Profiles the lives of women from archaic Greece in the seventh century BCE to the fall of Rome in 476 CE, including poet Julia Balbilla, Boudicca, Cleopatra III, Sappho, and Eurydice.

Provides biographical sketches of 447 women from ancient Greece and Rome, drawn from surviving Greek and Latin literature, including Julia, mother of Mark Antony; Cratesipolis, ruler of Sicyon; and the Greek poet Sappho.

Presents a biographical dictionary profiling more than 500 important ancient Greek and Roman women, including when and where they lived, and notable accomplishments.

Over 2,600 entries identify the women of classical mythology.

The Edinburgh Companion, newly available in paperback, is a gateway to the fascinating worlds of ancient Greece and Rome. Wide-ranging in its approach, it demonstrates the multifaceted nature of classical civilisation and enables readers to gain guidance in drawing together the perspectives and methods of different disciplines, from philosophy to history, from poetry to archaeology, from art history to numismatics, and many more.

Examines women whose influence was positive, as well as those whose reputations were more notoriousSupremely well researched from many different historical sourcesSuperbly illustrated with photographs and drawings Women in Ancient Greece is a much-needed analysis of how women behaved in Greek society, how they were regarded, and the restrictions imposed on their actions. Given that ancient Greece was very much a man’s world, most books on ancient Greek society tend to focus on men; this book redresses the imbalance by shining the spotlight on that neglected other half. Women had significant roles to play in Greek society and culture – this book illuminates those roles. Women in Ancient Greece asks the controversial question: how far is the assumption that women were secluded and excluded just an illusion? It answers it by exploring the treatment of women in Greek myth and epic; their treatment by playwrights, poets and philosophers; and the actions of liberated women in Minoan Crete, Sparta and the Hellenistic era when some elite women were politically prominent. It covers women in Athens, Sparta and in other city states; describes women writers, philosophers, artists and scientists; it explores love, marriage and adultery, the virtuous and the meretricious; and the roles women played in death and religion. Crucially, the book is people-based, drawing much of its evidence and many of its conclusions from lives lived by historical Greek women.

From streetwalkers in the Roman Forum to imperial concubines, Roman prostitutes defined what it meant to be a 'bad girl'.