Confronting the classics : traditions, adventures, and innovations / Mary Beard

Includes bibliographical references and index

Introduction: Do Classics Have a Future? -- Section One. Ancient Greece -- Builder of Ruins -- Sappho Speaks -- Which Thucydides Can You Trust? -- Alexander : How Great? -- What Made the Greeks Laugh? -- Section Two. Heroes & Villains of Early Rome -- Who Wanted Remus Dead? -- Hannibal At Bay -- Quousque Tandem É? -- Roman Art Thieves -- Spinning Caesar's Murder -- Section Three. Imperial Rome/Emperors, Empresses & Enemies -- Looking for the Emperor -- Cleopatra : The Myth -- Married to the Empire -- Caligula's Satire? -- Nero's Colosseum? -- British Queen -- Bit-Part Emperors -- Hadrian and his Villa -- Section Four. Rome from the Bottom Up -- Ex-Slaves and Snobbery -- Fortune-Telling, Bad Breath and Stress -- Keeping the Armies out of Rome -- Life and Death in Roman Britain -- South Shields Aramaic -- Section Five. Arts & Culture; Tourists & Scholars -- Only Aeschylus Will Do? -- Arms and the Man -- Don't Forget Your Pith Helmet -- Pompeii for the Tourists -- The Golden Bough -- Philosophy meets Archaeology -- What Gets Left Out -- Asterix and the Romans -- Afterword: Reviewing Classics

We are taken on a guided tour of antiquity, encountering some of the most famous (and infamous) characters of classical history, among them Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, Sappho and Hannibal. Challenging the notion that classical history is all about depraved emperors and conquering military heroes, Beard also introduces us to the common people -- the slaves, soldiers, and women.