Laughter in Ancient Rome

On Joking, Tickling, and Cracking Up Volume 71
1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-0-520-27716-8
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 71, 336 Seiten, Cloth Over Boards, Format (B × H): 164 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 644 g

Reihe: Sather Classical Lectures

What made the Romans laugh? Was ancient Rome a carnival, filled with practical jokes and hearty chuckles? Or was it a carefully regulated culture in which the uncontrollable excess of laughter was a force to fear—a world of wit, irony, and knowing smiles? How did Romans make sense of laughter? What role did it play in the world of the law courts, the imperial palace, or the spectacles of the arena?

Laughter in Ancient Rome explores one of the most intriguing, but also trickiest, of historical subjects. Drawing on a wide range of Roman writing—from essays on rhetoric to a surviving Roman joke book—Mary Beard tracks down the giggles, smirks, and guffaws of the ancient Romans themselves. From ancient “monkey business” to the role of a chuckle in a culture of tyranny, she explores Roman humor from the hilarious, to the momentous, to the surprising. But she also reflects on even bigger historical questions. What kind of history of laughter can we possibly tell? Can we ever really “get” the Romans’ jokes?

Autoren/Hrsg.

Beard, Mary

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike Römische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface

1. Introducing Roman Laughter: Dio’s “Giggle” and Gnatho’s Two Laughs

PART ONE

2. Questions of Laughter, Ancient and Modern

3. The History of Laughter

4. Roman Laughter in Latin and Greek

PART TWO

5. The Orator

6. From Emperor to Jester

7. Between Human and Animal—Especially Monkeys and Asses

8. The Laughter Lover

Afterword

Acknowledgments

Texts and Abbreviations

Notes

References

List of Illustrations and Credits

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Mary Beard is Professor of Classics at Cambridge University. Her many books include The Roman Triumph and The Fires of Vesuvius.