Both humorous and shocking, Miracula is filled with astonishing facts and stories drawn from ancient Greece and Rome that have rarely been retold in English. It explores 'the incredible' as presented by little-known classical writers like Callimachus and Phlegon of Tralles. However, it offers much more: familiar authors such as Herodotus and Cicero often couldn't resist relating sensational, tabloid-worthy tales. The book also tackles ancient examples of topics still relevant today, such as racism, slavery and misogyny. The pieces are by turns absorbing, enchanting, curious, unbelievable, comical, astonishing, disturbing, and occasionally just plain daft.
An entertaining and sometimes lurid collection, this book is perfect for all those fascinated by the stranger aspects of the classical world, history enthusiasts, and anyone interested in classical history, society and culture.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
The efforts of a Robert Ripley or the Weekly World News are more recent examples, but the tradition of paradoxography - writings about the unusual, the miraculous, and the absurd - runs back to Hellenistic Greece and beyond, including Aristotle, Callimachus, Cicero, and Pliny alongside lesser-known practitioners. In this connection the historian Chrystal's new Miracula is both a continuation and a commentary, presenting oddities, trivia, and twice-told tales from the ancient world and contextualizing them for the reader. Here are marvels from pygmies to the Polyphagus (Nero's personal cannibal), the war-cats of Cambyses to the longest word in ancient Greece. * The New Criterion *
Sprache
Verlagsort
Produkt-Hinweis
Fadenheftung
Gewebe-Einband
Illustrationen
Maße
Höhe: 221 mm
Breite: 142 mm
Dicke: 46 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-83639-049-7 (9781836390497)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Paul Chrystal is a contributor to a number of history and archaeology magazines, and TV and radio programmes. He is the author of many books published on a wide range of subjects, including, most recently, The Book in the Ancient World: How the Wisdom of the Ages Was Preserved (2025).
Foreword by Philip
Matyszak
Preface
Introduction
1 Strangely Strange
and Oddly Normal
The Sciences
2 Agriculture
3 The Climate and
Natural Disaster
4 Roman Recycling
5 Astronomy and Space Travel
Medicine
6
Medicine and the Medical Arts
7 Physiology
8
Embalming
9 Deformity and Disability
10 Female Genital Mutilation (fgm)
Language
11 The
Greek Alphabet Derived from the Phoenician Alphabet
12 The Written
Word and Bad Books
13 The Pontius Pilate Stone,
Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera and Jesus of Nazareth
14 The Spoken Word:
Rough-Speaking Romans
15 Graffiti
16 Aphorisms: True Or Not So True?
Sex
and Sexuality
17 Fetishes and Voyeurism
18 Pederasty: The Sexual
Pursuit of Boys by Men
19 Sex: From Buttocks Partialism to Zoophilia
20 Satyrs
and Satyriasis
21
Priapus and Priapism
22 Candaules, 'Dog Throttler', Father of Candaulism (and Voyeurism)
23 Lesbianism and Sappho
24 Hermaphrodites
and Other Wondrous Beings
25 Gender
Reassignment
26 Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs
27 The Roman Joy
of Sex
28 Dildos
Social Sciences
29 Bad Parenting,
Good Parenting?
30 Sexism and Misogyny
31 Domestic and
Sexual Abuse
32 On Being a Left-Hander, and Toilet Etiquette
33 Men
and Boys
History and
Ethnography
34 Aethiopians
and Black People
35 Sparta and the Spartan Stasi
36 The Death of Pyrrhus: History's
Best-Aimed Tile
37 Mithridates
38 Socrates: He
Danced Alone
39 The Celts
40 Dinner with
Attila the Hun, 450 ce
Greek and Roman Society
41 Children and Schooling
42 The Games
43
The Law
44 Public Services
45 Food and Feasting
46 Drink and Drinking
47 Slaves and
Revolting Slaves
48 The Public Baths, Sex and
Hair-Pulling
49 The Hell that Is Urban Living
50 Parking Restrictions
51 All Creatures Great and
Small
52 Pets
Mythology
53 The Graeae: The Oldest Triplets
the World Has Ever Seen
54 Philomena and Procne
55 The
Unicorn
56 Charon: A Life Underground
57 Talos: The World's First Automaton
58 Cerberus: Guard Dog
from Hell
The Military and
War
59 The
Military
60 War Crimes and
Crimes Against Humanity
61 Women at War
62 Torture
Religion and
Superstition
63 Religion and Superstition
64 Entombing a Vestal Virgin
65 Omens,
Prodigies and Oracles
66 Spells, Curses and
Voodoo Dolls
67 Witches and Witchcraft
68 Werewolves and Lycanthropy
69 Witch-Lite:
The Bogeywoman Is Coming to Get You
70 Ghosts
Travel and
Archaeology
71 Wild Travel and
Exploration
72 Explorers
- Gorillas or Hairy Women?
73 Skeletons from the Far East
Found in Roman London
Epilogue
Further Reading
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
Index
