Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town - Rilegato

Beard, Professor Mary

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 1861975163 ISBN 13: 9781861975164

Casa editrice: Profile Books Ltd, 2008

Riassunto

The headings of Mary Beard's notes give a taste of this astonishing book: Bad Breath, Intestinal Parasites, Performing Monkeys, One-way Streets, Kosher Food, Water Shortages. The Temple of Isis serves to bring in multiculturalism. The House of the Menander tells how a house worked. At the Suburban Baths we go from communal bathing to hygiene to erotica. 154 writing tablets from the House of Caecilius Jucundus detail the accounts of its owner. A fast-food joint on the Via dell' Abbondanza introduces food and drink and diets and street life. These are just a few of the strands that make up an extraordinary and involving portrait of an ancient town, its life and its continuing re-discovery, by Britain's leading classicist.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

How exciting to have this perfect vademecum - another word for a guidebook, as all you Latin scholars will know, or literally, a "go-with-me". (Harry Mount Independent on Sunday)

[a] brilliant portrait of "the life of a Roman town"... [a] wonderful book. (James McConnachie Sunday Times)

Beard's cheerful scepticism makes her Pompeii more intriguing, more believable, than any version I have read. (Christian Tyler FT)

A vivid demonstration that sceptical scholarship can provide as gripping a read as sensationalism... a learned and fascinating book. (Tom Holland Guardian 2008-09-20)

Such verve and such mesmerising detail...A work of punctilious and scholarly devotion. (Ian Thomson Evening Standard 2008-09-22)

A vivid and engaging portrait of this enigmatic and historically important town (Clover Stroud Sunday Telegraph 2008-09-14)

Fresh and original, Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town makes history come alive (Daily Express)

Dynamically, wittily and authoritatively brings the ancient world to life (Simon Sebag Montefiore Standard 2008-11-17)

The book begins in darkness with desperate fugitives attempting to outrun the deadly flow. It ends with a practical guide to viewing the site, right down to tipping the lavatory attendants ... It is an odd justaposition, but an inspired one. Few could resist a visit having read Mary Beard's compelling account. (Elizabeth Speller Independent 2008-10-03)

What Mary Beard , one of the most distinguished Roman historians in the English-speaking world, has given us here is a delightfully readable account ... [She] has the facility for bringing all [the] characters to life ...without sacrificing scholarly accuarcy. (John Dillon Irish Times 2008-09-20)

Descrizione del libro:

The ruins of Pompeii destroyed by Vesuvius in AD 79 offer the best evidence we have of life in the Roman empire. This book will rise to the challenge of making sense of its remains. What kind of town was it? (More like Calcutta, or the Costa del Sol?) What can it tell us about life then -- from sex to politics, food to religion, slavery to literacy? Can we use this extraordinary survival to write not just a history of this one Roman town, but also a history of 'ordinary' Roman life?

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Profile Books Ltd
• Data di pubblicazione: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1861975163
• ISBN 13: 9781861975164
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 368