Death and Renewal.

276 Seiten / p., Beilage. Aus der Bibliothek von Prof. Wolfgang Haase, langjährigem Herausgeber der ANRW und des International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT) / From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - altersgemäß sehr guter Zustand / very good condition for age - Beilage: Nachruf auf Hopkins - Every death creates a vacancy in the social order. Deaths arouse strong feelings and are at the centre of important rituals; they also create opportunities, whether for hereditary succession or for social mobility. -- The first topic of Keith Hopkins’ book is gladiatorial combat. The mass slaughter of thousands of men and animals was not merely popular entertainment; it was also an important element in Roman politics. The two central chapters (written jointly with Graham Burton) investigate the composition of the Roman political elite in the late Republic and Principate (24g BC - AD 235). Somewhat surprisingly, ideals of hereditary succession cloaked very high rates of social mobility. The final chapter moves from aristocratic death rituals and tombs, via funerals and ghost-stories, to the search for immortality and the power of the Roman dead in distributing property by written wills. -- Professor Hopkins, who is both Roman historian and sociologist, uses various sociological techniques to approach social questions in antiquity. He attempts to convey what it may have been like to live in the Roman world, while at the same time acknowledging the difficulty of knowing exactly. -- This is a book for Roman historians which will also be of interest to sociologists. ISBN 9780521271172