TV antiquity explores representations of ancient Greece and Rome throughout television history. The first comprehensive overview of the ‘swords and sandals’ genre on the small screen, it argues that these shows offer a distinct perspective on the ancient world. The book traces the historic development of fictional representations of antiquity from the staged black-and-white shows of the 1950s and 1960s to the most recent digital spectacles. One of its key insights is that the structure of serial television is at times better suited to exploring the complex mythic and historic plots of antiquity. Featuring a range of case studies, from popular serials like I, Claudius (1976) and Rome (2005–8) to lesser known works like The Caesars (1968) and The Eagle of the Ninth (1976), the book illustrates how broader cultural, political and economic issues have over time influenced the representation of antiquity on television.

This volume reinvigorates the field of Classical Reception by investigating present-day culture, society, and politics, particularly gender, gender roles, and filmic constructions of masculinity and femininity which shape and are shaped by interacting economic, political, and ideological practices.

This volume reinvigorates the field of Classical Reception by investigating present-day culture, society, and politics, particularly gender, gender roles, and filmic constructions of masculinity and femininity which shape and are shaped by interacting economic, political, and ideological practices.

Spiritus flat ubi vult academicus. It seems evident that the study of antiquity and the study of antiquity’s persistence will continue to be distributed ubique terrarum. This pleasing circumstance was exemplified in January 2014, at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, an institution named after Poland’s influential nineteenth-century epic and lyric poet. As part of an ongoing series of such academic meetings, the university hosted the Seventh International Conference on Fantasy and Wonder. Its topic was Antiquity in Popular Literature and Culture. Several of the papers given in Poznań appear in this volume in revised form. They demonstrate the continuing presence of the past, or, to put it slightly differently, the importance of the past in the present and, by extension, for the future.

Lisa Maurice examines screen portrayals of gods - covering Greco-Roman mythology, the Judeo-Christian God and Jesus - from the beginning of cinema to the present day. Focussing on the golden age of the Hollywood epic in the fifties and the twenty-first century second wave of big screen productions, she provides an over-arching picture that allows historical trends and developments to be demonstrated and contrasted. Engaging with recent scholarship on film, particularly film and theology as well as classical reception, she considers the presentation of these gods through examination of their physical and moral characteristics, as well as their interaction with the human world, against the background of the social contexts of each production.

From gaming consoles to smartphones, video games are everywhere today, including those set in historical times and particularly in the ancient world. This volume explores the varied depictions of the ancient world in video games and demonstrates the potential challenges of games for scholars as well as the applications of game engines for educational and academic purposes. With successful series such as “Assassin's Creed” or "Civilization” selling millions of copies, video games rival even television and cinema in their role in shaping younger audiences' perceptions of the past. Yet classical scholarship, though embracing other popular media as areas of research, has so far largely ignored video games as a vehicle of classical reception. This collection of essays fills this gap with a dedicated study of receptions, remediations and representations of Classical Antiquity across all electronic gaming platforms and genres. It presents cutting-edge research in classics and classical receptions, game studies and archaeogaming, adopting different perspectives and combining papers from scholars, gamers, game developers and historical consultants. In doing so, it delivers the first state-of-the-art account of both the wide array of 'ancient' video games, as well as the challenges and rewards of this new and exciting field.