The elaborate and inventive slaughter of humans and animals in the arena fed an insatiable desire for violent spectacle among the Roman people. Donald G. Kyle combines the words of ancient authors with current scholarly research and cross-cultural perspectives, as he explores * the origins and historical development of the games * who the victims were and why they were chosen * how the Romans disposed of the thousands of resulting corpses * the complex religious and ritual aspects of institutionalised violence * the particularly savage treatment given to defiant Christians. This lively and original work provides compelling, sometimes controversial, perspectives on the bloody entertainments of ancient Rome, which continue to fascinate us to this day.

Our taste for blood sport stops short at the bruising clash of football players or the gloved blows of boxers, and the suicide of a politician is no more than a personal tragedy. What, then, are we to make of the ancient Romans, for whom the meaning of sport and politics often depended on death? In this provocative, thoughtful book, Paul Plass shows how the deadly violence of arena sport and political suicide served a social purpose in ancient Rome. His work offers a reminder of the complex uses to which institutionalized violence can be put. Violence, Plass observes, is a universal part of human life, and so must be integrated into social order. Grounding his study in evidence from Roman history and drawing on ideas from contemporary sociology and anthropology, he first discusses gladiatorial combat in ancient Rome. Massive bloodshed in the arena, Plass argues, embodied the element of danger for a society frequently engaged in war, with outsiders--whether slaves, criminals, or prisoners of war--sacrificed for a sense of public security

The elaborate and inventive slaughter of humans and animals in the arena fed an insatiable desire for violent spectacle among the Roman people. Donald G. Kyle combines the words of ancient authors with current scholarly research and cross-cultural perspectives, as he explores * the origins and historical development of the games * who the victims were and why they were chosen * how the Romans disposed of the thousands of resulting corpses * the complex religious and ritual aspects of institutionalised violence * the particularly savage treatment given to defiant Christians. This lively and original work provides compelling, sometimes controversial, perspectives on the bloody entertainments of ancient Rome, which continue to fascinate us to this day.

Any game master who wishes to run realistic campaigns set during the ancient Roman Republic will be thrilled with the lavish resource that this game offers. These painstakingly researched rules not only provide a staggering array of historically accurate details, but, more importantly, they succeed in evoking that sense of otherness we feel when we come into contact with a culture very different from our own. It brings republican Rome to life as a dangerous setting ripe for adventure, often stepping modestly aside, providing juicy excerpts from ancient manuscripts and letting the Romans themselves describe their world to us directly. Riots, bribery, mythical creatures and spectacular chariot crashes - it's all here! This book is designed for Basic Roleplaying, but is easily adapted to any game system. It contains all the setting information needed to play in Rome from its foundation to Caesar's death, and additional rules for city riots, chariot races and political power games. It also includes more than one hundred scenario seeds that can be easily bound together to form complete campaigns.

Ranger, the time-traveling golden retriever, is back for the second book in Kate Messner's new chapter book series. This time, he's off to save the day in ancient Rome! Ranger is a golden retriever who has been trained as a search-and-rescue dog. In this adventure, Ranger travels to the Colosseum in ancient Rome, where there are gladiator fights and wild animal hunts! Ranger befriends Marcus, a young boy Ranger saves from a runaway lion, and Quintus, a new volunteer gladiator who must prove himself in the arena. Can Ranger help Marcus and Quintus escape the brutal world of the Colosseum?

This volume brings together a large number of sources with which to illustrate the problem of religious violence in relation to the history of Christianity in the Roman Empire and post-Roman world. The sources are presented in both the original languages and in new English translation and are accompanied by introductions, comments, and short bibliographies. Thematically, Dirk Rohmann focuses on the ways in which Christians were subjected to violence by their pagan surroundings, on the development and scope of the very Christian ideas of martyrdom and of persecution, on how Christians thought about the nature of God and of holy wars, as well as on the problem of violence within the world of early monasticism and asceticism. Drawing on the amount of texts extant from the first to seventh centuries, this book will be of interest to both students and academics in the areas of ancient and early medieval history, classics, and religious studies.

Sport and spectacle in the ancient world has become a vital area of broad new exploration over the last few decades. This Handbook brings together the latest research on Greek and Roman manifestations of these pastimes to explore current approaches and open exciting new avenues of inquiry. It discusses historical perspectives, contest forms, contest-related texts, civic and social aspects, and use and meaning of the individual body. Greek and Roman topics are interwoven to simulate contest-like tensions and complementarities, juxtaposing, for example, violence in Greek athletics and Roman gladiatorial events, Greek and Roman chariot events, architectural frameworks for contests and games in the two cultures, and contrasting views of religion, bodily regimens, and judicial classification related to both cultures. It examines the social contexts of games, namely the evolution of sport and spectacle across cultural and political boundaries, and how games are adapted to multiple contexts and multiple purposes, reinforcing social hierarchies, performing shared values, and playing out deep cultural tensions. The volume also considers other directing forces in the ancient Mediterranean, such as Bronze Age Egypt and the Near East, Etruria, and early Christianity. It addresses important themes common to both antiquity and modern society, such as issues of class, gender, and health, as well as the popular culture of the modern Olympics and gladiators in cinema. With innovative perspectives from authoratative scholars on a wide range of topics, this Handbook will appeal to both students and researchers interested in ancient history, literature, sports, and games.