, editors
https://www.press.umich.edu/8769247/topography_of_violence_in_the_greco_roman_world
University of Michigan Press, 2016
vi • Contents
Part 2. The Roman World

8 The Topography of Roman Assassination, 133 BCE–222 CE 209

Josiah Osgood
9 Urban Violence: Street, Forum, Bath, Circus, and Theater 231

Garrett G. Fagan
10 Violence against Women in Ancient Rome:
Ideology versus Reality 248

Serena S. Witzke
11 Violence and the Roman Slave 275

Noel Lenski
12 The Roman Battlefield: Individual Exploits in
Warfare of the Roman Republic 299

Graeme Ward
13 War as Theater, from Tacitus to Dexippus 325

David Potter
14 Manipulating Space at the Roman Arena 349

Garrett G. Fagan
15 Party Hard: Violence in the Context of Roman Cenae 380

John Donahue

Contributors 401

Index 405

The Topography of Violence in the Greco-Roman World

by: Riess, W. Fagan, G.G.

• ISBN-13: 9780472038442 / 978-0-472-03844-2
• ISBN-03: 0472038443 / 0-472-03844-3
• University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 2020