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Working IX to V: Orgy Planners, Funeral Clowns, and Other Prized Professions of the Ancient World
 
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Working IX to V: Orgy Planners, Funeral Clowns, and Other Prized Professions of the Ancient World (Paperback)

~ Vicki Leon (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Remember that Metropolitan gala in The Devil Wears Prada, where Miranda Priestly has someone whisper in her ear the name of everyone she meets? Well, ancient Roman politicians had such an aide, too: he was called a nomenclator. León entertainingly introduces us to this and other colorful professions held by men and women in Greco-Roman society. With short, humorous anecdotes, she describes the daily grind of scribes, vestal virgins, fishmongers, astronomers, sophists, hoplite slaves, sellers of purple, curse-tablet makers, funeral clowns, sycophants and orgy planners. Scribes, for example, were speed writers who not only recorded public information but also acted as journalists jotting down juicy tales of love, death and political intrigue in the Daily Record. The beast supplier, or praepositus camelorum, tracked, captured and supplied all the animals used in gladiatorial contests and circuses in Rome. León weaves sketches of actual people employed in these professions. Banker's son Apollodorus, a rich-kid-turned-lawyer, litigated a 19-year lawsuit after his father willed his fortune to an ex-slave. Drawing on the same outrageous sense of humor that's made her Uppity Women series so popular, León demonstrates how uncannily similar the workaday experiences of the ancient world are to ours. Illus. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


Product Description

Vicki Le?n, the popular author of the Uppity Women series (more than 335,000 in print), has turned her impressive writing and research skills to the entertaining and unusual array of the peculiar jobs, prized careers and passionate pursuits of ancient Greece and Rome.
 
From Architect to Vicarius (a deputy or stand-in)—and everything in between—Working IX to V introduces readers to the most unique (dream incubator), most courageous (elephant commander), and even the most ordinary (postal worker) jobs of the ancient world. Vicki Le?n brought a light and thoughtful touch to women’s history in her earlier books, and she brings the same joy and singular voice to the daily work of the ancient world. You’ll be surprised to learn how bloody an editor’s job used to be, how even a slave could purchase a vicarius to carry out his duties and that early Greeks had their own ghost-busters with the apt title of psychopompus.
 
In addition to stand-alone profiles on callings, trades, and professions, Le?n offers numerous sidebar entries about actual people who performed these jobs, giving a human face to the ancient workplace. Combining wit and rich scholarship, Working IX to V is filled with anecdotes, insights, and little-known facts that will inform and amuse readers of all ages. For anyone captivated by the ancient past, Working IX to V brings a unique insight into the daily grind of the classical world. You may never look at your day-to-day work in the same way!

Product Details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Walker & Company (May 29, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0802715567
  • ISBN-13: 978-0802715562
  • Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 6.9 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #475,992 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Working IX to V: Orgy Planners, Funeral Clowns, and Other Prized Professions of the Ancient World
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Customer Reviews

14 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating reading, July 1, 2007
For those familiar with the work of Michael Foucault, this work is a little problematic. It basically picks up where Foucault's "The Birth of the Prison" and "The History of Sex" and his other curious titles leave off. Foucault's technique was to examine not the high-falutin literature of the past, or the documents of the haute bourgeoisie, but to look at ordinary systems and attitudes and uncover an archaeology of knowledge and a clearer map of ancient times from alternate perspectives. Because Foucault's technique was subversive, speculative, and academically suspect, many of his conclusions were controversial and his reputation binary. His taste for rough trade and bathhouses didn't help.

Enter Vicki Leon, who does a Studs Terkel ("Working") on the past.

Which is why this is such an excellent book. Leon strips away Foucault's tendency for obfuscation to sound profound (and his rather specialized taste for the louche and bizarre), and doesn't stoop to Terkel's socialist "history" as oppressor and inescapable condition.

Leon's prose is also better than journalists, which makes this a fun read. She doesn't do an exhaustive treatment of jobs in the past: tallow wright (someone who renders cowfat for candles and soap) and grease monkey (a usually samll boy sailor who greased oar gunnels) aren't here. But the ancient world's professions are on full display. My favourites included are: vicarious, nomenclator, fishmonger, purple seller (biblical!), sycophants (yikes), orgy planners, beast supplier, postal worker (now you'll know how going postal originated) and my favourite....psychopompus.

If there is any quibble here (and there really aren't any) Leon is a bit better at jobs typically held by females rather than males: the lives of soldiers, sailors, roughnecks, stevedores, etc. are relatively thin compared to vestal virgins.

This is an excellent, always interesting, highly readable, fun book in the vain of popular economics books sold in airports the world over. Leon is going to make a zillion dollars.
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars History at Ground Level, June 10, 2007
By Bruce Trinque (Amston, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
Vicki Leon's "Working IX to V" is not a history of wars and rulers. Instead, it looks at, as its subtitle proclaims, "Orgy Planners, Funeral Clowns, and Other Prized Professions of the Ancient World". In other words, it looks at the jobs performed by ancient Greeks and Roman to keep their world running on a day-to-day (or night-to-night) basis. It's a book made for great browsing if you are not in the mood or have the time available for a straight-through reading. The tone is light and breezy, but Ms. Leon's lively prose conveys a sense of authenticity.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Snappy style packs in plenty of info, November 1, 2007
By Lynn Harnett (Marathon, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
The subtitle says it all, except that not all the professions are prized - silver mining, for instance, done by slaves who spent their days on their backs in a "coffin-sized hole" and had a life span of three months, or the hordes of free-born laborers needed for everything from carrying stones to loading ships who earned their daily bread and little else.

But Leon manages to cover a broad range of professions from slave-driver and gladiator to dream incubators and sycophants (who informed on fig smugglers) who have no counterpart in today's world as well as many others that will be around forever in one form or another.

Entries are brief and breezy, but very informative. Leon organizes her jobs and avocations in categories - Slave jobs (the best ones are in aristocratic homes), temple and entertainment jobs, food professions, law and order, entertainment and the arts, etc., giving her sections such titles as "Small-time Operators, Corporate Rackets," and "Doomed Careers and Deathless Pursuits."

There are also brief profiles throughout of people who excelled in one way or another at their posts.

Leon's relentlessly droll style grows a little wearing but she does pack an amazing amount of information in this well-organized, broad-ranging collection, giving a lively, detailed picture of teeming life in the ancient world.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Superficial, trivial and factually unreliable.
This book does not merit a long review. (My original review is now the title of this review. Evidently Amazon doesn't like four or five word reviews. Read more
Published 27 days ago by Philip S. Griffey

2.0 out of 5 stars Not for serious readers
Very light in tone; much of information selected for humor. Minor errors of fact. Major problem is that very little substantive information on any occupation. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Michael W. Mccarthy

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed
I bought the book to learn about these various ancient occupations. But the book is so laced with cuteness and hipness that I can't rely on it being accurate. Read more
Published 5 months ago by J. Padgett

1.0 out of 5 stars Not working
This could have been a really useful book; unfortunately, it isn't. Most annoyingly, the author often lapses into a kind of 'Valley Girl' English that will drive the reader crazy;... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Alan S. Walker

5.0 out of 5 stars I am entertained!
I'm really enjoying this book. It's light and informative, with plenty of great stories and spotlights on personalities. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Oscar Rios

4.0 out of 5 stars Not another 4-star rating on amazon!!!
Although I was distracted by the writers humor and neglect for vital specifics (all of this which at times lead me to question accuracy and raise the possibility of her, "filling... Read more
Published 15 months ago by R. Robinson

4.0 out of 5 stars Not all jobs are equal...
Working IX to V is full of interesting professions but not all of them are prized. Some were done by slaves or people who REALLY needed the money. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Michael Valdivielso

5.0 out of 5 stars Useful tidbits for historical crime writers
I wish that certain writers of historical crime novels would read this book.
While they are at it they might also read Ancient Rome on Five Denarii a Day (5 Denarii).
Published 21 months ago by Jens Guld

3.0 out of 5 stars Alternative History
Indian history students used to ask "who was Alexander the Great's cook during his Indian invasion?" or "Who stabbed him during the war" which eventually led to end of his tour of... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Girish Lal Pudieduth

5.0 out of 5 stars Arrived on time
I didn't have any issues with this vendor. The book was on time and in good condition.
Published on September 15, 2007 by Jodi L. Smith

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