Popular Culture in Ancient Rome [Paperback]

J. P. Toner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0745643108 | ISBN-13: 978-0745643106 | Edition: 1

The mass of the Roman people constituted well over 90% of the population. Much ancient history, however, has focused on the lives, politics and culture of the minority elite. This book helps redress the balance by focusing on the non-elite in the Roman world. It builds a vivid account of the everyday lives of the masses, including their social and family life, health, leisure and religious beliefs, and the ways in which their popular culture resisted the domination of the ruling elite.

The book highlights previously under-considered aspects of popular culture of the period to give a fuller picture. It is the first book to take fully into account the level of mental health: given the physical and social environment that most people faced, their overall mental health mirrored their poor physical health. It also reveals fascinating details about the ways in which people solved problems, turning frequently to oracles for advice and guidance when confronted by difficulties. Our understanding of the non-elite world is further enriched through the depiction of sensory dimensions: Toner illustrates how attitudes to smell, touch, and noise all varied with social status and created conflict, and how the emperors tried to resolve these disputes as part of their regeneration of urban life.

Popular Culture in Ancient Rome offers a rich and accessible introduction to the usefulness of the notion of popular culture in studying the ancient world and will be enjoyed by students and general readers alike.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"No-one could accuse Jerry Toner of a lack of empathy with those who take centre stage in his gripping new study ... He makes excellent use of Roman jokes, such as those collected in the Philogelos, which steps lightly through the misfortunes of life, from filthy streets to child mortality."
London Review of Books

"A spirited, engaging and politically committed introduction to the culture of the 'non-elite' in the Roman Empire. Toner's achievement is to open up the world of the Roman tavern, rather than the senate house; the world of the garret rather than the villa."
Mary Beard, Times Literary Supplement

"Plenty of vivid detail, with more laughter, tears and farting than most books on 'everyday life' in Rome. It is a rollicking read and wears its considerable scholarship lightly."
European Review of History

"This is a marvellous book on a neglected subject. On the basis of a rich mosaic of documents supplemented by comparative evidence, Toner has produced a sharply analytical reading of popular culture in Rome, which is both very instructive and highly entertaining."
Peter Garnsey, University of Cambridge

From the Back Cover

The mass of the Roman people constituted well over 90% of the population. Much ancient history, however, has focused on the lives, politics and culture of the minority elite. This book helps redress the balance by focusing on the non-elite in the Roman world. It builds a vivid account of the everyday lives of the masses, including their social and family life, health, leisure and religious beliefs, and the ways in which their popular culture resisted the domination of the ruling elite.

The book highlights previously under-considered aspects of popular culture of the period to give a fuller picture. It is the first book to take fully into account the level of mental health: given the physical and social environment that most people faced, their overall mental health mirrored their poor physical health. It also reveals fascinating details about the ways in which people solved problems, turning frequently to oracles for advice and guidance when confronted by difficulties. Our understanding of the non-elite world is further enriched through the depiction of sensory dimensions: Toner illustrates how attitudes to smell, touch, and noise all varied with social status and created conflict, and how the emperors tried to resolve these disputes as part of their regeneration of urban life.

Popular Culture in Ancient Rome offers a rich and accessible introduction to the usefulness of the notion of popular culture in studying the ancient world and will be enjoyed by students and general readers alike.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Polity; 1 edition (December 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0745643108
• ISBN-13: 978-0745643106
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.7 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #687,797 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revolutionary, August 25, 2009

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reader 451 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Popular Culture in Ancient Rome (Paperback)

Some books prompt the question: `how can no one have done it before?' Toner hasn't brought to light new sources, not exactly; his portrayal is based on long-known popular fables, books of spells, graffiti, and the same archaeology, classical plays, and treatises that inform most ancient history. Yet the author of Popular Culture in Ancient Rome has managed to find new detail, a fresh focus bringing to light a whole reality never looked at.

Popular Culture is a book about all the others, all but the favoured few who held power and for whose benefit classical culture was mostly produced. It looks at the terms of subsistence in urban and rural Rome. It reconstructs everyday work and entertainment, but also illness, ritual, death. It thus includes chapters on daily struggles, mental illness, games and festivals, and mundane notions of dress, cleanliness, and sex. Finally, without subverting established Roman political history, it raises the question of popular attitudes, through small-scale resistance or more widespread scepticism, to the elite.

Toner writes in a matter-of-fact, accessible style. Popular Culture also makes use of modern tools - probability calculation, psychiatric data - to arrive at its observations. But what makes this book most readable is that popular culture was fun. It was weird and imaginative. It was the domain of spells and dream-interpretation, of chariot races, coarse jokes, and irreverent graffiti. `An astrologer casts the horoscope of a sick boy, promises his mother he will live a long time, and then demands his fee. She says that she will give it to him tomorrow. "But what happens if he dies in the night?" he replies'. Further on, a take on a magical remedy: `If you pick up in your left hand the tooth of a shrew which has been killed as I have described, wrap it in the skin of a lion that has recently been flayed, and tie it round your legs, the pain stops at once. "Not a lion," someone objects, "but that of a young female dear, still unmated."' This is a scholarly work, but it will also appeal to anyone who enjoys historical series and novels, anyone with an interest in knowing how it was.